Donna

I have lost track of the number of times I've read this.
It's as good today as it was on first reading as a sixth grader many years ago.

I wanted to like this. I really did, but it was not to be.
I made it to page 127, put it down for the night and it sat there for a day and a half. I just didn't care enough about any of the characters to go back for more. So, DNF'd at 33%.

I like a lot of YA, this wasn't one. The characters were flat, the dialog was pithy and there were no surprises, no sense of building excitement or risk. I continued listening only because I had a lot of busy work to do that could be easily accompanied by an audio book.

The Necklace by Matt Witten

Susan Lentigo is setting out on a journey from the Adirondacks to North Dakota to witness the execution of the man who raped and murdered Amy, her young daughter, twenty years ago.

Susan and Amy made a necklace with colorful beads just days before the murder. Amy loved the necklace and wore it constantly, vowing to never take it off. The convicted murderer, a man Susan calls The Monster, had confessed to the crime. While there was an admission of guilt Amy's necklace was never found.

Susan's trip starts badly. She abandons plans of driving her old car and must take a bus. She meets some friendly people, others not so. Money is lost, hope nearly is. Susan is focused on one goal, and that is to get to North Dakota in time for the execution.

With little else to do on her bus ride, Susan thinks about the days surrounding the murder. Conversations with police and FBI investigators, neighbors, family, and friends are revisited. The missing necklace is always on her mind.

Despite herself, Susan begins to wonder if The Monster is truly responsible for Amy's murder. The closer she gets to North Dakota and the execution, the more doubt she has.

I enjoyed the book, and the latter half was simply unputdownable. Several times I felt as if I were watching a slow-motion crash. I couldn't look away, even though the suspense in a couple spots was palpable.

Monsters aren't born - they're made.
They are the sum total of all that happened to them.

Now we know where President Snow's journey into monster-dom began.

We first meet Snow as a more or less typical kid concerned with school, friends, getting into college ... he may not be entirely likable, but he is just a kid. A kid who already has his eye set on becoming President.

What happens in the pages of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes are the first few steps into what created the monster who eventually ruled Panem.