The conclusion to the Hunger Games trilogy felt a little bit weaker to me than the two other books, but perhaps it's just me and not having the time to binge this book like I did the other 2 books and the prequel.

In this book, Katniss wakes up in a whole new dystopia - the world she knows is at war, and she's to be made a symbol for the rebellion. In a sense, it's a whole new Hunger Games for her, being put on a pedestal and styled for the broadcasts, while the fight for freedom is on.

SpoilerWhile she rightly realizes that the rebellion's leader, President Coin, is not much better than president Snow, I found it very strange that she wanted a "revenge Hunger Games". That made zero sense to me, but perhaps it was just her way with dealing her grief over losing her sister after all this time. The book is hard and heavy, and in the aftermath of the revolution, Katniss fully succumbs to her grief and enter a pretty dire depression.

Altogether, the Hunger Games trilogy conveys messages of propaganda, populism and politics through the power of media. It's definitely an interesting re-read in our continually polarized world, thanks to social media. And these books are brutal and nowhere near the shiny PG-13 horny teenage fodder that they made the movies to be.

Edit to add: Review of the entire series is available at https://chaosworks.org/2024/hunger-games/

While I love this book - it's a very lively and imaginative retelling of the Greek myths - I was struggling a bit to get through it because it's so incredibly dense and is more like a short story collection, and I'm just not a fan of short story collections. Perhaps I should have a look at all those novelizations of Greek myths that are so popular now, because I think that would make it easier for me to to not lose track. 

Having said that, it's still a really great book that gives a great overview of the most well known myths and it's super interesting to learn more about them, because my knowledge of Greek mythology was rather superficial so far. I also found it particularly fascinating to realize how much of our modern society and our language has its origin in Greek mythology. 

I'll definitely read Stephen Fry's other books in this series eventually, and I think they should also be easier to read for me as they're telling more coherent stories (as opposed to the 1-6 page stories in this book).

Prinzipiell fand ich das Buch großartig geschrieben. Man liest es immer mit einem lachenden und einem weinenden Auge - grade weil die alles so absurd ist, aber doch irgendwie zu realitätsnah. Allerdings fand ich das Buch zu lang. Gegen Mitte zog es sich etwas, und ich fand man hätte die Message auch wunderbar in einer Novelle auf den Punkt bringen können. Irgendwann wollte ich dann nur noch dass es aufhört. 

Den Film kannte ich vorher schon, der ist großartig grade auch weil er noch eins drauflegt auf was das Buch macht und diesen Dokumentarfilmcharakter hat.

What a magical, mythical and mind-boggling mystery. Probably one of the most unique books I have ever read.

I don't really know what else to say about this book, except that it's absolutely worth reading. It's a short (~250 pages) and very captivating read with very brief chpaters. And will stick with you for a while.

A very interesting peek into Gilead, this time from the perspective not of a Handmaid, but of three other types of women - an Aunt, a future Wife, and a teenage girl from the other side of the border (Canada). This way way more suspenseful than I anticipated, allover an expertly crafted narrative, but I expected no less from Margaret Atwood.

My only complaint is that it didn't quite make sense to me why SpoilerNicole had to go to Gilead herself. She seems absolutely unfit, and literally anyone else could have done what she did.