If you know me at all, you know I don't fall for hypes. But I couldn't ignore this one. I heard not one negative thing about it, and fellow bookish friends whose opinions I trust wouldn't stop gushing over it. 
 Because it's good. 
 Really good. 
 Like, I still can't form a coherent sentence about it. 
 I'm not even going to bother summarizing it, because I think I'm the last person in the world to read it. (And if you haven't, well, check it out. Now.) 
 Reasons why I love this: 
 1) Dystopia! Love them. 
 2) Katniss. She's fierce and badass. She illegal hunts in the woods to feed her family. She uses a bow (I love archers). And she's crazy independent. She doesn't need anyone's help to survive; she pulls her own weight. She also has no desire to marry & bear children, because she refuses to bring a child into such a messed-up world. Like I said. Fierce. 
 3) The Katniss/Peeta staged romance. It would have been so easy to turn this into a real romance, but it didn't happen. Adds some drama to the mix. I like that it was fairly unpredictable. 
 4) Gale. I can't wait to see him again. 
 5) It holds nothing back. I often forgot this was YA, because some of the subject matter is so vivid. Cleaning out Peeta's wounds? Gross. Kids battling it out to the death, literally? Yeah, controversy! 
 I planned on immediately absorbing the second book, but this one needs to sink in first. I feel bad for the book I read next, because I don't even think I'll be able to pay attention to it.