Rachel

I just finished and after having really enjoyed the first two I was really disappointed. I am afraid of even slightly spoiling this for anyone so I give warning I will not reveal what happens but it may be contrived from what I have to say from this point on.

I felt the story had so many opportunities for what may have been somewhat predictable to the average adult, but satisfying conclusions, and yet it did none of that. It came so close- to the point where i found myself annoyed wanting the story to just get to it, and then it almost does, but by sort of narrating what happens through what Katniss is told rather than by showing us, which would have been far more interesting, and what happens falls so short of answers. I don't know if I am making sense, but those who read Catching Fire will remember the last chapter where we are told what Katniss is told by her mentor about what happened after the hunger games. So much of the end of this book as well as much of the middle is like this. As though the author did not really know herself what she wanted to happen and threw something together at the last minute to just finish the book.

It reminds me of the days when I would write a book report on a book I only half read and then looked at the cliff notes for the ending and interpreted it slightly wrong in the retelling.

(I would say this contains very minor spoilers, but there is really nothing to spoil)


It must be make things so much easier for Harris to give Sookie avoidance tendencies in this book. I can imagine it must be far more difficult and time consuming to think up and write characters actually doing something of substance, pertaining to the overall storyline. Adding the humor, intrigue and sexiness these books were full of in the past must be even more tricky, because this book had none of these things.

I can't figure out if Harris is just no longer interested in the story or if she simply did not know how to write this book without giving away the end. Either way, this was really terrible. Almost nothing happened in this book, and one or two things that did happen were so poorly told, it was like reading fan fiction written by a teenager.

I see some people are happy that she is wrapping up the stories of the more minor characters, but really she hasn't. The characters all suddenly have lost any dimension. Their endings are flowery and nice, and rather boring,

(here are those minor spoilers)
Speaking of boring, I can only wonder how many actual pages were full of nothing but Sookie going to Taco Bell or Dairy Queen, cooking meals, and shopping for food. Not to mention an investigator that asked the same useless questions over and over. And over and over. And over again.

I will read the last book because I loved the series, but I have lost any kind of hope that it will be any good. That is so disappointing. It is my opinion that the second to last book in a series should leave you anxious for the last book, while giving you enough to ponder and guess as to what it all might mean, how things will work out. This book leaves you with nothing but perhaps the knowledge of how to make sweet potato pie.

I loved the story, with one exception. Larsson frequently jumps around telling the story from a number of character's point of view. I have no problem with this. However after the first sentence in which says the name of the person we are now following, he resorts to "he" or "she" rather than the name. And there are an extensive number of characters. I frequently found myself confused at who's story we were reading now. It is irritating to have to rewind and find that one second where the name was mentioned. Granted, this was meant to be read, rather than listened to, but it is not very good writing technique. I got the impression that Larsson was so deeply engrossed in his own story that he wrote he or she to save time, intending to go back and replace them with names but never did.

Otherwise the story was great, a little slow at the beginning but still engrossing to the point I did not want to stop listening.

I think another reviewer compared this to the movie Beaches and in some ways that is true. Though it is different too. I don't think the similarities are enough that they detract from the story.

I did however find this hard to listen to at times, for reasons I will not say to reduce spoiling the book. But also wonderful.

I chose to listen though because I so adore Susan Ericksen. I fell in love with her narration after listening to every "In Death" book by J.D. Robb and every since I have been combing through the books she has narrated and this one was a great find. She is a brilliant narrator, and brings this story to life brilliantly.

Perhaps the reason this was so terrible was simply the fact that it was poorly abridged, because it was hard to follow, and made very little sense. I kept getting the distinct impression I had missed a whole lot. A bit like watching a movie from the beginning for 5 minutes. Leaving for 30 mins, returning for another ten, and so on. It was the only star trek audio book I actually struggled to listen through to the end. Waste of money.

Why make an audio version of the first book to a trilogy and not make the other two? For someone like me who only listens to audio books it is highly irritating and I see no point in listening. Waste of money unless after all this time they finally plan on making the next two.

So I got this book after rereading (or listening) the entire Harry Potter series to the point I had it all memorized. I was desperate for something like it.

This is not it. In fact, I bought this years ago, listened to half and stopped. I had found it boring, predictable, obvious and repetitive.

Then I read the His Dark Materials Series and that was better, enough to reread a few times. But nothing was Harry Potter.

Shortly after I discovered the "In Death" series with J.D. Robb and I loved them. They the most I enjoyed since Harry Potter, and unalike enough to be satisfying. And the Narrator is my favorite since Jim Dale. But I read the all now several times, and I was low on money and desperate for something else.

So I went back, very reluctantly to Twilight. Perhaps enough time has passed since Harry Potter, or I was in desperate need of something new to read, but I found it much more enjoyable than I did the first time.

I actually finished it and plan on buying the next book. I still found it woefully predictable and Bella seemed rather lacking in uniqueness of mind that the author tried to give her credit for, and at times irritatingly predictable. But definitely readable and not irritating enough to lose my interest this time.

Part of this may be due to the Narration, which can send me away from even the most brilliantly written books if the narrator is bad. This one was not, though her pronunciation of certain words, including Bella was a bit odd. Made me wonder if she had tried to hide an accent or something.

So to sum it up, this is readable, somewhat enjoyable for a light read, and marginally intriguing. This is not a book to read if you are hoping for clever and wise characters and brilliant writing. But for fun it is fine.

Terrible Narrator. I rarely say this as I believe to listen to audio books I must be flexible as to how a character is portrayed by the narrator. But this one was terrible, no. Horrible. Not only was his voices for the women appalling but his male voices were not much better. The sex scenes were painful- to the point where further into the book I had to skip them. The scenes were well written, but it was embarrassing to hear it from this narrator. I could tell he was embarrassed by them too!

I only wish Susan Ericksen had narrated this one, she is brilliant with Nora Roberts books. This narrator was so bad I really don't know if I liked the book or not. It was so hard to listen to it and even harder to care for any of the characters, the way it was read. So disappointing.

I adore this series and have been listening from the very first book. But this one was simple not good.

The mystery of the case was, for lack of a better word, boring, because there was no mystery. Eve knew from close to the beginning who did it and pretty much why. The only question was basically how, and to be honest, it was not nearly exciting enough for me to care.

I kept waiting for something to happen in this story and nothing did. There was basically no action the case lacked any of the usual twists and turns and danger that the previous books have had.

The only highlights were a few peripheral stories of Eve's friends, but frankly I rather wished I had saved my money on this one and skipped it all together. How very disappointing.

This was a really good one. I couldn't put it down, so to speak. But it really is a tear jerker. I found myself crying often for the young girl who survived and the others that did not. One of my favorites in in this series.