Book #101 of 2026: Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #5) This series has had its ups and downs, but it concludes on a high note that ties everything together rather gracefully. Following the cliffhanger from the last volume, the story resumes with the humans and their allies in …
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Book #90 of 2026: Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #4) This penultimate volume is easily the strongest of its series since the debut, largely for dispensing with the tired structure of yet another ancient prophecy sending our returning tween hero on yet another quest. (Granted, those elements both …
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Book #79 of 2026: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #3) I’m definitely not in the target audience for this middle-grade fantasy series, but I liked the first volume (and of course author Suzanne Collins’s unrelated Hunger Games novels) enough that I feel compelled to finish the pentalogy …
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Book #68 of 2026: Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #2) Overall a decent middle-grade adventure sequel, although not really as entertaining or imaginative as its predecessor. The first volume established the existence of the ‘Underland’ beneath New York City, and ended with the revelation of a further prophecy …
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Book #57 of 2026: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #1) A pitch-perfect middle-grade portal fantasy, in which our eleven-year-old protagonist stumbles into an underground world via the basement laundry room of his New York City apartment building. There he discovers giant talking animals like cockroaches, spiders, and bats, a strange civilization …
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Book #84 of 2025: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #3) The first two volumes in this trilogy shared a roughly similar structure: half a book of buildup to the latest deadly arena match, and then the heroine’s desperate bid for survival within it. This closing entry operates along the same general principles, except …
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Book #73 of 2025: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #2) In certain ways, I think this dystopian YA sequel improves upon its predecessor. Whereas the series debut focused — understandably! — on the setting, the characters, and the inherent brutality of the premise, this volume is more able to expand on the …
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Book #62 of 2025: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #1) [Previous review here, from 2011.] Fun to revisit this first Hunger Games novel, well after the blockbuster movie franchise that turned it into a household name. Even setting all that aside to consider the 2008 title fresh, it’s clear that it’s …
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Book #50 of 2025: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins I wasn’t a huge fan of author Suzanne Collins’s first prequel effort The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but this new title thankfully recaptures the old Hunger Games magic. It’s a challenging target for this sort of release to hit — similar enough to …
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Book #121 of 2020: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins The idea of a Hunger Games prequel about the young Coriolanus Snow isn’t necessarily a bad one, but I feel like there are three key elements that such a project would need to deliver in order to be successful. Namely, the book …
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