If you haven't read Hunger Games, then stop now; you need to go back and read it! This book is a sequel to Hunger Games, and, unlike some sequels, it really depends on the previous book. That said…
When I first started reading this, I wondered if I had rated its prequel to highly. As I got into it, I realized that I hadn't. But the two books really do depend on each other. This particular book helps complete the story from the first, although the cliffhanger ending of this reminds the reader that the third book is definitely needed to round out the story. I guess that'll be the next book I read… This book really does pick up at the end of Hunger Games with the continuation of the story. The personalities and characters follow and continue from the original; the characters are true. The story itself is intricate and complex enough that it really is not the same story as is told in the prequel. At the end, several questions that were raised in the mind of the reader to during the story were answered, but I'm not yet convinced that the answer is totally satisfying (thus the need to finish the series…). This skill of the author to weave and tell a tale that's totally engaging is not quite as clear in this book as the previous, which is not to say that it's not worth the time. The intricacies of the game are intriguing and captivating, although it's clear that the point of the author in this book is quite different than her point in the first. It's clear that the point of this one is really to give a segue into the end. It's a reasonable segue, but it does feel more like a segue than a complete story in and of itself. I still found myself always anxious for more during each of my own forced breaks. I would like to rank it 3 1/2 stars as opposed to three or four.