The Hunger Games *****
How I managed to ignore the success of the Hunger Games series, I’m not sure, but I did. Until the movie came out and I saw book #1 on a prominent spot in the bookstore (and at a discount, so that’s always a good thing :D). I could hit myself for not reading the book sooner, but better late than never!
I’ll just copy my reviews from goodreads.com – no big spoilers!
April 7th-June 14th 2012 The Hunger Games
When I started reading, I was grabbed by the story and felt a connection with the people. I stopped reading when I reached chapter 6, not sure if I wanted to read on about kids slaughtering each other.
After talking to people who already read the book, who urged me to go on, I finally decided today that it couldn’t be too bad when so many people kept recommending it.
So.. this morning I picked the book up again and finished it several hours later.
It is well written, kept me turning page after page because you just want to know what’s going to happen next.
The only thing I regret is not buying books #2 and #3 in advance, now I have to wait till they get here to read on.
I orderded the books online that same day and lucky for me they arrived 2 days later!
Book #2 was as good as book #1 (to me anyway). Wasn’t ready to write a review after reading it. The only thing I thought when I read “This is the end of Book 2” was: WHAT THE HECK?? This is the worst -or best- cliffhanger ever!
The strange thing is that I hate violence, murder, torture, etc. I prefer reading books where the suspense keeps me on the edge of my chair, the unknown events that make my heart pound by just thinking about what COULD happen on the next pages, or the image in my head of what IS happening, but what’s not mentioned in words, no gory details, you know what I mean? Still, I couldn’t stop reading. Started Catching Fire at June 16th, finished it June 17th – thank goodness for my days off!
June 18th-June 23rd The Mockingjay.
Before I started reading, some people told me not to expect too much of it, as they didn’t like the book and the ‘climax’ was a disappointment. How wrong they were.
Even though I was reluctant to start reading – what’s the use of reading a bad book? – I ignored the negative comments and I’m glad I did.
I was immediately grabbed by the story again. Susan Collins’s style of writing does something to me, it works like a magnet, pulling my eyes from word to word, eager to skip a few lines to see if something bad is going to happen, but then going back to the beginning of the paragraph and read word for word.
I didn’t need yet another Hunger Games in book #3, so I was glad it started relatively peaceful in District 13. I prefer the suspense over the actual fights and killing, but knew that eventually the story had to end with violence again.
No big spoilers from me, so I just conclude with saying that I love the end, the solution to all problems, the peace and the revelation when Katniss realizes who she really needs in her life and why.
Thank you, Suzanne Collins, for the ‘food for my soul’. Your awesome writing style made me read a genre that I’d never thought I would read. Although I still think that the pods and the games are too cruel, I can see it being some sort of metaphor for the bad things happening in this world right now. The wars, suppression, famine, the gap between poor and rich, the exploiting of the earth’s sources …
We have to be careful or we will destroy ourselves and everything on this planet.
