It had been months and months since I read the first Hunger Games book, so it took me a bit to ease back in and remember everything that had been going on..once i did, i loved it. a lot of people told me that the second book is worse than the first and that the third book is worst of all..we shall see about the third book (i've got 300 people ahead of me on the waiting list at the library..) but i really enjoyed the second one. The first was pretty much a closed story in and of itself, and i never thought what would happen after. This book adds in all the politics and i notice i love a lot of 'young adult' books but this is very adult, in thinking (not in swears and sex obvi). I don't want to give away what happened, but the ending is not a real ending and makes it clear that you must read the third, so in this series, you can stop after the first, or you have to read all the way through. i love the main character of katniss, she is very resilient and strong, a great role model. i also love how they portray the people in the capitol, as i sometimes think that people, like me, who live in big cities (like san francisco) are pretty much like that. i cant wait to read the last one!