Title: Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3)
Author: Suzanne Collins
Published: August, 2010 by Scholastic
Pages: 455
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans — except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay — no matter what the personal cost.

Final Thoughts:
This book made me cry. I didn’t think I would, but then, there was one scene near the end that just broke me. Lying in bed with tears in my eyes, I had a new respect for Suzanne Collins’ writing. She really gave it everything in this book and made me care about so many of the side characters. I just couldn’t stop reading. Building up throughout the series, this book brought it all to a close in such a way that left you satisfied, yet still riveted. I just want the third movie to be out already and I haven’t even seen the second yet.

Title: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2)
Author: Suzanne Collins
Published: September, 2009 by Scholastic
Pages: 472
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

After winning the brutal Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta return to their district, hoping for a peaceful future. But their victory has caused rebellion to break out … and the Capitol has decided that someone must pay. As Katniss and Peeta are forced to visit the districts on the Capitol’s Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. Unless they can convince the world that they are still lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

Final Thoughts:
Yes, I’m way behind the times on these books, I know. The impending release of the second movie finally got me moving and back into this series. Having just finished it an hour ago, I can’t believe I waited so long. I’ve already grabbed out Mockingjay so I can continue straight into the finale. This book threw me upside down. I thought we’d be left plodding along through the second book, basically bridging the gap in the trilogy, but I was completely wrong. Personally, I think loved this one more than the first.

Title: The Third Day, The Frost (Tomorrow #3)
Author: John Marsden
Published: 1995 by Pan Macmillan
Pages: 278
Rating:  
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And then there were five….

It has been six long months since Ellie and her friends returned home from a camping trip to find their families and friends imprisoned by an enemy that threatens to steal Australia’s freedom. Only they can stop this. Like seasoned soldiers, their methods have become extreme, even involving terrorism.

When she’s not gathering food and supplies or running like prey to survive, Ellie wonders at what they’ve become: Are they now ruthless terrorists? The more involved and vicious it gets, the higher the stakes are raised. Everyone is fighting for their lives.

Final Thoughts:
Taking an almost 2 year break between books two and three, I found myself surprised at how easily I got back into this series. Picking it up on a whim this week, I rushed through, finding the tense pacing made it almost impossible to catch a breather. Full of action, sabotage, subterfuge and angst—it was a much needed reading cleanser after some not-so-great books. Being my first time reading this Aussie teen war series from the 90s—well, I was forced into reading book one in high school, back when I wasn’t a reader—I’ve still got all of the twists to look forward to. It’s something I love about it. It really does read like a movie.

Title: The Hunt (The Hunt #1)
Author: Andrew Fukuda
Published: May, 2012 by Simon & Schuster
Thanks: Simon & Schuster, AU
Pages: 293
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Against all odds, 17-year-old Gene has survived in a world where humans have been eaten to near extinction by the general population. The only remaining humans, or hepers as they are known, are housed in domes on the savannah and studied at the nearby Heper Institute. Every decade there is a government sponsored hunt. When Gene is selected to be one of the combatants he must learn the art of the hunt but also elude his fellow competitors whose suspicions about his true nature are growing.

Final Thoughts:
I didn’t expect to love this—the sticker on the front said I would, but I was sceptical. With everyone jumping on the dystopian bandwagon, there’s so much out there, plots overlapping, making it all fairly unoriginal. Adding in vampires—or at least, vampire-esque people—I’d be remiss not to say that I wasn’t going into it with the biggest of expectations. But somehow, The Hunt snagged me—I could hardly put this one down! It was like Rachel Caine and Suzanne Collins had gotten together, leaving behind this little baby Fukuda in their wake. With such descriptive creativity, and a perpetual fear of dismemberment, he had me scratching my own wrists, but for completely different reasons.

Title: The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)
Author: Suzanne Collins
Published: October, 2008 by Scholastic
Pages: 454
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Final Thoughts:
I tried listening to the audiobook at the start of 2011, but I only made it six chapters in before I gave up. The narrator was so off-putting, that I just couldn’t get into the story. Fast forward a year later, with only a few weeks to go before the movie’s release date, I picked up the paperback and decided to start back at the beginning. I fell in love with this book, as simple as that. Reading, as opposed to listening, made so much of a difference to my level of enjoyment. As for the story, I never had any of those moments where you’re left shaking your head at the pages—it was just so brilliantly well thought out. And Katniss, she was smart, a constant thinker…it’s refreshing.

Title: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Published: January, 2012 by Feiwel & Friends
Thanks: Macmillan via NetGalley
Pages: 400
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Final Thoughts:
I haven’t had the best of luck with retellings in the past, but with Cinder, I couldn’t get enough. I attribute that in part to the skilfully crafted futuristic setting of New Beijing. Infusing a wide range of speculative technology with an atmosphere that somehow managed to feel both advanced and primordial at the same time gave the book an intriguing hook. The way the main twist was handled let things down for me. I liked the twist, but the hints were too obvious. Still, Cinder drew me in, displaying multiple facets of her character as she balanced between her headstrong ferocity and self-deprecating withdrawal from the world.

Title: The Pledge (The Pledge #1)
Author: Kimberly Derting
Published: November, 2011 by Margaret K. McElderry
Thanks: Simon & Schuster GalleyGrab
Pages: 320
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she’s spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It’s there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she’s never heard before… and her secret is almost exposed.

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can’t be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country’s only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

Final Thoughts:
I don’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it. I loved the cover when I first saw it and couldn’t wait to read it. While I still enjoyed the book, I wasn’t overly enthralled by it. The world building was unique and interesting, but the main characters didn’t hold my interest. Charlie is constantly putting others first, looking after her little sister and managing to feign adherence to the language-barrier class system. These are all good traits and I liked her for it, but the romance just didn’t work for me. I just felt like I was sitting through it, rather being caught up in it.