A thread to discuss all things in the books so that no one gets upset about it in the movie thread.

My feelings on the trilogy (originally posted in movie thread):

Quote :

"Hunger Games: awesome plot with minimal character development Catching Fire: decent plot, way too predictable, too much recounting of prior events Mockingjay, first half: some cool war strategy scenes, but a very forced love triangle Mockingjay, second half: a lot of gore that seemed unnecessary, as if the author closed her eyes, flipped open to a random page, and said "someone should die here," and then did it again a few times (it tried a bit too much to be like Harry Potter 7)."

1/31/2012 1:41:19 AM

I'm not sure how I felt about the ending of Mockingjay. I know I can't expect a happy ending in a book about children killing each other, but I did expect a little more of a resolution for Peeta and Katniss, a point where Peeta truly returned to who he was.

I also thought it was completely unnecessary to kill off Finnick Odair. She could have left one love story intact.

I also felt like she tried to put too much into the book, and she should have taken her time on certain things. If you didn't read one sentence, you wouldn't have realized another character had died, etc. The writing in the first one, I thought was great, clearly the best of the three, but it became more and more disjointed towards the end of the third. And perhaps the nature of the writing was meant to show how damaged Katniss, as the narrator, had become, but that seems a stretch to me.

1/31/2012 8:06:24 AM

Finnick was one of my top 2 favorite characters (the other being Haymitch) so it really pissed me off when he had such a meaningless death. And there was no followup to how it affected Annie.

1/31/2012 1:49:12 PM

I liked how it ended - they were both broken and completely understood each other... makes sense that they would never truly be the same, ya know?


As far as the writing and stuff... eh, it's a young adult book. What do you expect?

1/31/2012 1:52:10 PM

^^Right, she seemed more sane after he died than before, and she had the baby of course. But it just didn't fit well.

^I loved the writing in the first one, that's why I wasn't as impressed with the third. I knew the author could do better, regardless of Young Adult genre or not.

[Edited on January 31, 2012 at 1:53 PM. Reason : ]

1/31/2012 1:52:15 PM

I loved the series, didn't really like the ending though, I thought it was too quick and confusing. It took me reading some things a few times to realize that Prim was killed, all just seemed odd to me.

1/31/2012 1:59:44 PM

I read the books, and it wasn't that long ago, but damn if 2/3rds of the things y'all are talking about don't seem foreign to me. Like the third book seems like a weird dream that I just remember the idea of but not many details.

1/31/2012 2:04:19 PM

^^ it took me a few rereads regarding Prim's death to realize she had been killed. i completely missed it on the initial read.

1/31/2012 3:05:29 PM

^That's basically what I was saying before. There were a few parts like that in the book where I needed to re-read to figure out what just happened. Finnick's death, Annie's pregnancy, Prim's death, and the entire sequence between Gale's capture, and the explosion.

1/31/2012 3:10:56 PM

The worst was the ground falling out when Katniss and Gale were split apart. It was very complicated and hard to understand and visualize what exactly was happening.

1/31/2012 8:45:35 PM

^I completely agree. I felt like she just wanted to get her and gale done in about a paragraph. She rushed the end WAY too fast. The first book was definitely the best and the 3rd was the worst. I was hoping she would have had a 4th book.

1/31/2012 9:32:54 PM

Read the books after seeing a preview for the movie and it reminded me of Battle Royal which was a cool movie.

Didn't actually realize it was a young adult book(downloaded it quickly onto my iPad) until I read the whole first one in like a day and then noticed the category when downloading the second.

Thought they were pretty good overall, entertaining. I liked how it wasn't all wrapped up in some happy ending.

Quote :

"The worst was the ground falling out when Katniss and Gale were split apart. It was very complicated and hard to understand and visualize what exactly was happening."

Agree 100%, very hard to picture what the hell was happening.

Also, not sure why but I pictured Caesar as the game show host from Slumdog Millionaire. Not sure how that got into my head when reading but stuck the whole time.

1/31/2012 10:41:27 PM

I finished the series in a little less than a week. What I felt was most bothersome with the third book was, aside from Katniss' emotional freakout once back in District 12, was how glossed over Prim's death was. More attention was spent on Rue than Prim, and I felt that was an injustice to how much she loved her sister. Maybe that was intentional to show how much the Games had an affect on Katniss, but I dunno. Just felt wrong.

Overall though, I really loved this series and am looking forward to the movies.

2/1/2012 11:04:05 AM

^^I think I read somewhere that the Battle Royal writer/creator are suing the Hunger Games author.

2/1/2012 3:55:58 PM

Interesting. It does sound pretty similar. I can't find anything about a suit, but I do see a lot of angry internet people saying it was a rip off, and the author of Battle Royale saying he couldn't make another movie because it was too similar.

2/1/2012 4:14:26 PM

Quote :

"More attention was spent on Rue than Prim, and I felt that was an injustice to how much she loved her sister."

Agreed. Considering that the entire plot essentially was kicked off by Katniss sacrificing herself to save Prim, one would have expected her to pull on that string just a tad bit more... You know, maybe something about how she might have changed the world, but for her personally, it was all a failed debacle anyway since her sister still ended up dying a gruesome and violent death.

2/1/2012 4:22:00 PM

I think the end of the third book was so rushed because she introduced us to so many characters that we had a vested interest in. She had to find a way to wrap things up, and her way was largely to kill them off. I'm not sure that was the best way, but it didn't bother me too much.

2/1/2012 4:22:11 PM

Quote :

"Agreed. Considering that the entire plot essentially was kicked off by Katniss sacrificing herself to save Prim, one would have expected her to pull on that string just a tad bit more... You know, maybe something about how she might have changed the world, but for her personally, it was all a failed debacle anyway since her sister still ended up dying a gruesome and violent death. "

I actually thought she covered the aftermath pretty well. Katniss didn't speak for weeks. She went through therapy, and didn't get out of bed for months after she returned to 12. Her mother could never return to 12. I think we were spared the intimate details of Katniss's thoughts because the explosion also seriously injured her as well.

And I do think that the point of her original sacrifice wasn't lost. When the author referred to the "duck tail" of her shirt hanging out as she walked, it was an immediate refresher to her being selected on the reaping day, and I think that drew the conclusion that Katniss hadn't ended up saving her after all. But Prim died an honorable death, fighting a noble cause, and not playing some sick game for the amusement of others. I was really impressed with the maturity and growth of Prim's character through the final book.

2/1/2012 4:27:58 PM

Quote :

"What I felt was most bothersome with the third book was, aside from Katniss' emotional freakout once back in District 12, was how glossed over Prim's death was. "

i sort of agree. i thought it happened so quick that it was easy as the reader to not feel as upset about it as i did when rue died

2/4/2012 5:54:16 PM

Exactly. Maybe that's what bothered me so much about it now that you've put it that way. When Rue died I was in tears with every page turn. With Prim's death I did not have the same reaction at all. It felt wrong.

2/4/2012 9:20:59 PM

btt

5/14/2012 11:34:49 AM

from the movie thread since i didn't know this one existed



so i just finished reading the series....holy shit what a depressing final book. and i can't believe she ended up with that little prick peeta. i hated that guy throughout the entire series, despite the author's attempts to make us empathize with him. i almost wish katniss had just died, since she was so broken psychologically and you were gonna piss off half the readers who wanted her to be with gale anyway. also really bummed that finnick died after all that he went through with annie (who was pregnant no less). i think enough important people died throughout that he could've been spared (and knocked off peeta instead, that little fucker). it wasn't even a good death, just a mention that he'd had his head bitten off by the mutts. if the filmmakers take any creative liberties with the series, i hope they keep him alive.

5/14/2012 5:33:27 PM

i just realized today that the two presidents were named snow and cone.

5/14/2012 11:22:28 PM

They weren't...Disctrict 13 is led by President COIN.

=/=

5/14/2012 11:25:04 PM

damnit. it's been a while since i read the books. cone would've been a better name for the character.

5/14/2012 11:53:42 PM

If there was going to be a name link I would pick something more opposing such as Sand.

5/15/2012 12:02:07 AM

has the author mentioned why she has so much latin influence in the book? is it supposed to be symbolic of panem being the new world power, or did she just like it in high school? at first i thought i was reading into it too much, but then she has latin sayings so it might it kind of obvious

5/15/2012 9:33:38 AM

Quote :

"I'm not sure how I felt about the ending of Mockingjay. I know I can't expect a happy ending in a book about children killing each other, but I did expect a little more of a resolution for Peeta and Katniss, a point where Peeta truly returned to who he was. I also thought it was completely unnecessary to kill off Finnick Odair. She could have left one love story intact. "

I think the level of tragedy was realistic, unfair to characters, but I think it nicely reflects what some people experience. It can reach to people that have experienced real tragedy, while events may change you forever, there is still life and you can do whatever you want with it... turn out like Haymitch, who drank himself into unconsiciousness (like many war vets do), or grieve like Katniss and Peeta, and Haymitch in the end did... and recover some of yourself, and still have a life.

I agree that the book was a little short and too simplistic at times, but it is better than her just sticking in filler I guess.

I really enjoyed reading about strong female characters, though I wish the love triangle thing was not so prevalent in the books.

5/15/2012 12:26:11 PM

Great books, I just felt like the end was a total cop-out. It almost read like someone casually mentioning, "By the way, while you were asleep the war ended and Gale moved away."

The annoying love triangle that was carried through the entire trilogy was just swpt under the rug with a quiet, weak excuse about Gale's bombs.

Too many loose threads, I think. They didn't mention the victors voting for one last Hunger Games again, I guess Katniss was just trying to keep Coin off guard...

5/15/2012 2:24:30 PM

Quote :

"has the author mentioned why she has so much latin influence in the book? is it supposed to be symbolic of panem being the new world power, or did she just like it in high school? at first i thought i was reading into it too much, but then she has latin sayings so it might it kind of obvious"

It wasn't just about the Latin, the names were specifically Roman. The Capital's love of watching people die for entertainment is a direct reference to the Roman Coliseum.

Here's a fun thing to think about as well, since Shakespeare used a lot of Roman references too:
http://www.sporcle.com/games/druhutch/my-kingdom-for-a-hovercraft

[Edited on May 15, 2012 at 3:28 PM. Reason : -]

5/15/2012 3:27:48 PM

well yeah that's what i meant. names like octavia, flavia, and plutarch are kinda hard to miss

5/15/2012 8:59:49 PM

ok... just read the trilogy. very good 2 1/2 books. I'm going to just assume the ending was capitol propaganda and it didn't happen that way. To mirror what others have said, it just seems like Suzanne Collins took the cheap and easy way out for a lot of the storyline.

and Finnick deserved a much better death than being eaten by a gorn.

5/20/2012 9:54:42 PM

those things seemed pretty vicious though. all it took was one wrong move, hesitation, etc.

5/20/2012 10:12:29 PM

Quote :

"I finished the series in a little less than a week."

Me too. I found it to be an easy and enjoyable read, but I also agree with most of the comments ITT. I was hoping she'd end up with Gale from the start. Peeta's character only got more annoying as the series went on.

Overall, the first book and the end half of the second book (first half was a little slow and took me a while to get in to) were my favorite. The third book was my least favorite - I felt like it was too much knock her out/drug her up and explain later for Katniss.

5/21/2012 6:49:04 AM

^agreed.

5/21/2012 7:54:24 AM

aww i don't get the hate for peeta. i guess he didn't come across as hardcore as gale, but i loved what she said at the end though. she didn't need to be saved/protected. she needed a dandelion in the spring

5/21/2012 9:45:15 AM

Best part of the whole series is inside the arena in the second book. So many more mind games being played than in the first book and we get to see some real character development beyond Katniss and Peeta's love affair.

Jabberjays ftw.

5/21/2012 12:03:28 PM

^^ girls i can see supporting that, but for any dude reading the series (like me), i can't see how you can pick peeta over gale. i mean the guy is just irritating

[Edited on May 21, 2012 at 5:15 PM. Reason : .]

5/21/2012 5:15:07 PM

Quote :

"she needed a dandelion in the spring "

it made katniss' choice make sense, and I liked Peeta... I thought he was very sweet, but I was rooting for Gale the whole time, and then just hustled over to district 2 suddenly w/o a good reason.

5/21/2012 7:21:51 PM

What do you mean without good reason? He wanted to be with Katniss, Katniss could never look at him again with thinking about the death of Prim. The same reason why Katniss' mother could never return to District 13.

So why would Gale stick around just to see the girl he loved with another guy?

[Edited on May 21, 2012 at 8:04 PM. Reason : a]

5/21/2012 8:03:41 PM

true, but I feel like that her refusing to look at him is kind of a lame reason never to see him again. I really didn't care who she ended up with, bc the whole Peeta thing makes sense.... but considering their history I would of thought he would at least try to be with her for a little while, she doesn't have many people left from her past, I would think that would be a bond that they would keep... even just as friends.

5/23/2012 1:49:54 PM