(no subject)
Posted two signal boosts in a row, might as well post something else.
Might as well update this with some things that are more than 140 characters. I've meant to post my feelings about The Hunger Games for the past few weeks but kept holding off on making the post which contained my feelings public.
The Hunger Games was excellent, I couldn't put it down and ended up staying up an entire night reading it. Catching Fire was a fast read, but not as good as The Hunger Games, a typical second book in a trilogy. With Mockinjay I wish I had bought a physical copy, which would have been more convenient for throwing across a room or burning.
In the first book, I didn't mind the first person perspective, and it gave me as a reader a lot of insight into the character of Katniss, and what she had been through with her family. I connected with the character with her tales of the death of her father, and how the family faced starvation. The first person perspective helped explain her attachment to Prim as not just a sister, but also as a protector and mother figure.
The second book was enjoyable, but a bit predictable. Somehow I knew that they would come up with some type of a plot device to get Katniss back into The Games. But things were made up for with the new characters they introduced us to, like Finnick and Johanna, who I found to be more interesting than Peeta, and Gale. The love triangle frankly felt like something which was forced into the story to sell it to the desired demographic.
With Peeta all we know about his character's history is that he is a baker's son. We never learn anything memorable about his family, or his life growing up except what is pertinent to Katniss. To me he always felt like a hollow love interest. Gale we knew a bit more about, but the reasons why him and Katniss don't work out in the end are realistic and understandable. Truthfully, I was more interested in overall the story, and really didn't care who Katniss ended up with.
By the third book, I felt that having things told to us from the point of view of Katniss, instead of shown from a third person point of view to us hindered the story. I would have liked to have known what was going on on the battlefields, and not more information about how our once strong heroine was now in the hospital, drugged up more times than was necessary. I understand that part of this book is that it is supposed to be about the perils of war, but I hate seeing a rare strong female character reduced to someone who is always told what to do and put into situations she doesn't want to be in.
There were too many characters whose stories either don't get proper closure, or aren't even addressed at the end of Mockingjay. I wanted to know what eventually became of Johanna, who we last see at the round table voting to continue The Hunger Games. Annie Cresta could have been a fascinating character, but she only has a few lines throughout the entire series, where we only see her through the eyes of Katniss.
Prim's death happened too far at the end of the book and didn't have the weight it should have. Prim was Katniss's reason for going to war in the first place, yet her ending felt a lot shallower than that of Rue. I also felt that if they were going to kill off a character, the most satisfying would have been Haymitch, or even Peeta.
Finnick's death made me both depressed and angry. He was one of the most complicated and fascinating characters of the series. As the series went on, I began to care about him more than I did Katniss, Peeta, or Gale. When the book devoted a few sentences to his death, and had a few lines in the epilogue about how he was gone, I was not happy.
In fact the entire ending left me feeling glum for a few days, to the point where I almost regretted reading it in the first place. Back when I was a "YA," I was sensitive to stories involving things like war and death. Before I would begin reading a book, I would read the ending. If the ending was something that I knew I would bother me, I wouldn't read the book. As I was reading the trilogy, I had been spoiled as to the ending of Mockingjay. I knew what would happen to Prim and Finnick, and how Katniss would up, and didn't think it would affect me. However the ending had a lingering effect for a few days after I read it. I'm still not sure whether it makes it a good series, because if had that effect, or if it was because I was angry with the author for handling the ending the way she did.
Might as well update this with some things that are more than 140 characters. I've meant to post my feelings about The Hunger Games for the past few weeks but kept holding off on making the post which contained my feelings public.
The Hunger Games was excellent, I couldn't put it down and ended up staying up an entire night reading it. Catching Fire was a fast read, but not as good as The Hunger Games, a typical second book in a trilogy. With Mockinjay I wish I had bought a physical copy, which would have been more convenient for throwing across a room or burning.
In the first book, I didn't mind the first person perspective, and it gave me as a reader a lot of insight into the character of Katniss, and what she had been through with her family. I connected with the character with her tales of the death of her father, and how the family faced starvation. The first person perspective helped explain her attachment to Prim as not just a sister, but also as a protector and mother figure.
The second book was enjoyable, but a bit predictable. Somehow I knew that they would come up with some type of a plot device to get Katniss back into The Games. But things were made up for with the new characters they introduced us to, like Finnick and Johanna, who I found to be more interesting than Peeta, and Gale. The love triangle frankly felt like something which was forced into the story to sell it to the desired demographic.
With Peeta all we know about his character's history is that he is a baker's son. We never learn anything memorable about his family, or his life growing up except what is pertinent to Katniss. To me he always felt like a hollow love interest. Gale we knew a bit more about, but the reasons why him and Katniss don't work out in the end are realistic and understandable. Truthfully, I was more interested in overall the story, and really didn't care who Katniss ended up with.
By the third book, I felt that having things told to us from the point of view of Katniss, instead of shown from a third person point of view to us hindered the story. I would have liked to have known what was going on on the battlefields, and not more information about how our once strong heroine was now in the hospital, drugged up more times than was necessary. I understand that part of this book is that it is supposed to be about the perils of war, but I hate seeing a rare strong female character reduced to someone who is always told what to do and put into situations she doesn't want to be in.
There were too many characters whose stories either don't get proper closure, or aren't even addressed at the end of Mockingjay. I wanted to know what eventually became of Johanna, who we last see at the round table voting to continue The Hunger Games. Annie Cresta could have been a fascinating character, but she only has a few lines throughout the entire series, where we only see her through the eyes of Katniss.
Prim's death happened too far at the end of the book and didn't have the weight it should have. Prim was Katniss's reason for going to war in the first place, yet her ending felt a lot shallower than that of Rue. I also felt that if they were going to kill off a character, the most satisfying would have been Haymitch, or even Peeta.
Finnick's death made me both depressed and angry. He was one of the most complicated and fascinating characters of the series. As the series went on, I began to care about him more than I did Katniss, Peeta, or Gale. When the book devoted a few sentences to his death, and had a few lines in the epilogue about how he was gone, I was not happy.
In fact the entire ending left me feeling glum for a few days, to the point where I almost regretted reading it in the first place. Back when I was a "YA," I was sensitive to stories involving things like war and death. Before I would begin reading a book, I would read the ending. If the ending was something that I knew I would bother me, I wouldn't read the book. As I was reading the trilogy, I had been spoiled as to the ending of Mockingjay. I knew what would happen to Prim and Finnick, and how Katniss would up, and didn't think it would affect me. However the ending had a lingering effect for a few days after I read it. I'm still not sure whether it makes it a good series, because if had that effect, or if it was because I was angry with the author for handling the ending the way she did.