The Hunger Games **spoilers for Catching Fire and Mockingjay**

[Dave]

I didn't know where else to put this, but BBC Breakfast News was reporting that a huge number of young adults are taking up Archery as a Sport, which they put down partly to the 2012 Olympics, but largely because of The Hunger Games. I was just relieved that it wasn't because of We Need To Talk About Kevin.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

That made me giggle, Dave.... It shouldn't have, but it did.

 

[io_anonimus]

Hunger games

I tried to write a short of review for this book but I let it go as I found nothing impressive in it. Maybe some hilarity when Katniss babysits Peeta and the things floating down from the sky and the idea of a technological society relying on charcoal. The ending is abrupt and disappointing.
Now I am curious, as the novel is quite popular, if I am missing something. Can you give a different feedback on it? Did you consider it to be as good as it is marketed?

 

[Valer]

Re: Hunger games

This is a book for teenagers, so it is popular in this category of readers. I cannot consider it a real SF book. The only interseting I found is in the names: Panem coming from latin pane and the book being about the games -circus. So we have bread and circus -pane et circenses. Of course I am not sure if this is by intention.

 

[io_anonimus]

Re: Hunger games

That means that I am no longer young. Bad news.

 

[Hex]

Re: Hunger games

There's a discussion on this over in YA. I liked The Hunger Games, I found it gripping and full of dystopian horror and the slightly hysterical comedy of fashions in the Capitol worked for me too.

I get the feeling you're judging against different criteria, though, and I read it before I'd seen any of the marketing.

 

[biodroid]

Re: Hunger games

I found it generic and silly. The ending was so Contrived it took the fun away completely. I guess i will watch the movie to see how it compares but I wont be reading the others in the series.

 

[Hex]

Re: Hunger games

The film's pretty much the same as the book -- I really liked the film too -- so if you didn't like the book, I shouldn't think you'll enjoy it. Maybe try Battle Royale instead?

 

[io_anonimus]

Re: Hunger games

@Hex thank you for the thread reference.
As my jet lag passed I will try to say more about what I see in the book.
The start is good, it is written at the first person which make difficult to create a new world as you see it with only two eyes but make more easy to transmit feelings to the reader. And we see that world with the eyes of a girl having sensibility and warmth. She is more mature than others of her age and saved her family, but that is plausible, that's why we have heroes. The only faux pas is the obsession by hunting squirrels with arrows hitting their eyes. In the forest they are a little bit different from the ones coming in parks to take nuts from our hands. But this is not a major sin, it happens in all books.
From my point of view the problem starts with Panem. This is a world having weather control and able to materialize things. Something we are still dreaming of. Still they need to manually harvest coal and fruits for their need. So I find it to be a very artificial construct. It is not possible to stop knowledge transfer between that advanced world and their toys in the reservations. Human nature is inventive and accepts risk so at least some laser thing for hunting should be there. This contraband with knowledge transfer would be a much more interesting story. Any dystopia is written to push extremes in our mind, but it must be some plausibility in them. This book has none. If we can separate completely the two books, then the beginning and the show on Panem will be ok.
The little romance in the last part is hilarious. Or maybe I am too old.
The final as biodroid said is completely disappointing, difficult to find something enjoyable in it. Of course this is my perception, I know I am in a minority and the book has a lot of fans, but the gustibus non disputandum. And of course we need something to discuss here

 

[Gordian Knot]

Just finished the trilogy. Honestly I was surprised several times. Usually with runaway popular fiction, I am underwhelmed to put it gently (like that piece of trash 50 Shades).

It was with great pleasure that I did not find The Hunger Games to be that way at all. The first book is a riveting story from beginning to end. Katniss is a wonderful character of mixed strengths and weaknesses. One who pushes on, with some timely assistance from friends, to achieve victory.

Catching Fire was not as cohesively excellent as the first book. The "heroes" are pushed into a mire of being handled rather than handling. It takes away from their quality as heroes. Katniss's star should be ascending as we get into the plot to overthrow the Evil Empire. Instead of that we see her becoming weaker and weaker as a character. Where is her FIRE?

Mockingjay was a complete letdown. Not only does it finish the job of making our heroes nothing but puppets it starts a steady downward spiral into total despair and depression. I expected Katniss to be a fighting force in every sense of the word towards achieving the goals of the rebels. Instead she falls more and more into just one tiny cog in an uninspired machine. She accomplishes just about nothing of value in this book.

Indeed there is nothing heroic about Katniss in this final book. Plus there is a steady increase of gratuitous maiming and killing, including a horrible death of someone close to Katniss that was completely unnecessary. The ending is such a horrible depiction of depression and despair.

I expected that by the third book, the Mockingjay would find her power and soar. Just the opposite happens. Turns out the Mockingjay was never anything more than hype. A 17 year old girl in way over her head.

Does this depict real life? Yeah, many times the victory is pretty hollow. But I don't read fiction to read reality. I get enough of that on my own. I read fiction to see the heroes overcome the odds and do great things. If Mockingjay had been the first book instead of the last, I would never have read any further.

 

[giselle12]

How does everyone feel about the book in comparison to the film?

 

[AmbitiousKid]

Yeah, The Hunger Games is a fantastic book but I can't help but be more drawn to the storyline of 'Gone' (by Michael Grant) and its many sequels. Like I think the Gone series would be excellent on film,but that sort of brutality in a movie starring kids....don't think it would be legal.

 

[Dave]

I've merged the two threads on this (the big one in Young Adult Fiction with the little one in General Book Discussions.) I've just seen the film but there isn't a thread for it in film.

How does everyone feel about the book in comparison to the film?

Film adaptations usually have to cut a lot out. Here they decided to cut out most of the first third of the book and quite a little of the second third. They left the actual games intact which was probably the right thing to do. We did lose a lot of the discussion of previous games and much of the character motivation. I'm not sure that if I hadn't read the book first I would understand the film. This is something I have actually been told. Some of the important dialogue was quiet and muffled and I don't think I would hear it.

The ending is abrupt and disappointing.

Yes, it is. It is even more abrupt in the film. Suzanne Collins has explained that as she wrote the book she realised she couldn't tell the story in one book and began thinking of the sequel before she had finished. Unfortunately, while the book has sequels, there is no telling that the film will get a sequel.

The film adaptation does get the costumes, make-up, scenes and settings right. While Katnis and Peeta are nothing like I imagined them, and arguably nothing like they were described, the Districts and the Capitol are really spot on.

Still not sure why people hate this book so much. Popular doesn't always equal trash. While I agree with everything Gordian Knot said about the books, and especially the comments on the third book, I still liked it as a consummate anti-war book. That was why it was futile and full of despair and depression. The rebels don't win because no one ever wins. They are all the same as each other. You missed the point.

 

[LastRemnant]

Can anyone say catching fire trailor!!

 

[LastRemnant]

I can't decide which of these books are my favorite! they were all so good. The first one was classic though.

 

[LastRemnant]

They were actually all really sad, especially the last one.

 

[LastRemnant]

The movie actually really did the book justice. I was pleasently suprised. Deffinitly helps that they got Collins to write the script. very very smart

 

[LastRemnant]

Almost time to see how the next one stacks up

 

[alchemist]

victory.


Mockingjay was a complete letdown. Not only does it finish the job of making our heroes nothing but puppets it starts a steady downward spiral into total despair and depression. I expected Katniss to be a fighting force in every sense of the word towards achieving the goals of the rebels. Instead she falls more and more into just one tiny cog in an uninspired machine. She accomplishes just about nothing of value in this book.

Indeed there is nothing heroic about Katniss in this final book. Plus there is a steady increase of gratuitous maiming and killing, including a horrible death of someone close to Katniss that was completely unnecessary. The ending is such a horrible depiction of depression and despair.

I expected that by the third book, the Mockingjay would find her power and soar. Just the opposite happens. Turns out the Mockingjay was never anything more than hype. A 17 year old girl in way over her head.

Does this depict real life? Yeah, many times the victory is pretty hollow. But I don't read fiction to read reality. I get enough of that on my own. I read fiction to see the heroes overcome the odds and do great things. If Mockingjay had been the first book instead of the last, I would never have read any further.

Having just finished the trilogy, I agree with this. Although Katniss does achieve one thing of note at the very end -- ending the cycle of despotism -- the story was revelling in brutality to the point where I was just numbed. Whereas in the first two books we saw a truly evil society, the deliberate blurrring of the rebels' motivations -- probably meant to say we're all just as bad as each other -- left me not caring. Katniss's recurrent dreamy confusion didn't help either.

That said, excellent series, well worth reading.

 

[CrumpleHornedSnorkak]

I recently read all three books, very quickly and obsessively. While I did enjoy them, I found the present tense difficult at first. I don't mind first-person narrative, but something about using present tense irritates me!

I found the whole love triangle completely pointless. Not all stories need a romantic hook.

I really wanted to like Katniss, before I read the books, I was under the impression that she was meant to be a powerful female lead, but she wasn't that at all. She annoyed me most during Mockingjay, she took Peeta's predicament too much to heart. He was willing to sacrifice all he had for her, and she didn't seem to grasp the concept that his behaviour was not his fault.

As for the film... Well, I thought it was pretty rubbish. Parts were ok, I suppose, but there was too much silence. No one ever seemed to say anything? Maybe I would like in more during a second watch. I have the DVD so I might attempt it at some point.

The whole concept of the games really unsettled me. And as chilling as it is, I really do think that mankind is capable of watching children kill each other. It wasn't so long ago that people would gather to watch hangings and the like. Watching people fight to the death was entertainment a couple thousand (or so) years ago. Though, I think the worst part, in that respect, was the first couple of Districts actually wanting to be part of the games. But, I guess for the whole thing to work, there needed to be people who wanted to bring the 'glory' to their district, otherwise everyone would just hide in a bush - which is where I would be...