I regularly like to tip a toe into the YA lit ocean because I'm curious and often there are stories told from different perspectives and with fresh ideas, and told in enchanting ways, and it often is wholesome literature. This is not. This is the cheap off-the-shelf thing. It has one-dimensional characters, it's brew of lots of tropes and cliches, like when Netflix does these shows that remix successful elements of other shows. Written to fulfil the audience's expectations. It's not even very well written, too. Got lame female stereotypes.
That said, it was entertaining enough for me to finish it. I'm disappointed though because I know there must be so much better YA lit out there but I don't know how to find it. In the past I've enjoyed Angie Thomas' The Hate You Give, or books by Scott Westerfeld. I even loved the first book in the Nevermoor series which also has a lot of overused tropes but it turns it into a rather charming remix. As for The Inheritance Games, of course I will check out book 2 anyway (I also watched a bazillion trashy shark movies with utter fascination at how there can be so many variations of the same thing) but I will listen to it as an audiobook, that might be a better fit. And I will do so with far lower expectations.