This seems to be quite the popular entry as of lately, and with Kelsi recently finishing the trilogy - raving about it the whole time - I think it’s my turn to hop on the bandwagon. Considering both Stan and Webber have blogged about this book, I’ll keep it short - no rambling about the plot.
In general, I liked it. It was somewhat of an entertaining read and made itself out to be a real page turner, but I also think - in the long run of things - the book will easily be forgotten. The story seems to be a giant cliche. Every twist and action scene was expected, or - at best - unsurprising. If it was getting too quiet, then you knew something terrible was lurking around the corner. If Peeta was joining up with the bad guys, there was that gut feeling that you knew he was still good. And, in the end, you know our heroes will rise the victors. (I hope I’m not spoiling anything here, but for all of those who have yet to read this, I’m sure you would have come to the same conclusion.) Point is, the book’s predictable. And that’s fine. It’s similarly structured as any successful, commercial screenplay - which is, of course, the next place this guy is headed. It’s pulp, and it’s entertaining. Not only that, but Collins can paint some pretty bleak, violent scenes at times, then follow them up with some teenage Twilight-romance bullshit. No wonder kids are loving this.
Finally, not to nitpick, but I really could have cared less for the writing. It was bland, simple, and stale. Now, I won’t beat it up too much for it’s lack of poetry because this is a teenage novel; hence its location under “teenager” at the bookstore. It’s not trying to be anything that it’s not. It was made to shovel out an enticing story where - as unbelievable as it may be - young children duke it out to the death for the delight of a country on the brink of going under (a combination of The Running Man and Ender’s Game). Like I said, it doesn’t claim to be some triumph of literature. I’ll let the writing slide.
In the long run, I don’t know what’s more embarrassing: That I’m reading these books, or that I actually find myself enjoying them. I might not be able to bring myself to read the next two books during my lunch break... in public. But I’ll certainly dig into them before bed.
Yeah, you more or less summed up the guilty pleasure that was this teenage piece of pulp. I hate to say it, but I enjoyed each book less than the previous one. The action and "terror" seem to get ever increasingly over-the-top but so does the teenage-angsty emo love triangle bullshit, almost to the point of unintentional parody. I'm pretty sure I made this comparison in my post, but the third book seemed like a cross between Red Dawn and Twilight.
ReplyDeleteBut, yeah, I will totally watch the inevitable movie trilogy. At least on DVD or TV.
I only read them because I was substituting in the the middle school and all the children were reading it. I was getting sick of students and teachers alike asking me if I had read the book, which they made to sound like the next Harry Potter. I had a lot of free time between classes so it actually saved my sanity.
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