UGH. I saw a girl on the bus reading the first book yesterday and I wanted to be like STOP NOW, STOP WHILE THE GETTING IS STILL GOOD.
I keep thinking of different reasons why this book made me want to shoot myself in the face, primarily because it made me feel terrible while I was reading it but also because it did so in a way that made me feel like I couldn't really complain. Seriously, this book is totally a cliche bad abusive boyfriend. Because this is the thing: by the end of this book, Katniss is basically a horrible, fucked up and irredeemable person. And that seems like excessive character bashing, except for the part where you've been told over and over and OVER throughout the first two books that everyone who wins the Hunger Games ends up fucked up and crazy for life.
I think that's actually where the whole thing falls apart -- it would have been unbelievable to angle Katniss into ANOTHER Hunger Games arena for a third book, but in the absence of that framework, the stuff that happened to her and the ways that she reacted to it just felt pointless and cruel. I thought the weakest part of the entire book was when they were about to invade the Capitol and Katniss and Finnick were like ZOMG THE CAPITOL IS LAID OUT JUST LIKE AN ARENA because like, dude, Suzanne Collins, too much has happened for you to try to grab the reigns of plot and theme at this point in the game. That ship has sailed.
I keep thinking of different reasons why this book made me want to shoot myself in the face, primarily because it made me feel terrible while I was reading it but also because it did so in a way that made me feel like I couldn't really complain. Seriously, this book is totally a cliche bad abusive boyfriend. Because this is the thing: by the end of this book, Katniss is basically a horrible, fucked up and irredeemable person. And that seems like excessive character bashing, except for the part where you've been told over and over and OVER throughout the first two books that everyone who wins the Hunger Games ends up fucked up and crazy for life.
I think that's actually where the whole thing falls apart -- it would have been unbelievable to angle Katniss into ANOTHER Hunger Games arena for a third book, but in the absence of that framework, the stuff that happened to her and the ways that she reacted to it just felt pointless and cruel. I thought the weakest part of the entire book was when they were about to invade the Capitol and Katniss and Finnick were like ZOMG THE CAPITOL IS LAID OUT JUST LIKE AN ARENA because like, dude, Suzanne Collins, too much has happened for you to try to grab the reigns of plot and theme at this point in the game. That ship has sailed.
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