I finished it this morning and got it back to the library before it was due.

Phew. There’s very little expository writing in this book; it’s a thrill a page, many of them unexpected and told in throwaway lines.

Katniss, the heroine, has been thrust into the role of symbolic leader of the rebellion against the political leadership of the country. It’s not a role she’s comfortable with, but she realizes she can extract a quid pro quo from the actual rebel leader which will guarantee the safety of several friends, so she acquiesces. The story takes off from there. There’s betrayal, retribution, and redemption served up in almost equal helpings here.

I enjoyed it, but atmospherically it wasn’t quite as dark as I found Catching Fire to be (see here) until the end, when it became very dark indeed. That may be because there’s almost unrelenting action rather than the interior dialogue Katniss holds with herself during the two iterations of the Hunger Games previously described in the first two books.