The Hunger Games is such an amazing, breathtaking and action-filled story about survival, evilness, goodness, betrayal, love, family values, ethics, discrimination and rebellion. It’s set in a dystopian future, but the topics are fully relatable to our world today. It’s also a groundbreaking book with its female lead character and the way it shows the woman’s perspective.

Katniss Everdeen is one of the strongest female protagonists in history. Not only for the heroic way in which she faces the challenges, fears and horrors, or how she’s a fighter, a survivor and a hunter, or how she’s stronger and better than most boys, but because she’s not at all dependent on boys or focused on finding love. She doesn’t need a guy to be fulfilled.

Yes, I do know that there is not only one, but two guys, that she has feelings for, but it’s not the main focus of the story. Whatever Gale or Peeta are thinking or feeling for her, it does not consume all of Katniss’s mind or influence her decisions or actions. The romance, the love triangle, is there, but it’s happening more or less in the background while Katniss is busy surviving, saving her family and leading a revolution.

Before The Hunger Games (with the exception of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a few others), most teen stories had female protagonists focusing primarily on their feelings, often fighting passion and lust for the “wrong guy”, and girls not really having any ambitions or wanting or doing anything for themselves, but spending most of her time wondering what the boy was thinking and feeling. So this way, that Suzanne Collins let Katniss really fight for herself and be both strong and broken at the same time, was absolutely amazing and one of the main reasons that I love this book so much. And then add all the action, the nerve-wracking games, the epic battles, the amazing world-building, the complex characters and the hope, love and friendship in the midst of the dark dystopian setting and I truly believe that this series will be seen as a classic that will be read for years and years to come.

Rating:
5 stars

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​Author info:
Suzanne Collins

I loved Marie Lu’s The Legend trilogy so much and expected something similar with this series. But The Young Elites was not a dystopian like The Legend, but rather a completely unique, dark and wicked story. After a somewhat hesitant start I really grew to enjoy this book!

The story is a dark fantasy set in a bleak world full of magic, complex villains and princes looking to reclaim their throne, and there are so many fascinating characters in this novel. There is a little bit of a romance, but it definitely does not take center stage, which I appreciated.

Our protagonist Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of a blood fever that swept through her nation when she was a child. The fever left only a few survivors and those survivors remained permanently scarred with strange markings on their bodies. But some of them (called the Young Elites) were also left with strange abilities that made them powerful, dangerous and feared. Adelina has spent her whole life being abused by her father, feeling unloved and worthless. And she has a complex relationship with her sister, not able to help feeling jealous of the way their father was affectionate towards her. I both rooted for Adelina and had some problems getting close to her. She’s such a different YA protagonist, an anti-hero who has been mistreated and manipulated, now turning into a villain looking for revenge.

What I loved most about this story is how Marie Lu didn’t even try to make it feel good in any ways. She didn’t add a hero or a love overcoming everything. Instead none of the characters is simply good or bad, everything is much more complicated and interesting than that. I love the direction the book took at the end and can’t wait to see the world expand in the next installments in this bold, dark and twisted series!

Rating:
​4 stars

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Marie Lu

I have such mixed feelings about this book! It was sweet, adorable, emotional and perfect for the first half, then the plot twist just changed EVERYTHING and left me loathing a certain character and feeling angry and let down. Still, it was a captivating and interesting story and I rooted so much for the main character. So I’m really struggling with sorting my feelings out and rating this book…

The story is about Maddy who has been ill ever since she was born in a rare disease that makes contact with others impossible. She’s therefore lived her whole life isolated in her house together with her mother. But one day, the new neighbors moving next to them has a very cute and mysterious teenage boy, Olly, and Maddy starts to question her life.

I rooted so much for Maddy already from the start! Being a bookworm myself, I loved this extra much about her, and the way she saw the world and thought about things. I felt so sorry for her situation and could completely relate to her longing for more.

And Olly… if I’d been Maddy I’d fallen so hard for him too! He was the perfect combination of good looks and a kind heart. I loved his humor and how he was the catalyst for freedom for Maddy. Yes, it might be a bit instalove, but honestly, Maddy and Oliver were so cute together that I didn’t really mind that their friendship moved to love at lightning speed.

“Is it always like that?” I ask, breathless.
“No,” he says. “It’s never like that.” I hear the wonder in his voice.
And just like that, everything changes.”

My main problem was the huge plot twist at the end and how it changed the whole premise for the story. That thing was just so completely unforgivable that it made me loathe a certain character, but also left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth and dislike for the entire book. Some of the parts (not just the plot twist) were also a bit too unrealistic.

But trying to sort out my mixed feelings, it was nevertheless a very captivating and emotional read, and I absolutely loved the first part of it. And Maddy and Olly were some of the cutest YA couple ever. It was therefore so frustrating the way the execution of the plot twist ruined that. Without the plot twist this would easily have been a 5 star read for me, but with it I will have to take away two of those stars and settle for a 3 star rating overall. 

Rating:
​3 stars

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​Author info:
Nicola Yoon

This is such an adorable bad boy-good girl-can’t-help-falling-for-each-other story that drew me in from the very first page. It’s a kind of modern Romeo and Juliet story with star-crossed lovers from “different sides of the track”.

Alex Fuentes is a rebel bad boy, a gang member from the other side of town, and Brittany Ellis is the ‘perfect good-girl princess with the world-at-her-feet’. But when they are forced to be lab partners, Brittany fears that her carefully hidden secrets will be revealed and that her created ‘perfect’ life is about to unravel before her eyes.

The story is told in alternating POVs with every other chapter being told by Alex or Brittany. I really liked this take, as it made it possible to glimpse into each of their heads and really understand what they were thinking and how they were affected by each other. I was also so impressed by how complex Simone Elkeles managed to make the characters. Alex wasn’t just a bad boy, a gang member without feelings, but he had such a good heart! And Brittany with her secrets and the way she cared for her sister made me totally root for her. Simone Elkeles really made Brittany and Alex into real persons, not stereotypes. And the slow-burning romance was so perfect, the chemistry was pure fire! I read the book with a pounding heart, desperately hoping for a happy end.

Five burning stars for this addictive, heartwarming and magically romantic story with all the right feels!

Rating:
5 stars

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​Simone Elkeles

The Legend trilogy by Marie Lu is probably my favorite dystopian of all times. What looked like a standard dystopian format at first glance turned into something utterly fantastic. The character-driven story told from two perspectives, the commanding narrative and all the emotions, smart thoughts and creative world building made this series completely unique.

What makes it so special is the strong characters and the focus on their separate problems, not so much on the hero-parts. As for the plot, it takes place in what was once the western United States, but is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circels. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. So yes, the story does have a lot of the typical dystopian settings with an evil dictator, military control, and special, supertalented teens who protests against the roles assigned to them by a test, but the book is still very different from other dystopian stories. Marie Lu’s writing and the way the story was told made it feel completely unique. Mostly because of the amazing characters.

The story is told in alternating perspectives, from both June’s and Day’s point of views, which made you feel really close to both of them. I loved Day from the start. Even though he’s the most wanted criminal in the Republic, he’s sweet, kind and so lovable. June is more of the badass, trained warrior type suppressing her feelings. But as the story continues through the three books, she becomes more vulnerable and allows more of her feelings to have impact on her decisions instead of just blindly following the authorities, which made her grow on me. The Legend trilogy is really the first series I’ve read where the boy and the girl are equals in every way and where the girl is allowed to be the tough, logical and not so empathetic action hero and the boy more of the kind, more emotional character. I love that!

I also love the way the love story developed and how the main focus was not really on the action plot but on the characters facing their own personal problems in the midst of the rebelling going on. The way June and Day struggled emotionally with their feelings, for each other and for the loss of their families, and the way their characters matured and grew during the story, made it very real and relatable. As the story develops, June and Day both have to choose who to trust more and where their loyalties lay. The guilt and grief they both have to deal with really made my heart ache for them.

I recommend this series with all my heart, it deserves all the buzz and more! It’s fast-paced, heart-breaking, compelling and utterly fantastic!

Rating:
​5 stars

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​Author info:
Marie Lu