There's nothing wrong with realistically flawed characters if you know how to write 'em. A heavy hand on the cluebat tends to make me very, very unhappy while reading.
That's what I meant when I said that I found the character too blinkered. Not being interested in politics isn't wrong in itself, but in this case, since she's the sole narrator, it's extremely frustrating. I was mostly okay with the first book, but in the second, she basically spent her time angsting about her feelings while people were plotting in the background, and I wanted to tell her: "move over, I want to see the people doing interesting stuff".
It got worse in Mockingjay. And that book has a serious pacing problem; all the rest, I can chalk up to my character preferences, but the pacing is just off here. Plus, I got irritated with her "the rebels are bad too" indignation. Part of it felt valid (if heavy-handed), and part of it made me want to ask her: "Okay, you're hoping for some regime change. Do you think it's going to happen by being nice to everyone?" I don't know, I generally like characters who want to keep their principles in a time of war, and I love seing them lose their illusions about their own side, so I don't
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I won't spoil in case you haven't finished that final 22% (but oh boy I can't wait to see THAT post), but see I agree largely with raffaella. I think the first book, her ignorance totally works. She's very focused on her family's survival and she really can't worry about more than that, other than a vague disgruntlement/bitterness about the situation. But, there's a bit in the first few chapters where she talks about how when she was young she used to decry the government aloud until her mother told her not to b/c it wasn't safe
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Also, I love your icon. :D
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I think the icon text is from one of cleolinda's epic Twilight-snarking posts.
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It got worse in Mockingjay. And that book has a serious pacing problem; all the rest, I can chalk up to my character preferences, but the pacing is just off here. Plus, I got irritated with her "the rebels are bad too" indignation. Part of it felt valid (if heavy-handed), and part of it made me want to ask her: "Okay, you're hoping for some regime change. Do you think it's going to happen by being nice to everyone?" I don't know, I generally like characters who want to keep their principles in a time of war, and I love seing them lose their illusions about their own side, so I don't ( ... )
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