** spoiler alert ** The book was great up until the end.
**Spoilers**
Collins leaves Gregor a complete mess, a broken and scared 12 year old, with no real hope of healing. I hated that part, I liked the ambiguity and that he had to deal with the consequences of being the warrior, but to leave him that messed up with no clear hope of being able to put his life back? Boo.

Next, at the end, all of a sudden the prophecies were meaningless. Wait, what? She just spent the four previous books and almost all of this one showing how the prophecies mattered and directly influenced their lives, and how everything happened the way Sandwich predicted, and how they had to unravel the meanings to save the day, but now all that is just tossed out? The only weak prophecy was the Code of the Claw, but Collins clearly wrote it to be weak so she could pull a fast one on us, the readers. Boo.

Sandwich is suddenly a bad guy. Best way to undermine the whole prophecy business is to make the guy with them turn into some evil nutcase. Boo.

I was willing to let Gregor be a rager with no explanation, after he was the prophesied warrior (until the prophecies weren't valid), but the echo location? Wow, that needs some serious explanation as to why that would work for him in that manner. I mean, it was like he turned into Daredevil, without the tedious back story on how he got superpowers and with just a minor training sequence. Boo.

Luxa and Ripred at the end.
Luxa: Exile the rats! Drive them forth into the Uncharted Lands, sealing their doom!
Ripred: We'll fight to the death! *bares teeth, sharpens claws*
Luxa: So be it, to the death! *draws sword, orders troops to move out*
Gregor: Stop being stupid. Look, I broke my sword.
Luxa: Well, let's be BFFs, Ripred!
Ripred: Oh, totally! Besties 4ever!

Reading that part it flowed well, thinking about after left me scratching my head. I mean, bonding with Ripred is a totally awesome move, gives hope, helps bury the hatchet, etc, etc. Just the speed they went from ready to kill each other to getting matching outfits for celebration feast was almost enough to give me whiplash.

Despite all this, I still give it 3 stars because the rest of the book was a great read!