thepaladin

For a while I considered giving this YA novel "the full five stars" (so to speak). It's extremely well written and has blown away readers in all age groups. I got caught up in it and recommend it highly.

But there are a couple of problems. The heroine is sadly rather dense for someone so smart. You'll spend a lot of time shaking your head at Katniss. I won't say more as that would entail a spoiler or spoilers, so....

I finally settled on a "four star rating"..."almost top of the heap".. because of a few glitches that just drove me crazy. For example,the protagonist standing giving a blow by blow account of someone being killed until the killer turns on her. You're wondering Why the h*** aren't you already twenty yards away. Katniss has stayed in one place for no good reason leading to her being in  very bad spot when she could have taken to her heels during the fight (assuming she wasn't going to take part when it would have been more advantageous for her of course). There were several places where I wanted to put my head through a wall (or at least in my hands) in frustration asking "why aren't you..fill in the blank..." or "why are you ..fill in the blank".  A few times it was like watching a character in a "dead teenager movie" go to the basement "armed" with only a flash-light to investigate the "strange noise" when they know the slasher has already killed three of his/her friends.

But that was only a few times...on the whole this is a wonderful read. I had a library copy, but went out and bought a copy of this and the next volume.


Recommended.