I'm away for training for work for two weeks, and since I love to read when I travel, I decided to pick up The Hunger Games after hearing about it from a friend.
I started reading on Monday night, and I'm about to start Mockingjay, the third book in the series.
The books are damn good. Obviously geared more towards a young adult demographic, but I don't find them juvenile. They in fact deal with pretty complex themes and issues. My main complaint is the character development, it's a bit shallow. But other than that, the writing is great. Plot is great.
I can't wait to see the film, should be great.
Oh and please use *SPOILER* tags when talking about any of the books. I'd hate for people to have the key plot points ruined.
(I searched and couldn't find anything, so please don't hesitate to merge if I missed it.)
Yeah I don't think I've seen a Hunger Games thread, which is crazy. This is probably the next big thing.
The first and second books are amazing... I had major problems with the third and hope the eventual movie deviates big time. Without the structure of the games to build the plot around much of Mockingjay seemed like it was casting about for a story. It finally gets going toward the end but there are a lot of off-putting character choices that rubbed me the wrong way.
The trailers for the movie look like they're capturing the spirit pretty well. We'll see. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch should be gold if nothing else.
The first and second books are amazing... I had major problems with the third and hope the eventual movie deviates big time. Without the structure of the games to build the plot around much of Mockingjay seemed like it was casting about for a story. It finally gets going toward the end but there are a lot of off-putting character choices that rubbed me the wrong way.
The trailers for the movie look like they're capturing the spirit pretty well. We'll see. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch should be gold if nothing else.
I couldn't agree more. The first two books were fantastic, but the third was atrocious. It was almost like they told Collins to have a book in a year to capitalize on the popularity and she threw some stuff together. I hated the decisions that were made for the characters, instead of having the characters make the decisions themselves. I found the ending to be unbelievably predictable and an easy way out, just really lazy story telling.
I like the first two books as much as I like any of the Harry Potter books, and I feel like the movies are going to live up to the hype. I am just concerned that the third one is going to be weak because of the source material being terrible.
I love the whole post-apocalyptic world that the stories take place in. I feel like Collins was able to delve into some pretty deep themes and topics that most kids pass over, but the adults that read them can sink into. I teach 8th grade and there are students reading the books as young as 5th/6th grade, but I think the adults in my building like them more than the students. My sister stole my copies of the books, then my cousin took them from her. I haven't read them since they came out, but I learned from the Harry Potter books to not reread them when the movies come out, it just makes me hate the movies if they aren't what I imagined.
I have a feeling that the movies are going to 'Twilight' the series. "
Gale or Peeta. Which side will you choose"
If they push that crap and skimp on scenes like (How the hell do I put the Spoiler thing in here? [Spoiler] [/Spoiler] didn't work) then i'm going to be seriously pissed.
I have a feeling that the movies are going to 'Twilight' the series. "
Gale or Peeta. Which side will you choose"
If they push that crap and skimp on scenes like (How the hell do I put the Spoiler thing in here? [Spoiler] [/Spoiler] didn't work) then i'm going to be seriously pissed.
I hope Gale's limited "screen time" in the first book will help prevent that.
(By the way, I'm so much more on Gale's side. For some reason, I've never been a huge fan of Peeta.)
First book is amazingly good. 2nd one is very good too. Third one has some great ideas, especially in the first half and the very ending but the climax and most of the 2nd half felt rushed and disjointed.
I'm very much looking forward to the movie. The casting looks spot on and the trailers are great.
If they push that crap and skimp on scenes like (How the hell do I put the Spoiler thing in here? [Spoiler] [/Spoiler] didn't work) then i'm going to be seriously pissed.
I read the first book of the trilogy during Christmas holidays. It was pretty good, would have had a bigger impact on me, if I was younger. Also I felt like the story dragged at times and I'm hoping that the movie will be a bit more straightforward. But otherwise it was enjoyable and kept me interested.
I'm planning to read the other books during summer.
Dystopia fans should love these books, especially the way they are written, as crack in the form of paper. I will say though that the 3rd book was terrible, heres one of the main reasons:
Spoil:
Why would Gale just not say anything to her? It makes no sense. He just runs off to some random district like a child, sulking. It makes zero sense, after everything they went through, that he would just ditch her. While I will hate when this series is made into a twilight clone, with Gale vs Peta things (I have already seen it on much music up here in Canada), throughout the whole book, I was team gale (lol) so it I was a little more angered by it.
I read the first book a while back and did not like it much at all. After all the hype I was hearing about the book, I was very excited to read it, but got more and more disappointed as I progressed through the book. I almost had to force myself to finish it.
The main reason I did not enjoy it probably has to do with me not being 12-15 years old anymore. I really liked the post-apocalyptic theme and general idea behind the story, but think it was poorly conveyed. The world she created within the book was interesting, but some aspects were unrealistic even within the futuristic setting. The dialogue and narration was cheesy at times, the general quality of the writing was uninspiring, the plot was predictable, some events were too convenient, and the character development was poor. (If you want to see a fantasy book with good quality writing and character development, read The Farseer Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy.)
It almost seems as if the author rushed through the writing. Or maybe she wrote the book with only a younger audience in mind.
I don't know how anyone could compare this with Harry Potter. Maybe it's because I read HP when I was younger, but I remember it being ridiculously better than the Hunger games. I don't think they should even be mentioned in the same sentence. For the most part, HP had a much deeper plot, filled with a lot of intricate twists and an engaging sequence of events.
I know many will disagree with me. But I just don't see anything overly special with the Hunger Games.
Fastest book series I ever read. Just couldn't put it down. Really looking forward to the movies.
I don't know what it was with book 3, but the ending just didn't sit right with me. Book 1 was amazing, 2 was great as well. 3 was good, but again, just something about the ending.
I agree with others about the third book though, there were some things I just didn't understand story wise (decisions made by the writer). It felt rushed.
I don't know what it was with book 3, but the ending just didn't sit right with me. Book 1 was amazing, 2 was great as well.
I know what it was for me personally:
Spoil:
Prim's death
I mean, what was the point of the entire first book and Katniss' sacrifice? It was all for naught in the end. I get that Collins was going for an edgy climax that you wouldn't see coming, but come on. Killing Prim? And it just came out of nowhere and felt so random and senseless. Ugh.
I mean, what was the point of the entire first book and Katniss' sacrifice? It was all for naught in the end. I get that Collins was going for an edgy climax that you wouldn't see coming, but come on. Killing Prim? And it just came out of nowhere and felt so random and senseless. Ugh.
That's probably a factor for why with me.
Edit because I'm ****ing retarted. Couldn't see it was in white because I was on a mobile.
Pure ignorance here. Is this another Twilight-type series that targets teenage girls?
No, not at all, at least I don't think so. The protagonist is female and the author is female but it's not about who-ends-up-with-who at its core. It's about survival and the political fate of the world it takes place in.
I was very disappointed with the book series. I rarely read fiction, though, so don't take that too heart if you've not read them.
The concept is cool. I'd just love to have seen what a more talented writer could've done with it. If The Da Vinci Code was Umberto Eco for the masses, I'd definitely be interested in reading the Umberto Eco equivalent of Hunger Games.
The author is not a talented writer. That is the long and the short of it.
All that said, I do think it has the potential to transfer very well to the big screen.
I've heard of the books but never looked into them. If they're anything like this, I'm running out to my library tonight to pick it up.
The concept is pretty similar from what I hear. I've never read Battle Royale but just a quick skim of the Wikipedia page tells me they have the same idea. The Hunger Games fleshes out the setting and the reasoning the Games take place pretty well.
Couldn't see it was in white because I was on a mobile.
