The Hunger Games Trilogy

[SkynJay]

I read the trilogy a few months ago.

The first book was good. The second book was good too. The third book was the best. Very good and fitting ending.

Loved the series.

Your feelings are completly oposite of mine then. I only finished the third because I had come so far. I was so sick of Katniss by the end, a character I loved at first.

And the second book was the first as far as im concerned.

[Errant Bard]

Last time I was shopping for books, I remembered Stego being excited about Mockingjay (I had no bloody idea what he was talking about at the time) so I got the trilogy, and finished it recently.

It easy to read, that's for sure. The first book I liked well enough though I found the setting a bit lacking, and stupid, but it was still very entertaining, and kinda refreshing to see an actual seemingly manipulative and rational girl as heroine. I think I teared up a bit at one point too.

No tears for books two and three, though. What was not good in first book came back and took a more central place. A lot of stuff began to make no sense, including some characterisation. The main character spent more time being catatonic because of LOOOVE, recovering in the nick of time, than being realistic. Villains became (more) chaotic stupid, all the while doing the most evil shit one could think of, short of eating babies. And raping people. Speaking of that, not that I mind, but it's annoying to see once again that gruesome deaths are cool to have by the bucketful, but the most you can get out of romance is holding hands and a few kisses. From 17 years old.

The ending... I don't know what I was supposed to feel about it. The "twists" felt forced, some details didn't make sense at all, and it all felt like a giant caricature.

I mean, what the hell with the author deciding to kill about everyone for no reason other than having her main character angst about and failing to write that convincingly. And the final scene with the "good guys" bombing children and killing the little sister... I've never have felt the stupidity of the setting, and the cardboard nature of it all more acutely than then. It wasn't dramatic, it wasn't sad, it was not epic, it was not even believable, it was just stupid.

Still some good ideas in the mix, and some tropes subversion, but yes, anyway, I blame Stego. :leaving:

[Astra]

Your feelings are completly oposite of mine then. I only finished the third because I had come so far. I was so sick of Katniss by the end, a character I loved at first.

And the second book was the first as far as im concerned.

Yeah, I know.

I have been prepared for Mockingjay to be awful because many people disliked it and was pleasantly surprised :)

[Werthead]

Book 2: Catching Fire

Having survived the Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is back home in Sector 12, not looking forward to her role as a mentor for the next year's games. She is surprised to hear rumours that her defiance of the Capitol and President Snow during the Games has sparked unrest and even discord in other sectors. When she and her co-winner, Peeta, conduct a tour of the districts, Katniss realises that her name and her emblem, the mockingjay, are being taken up as a symbol of rebellion and hope.

Determined to crush Katniss's influence, Snow arranges a special new Hunger Games event for the 75th anniversary of the games. All the living winners of the games must return to the arena for a fresh battle...

Catching Fire is the second volume of The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins' highly successful, post-apocalypse, dystopian YA SF series. Collins never intended to write a trilogy, so Catching Fire has some work to do to set up a bigger storyline that will be resolved in the following novel, namely the move from merely being a story set in a dystopia to a more epic story about the overthrow of the oppressive government.

For these reasons Catching Fire has some issues. We're more than halfway through the novel before the second Hunger Games kick off, and we're not able to spend much time with those games before the conclusion arrives. This is a shame as Collins addresses some of the weaknesses of the first set of games, with many more contestants being identified and much better-characterised than first time around. The arena is also far more ingenious, with many more deadly traps. The games section of the novel and the conclusion are both rushed in an attempt to cover as much ground as possible before the final novel, which hurts the quality of this book.

That said, it's still a fast-paced, readable and enjoyable book. We see more of Panem and get more of a sense what life is like for people living there, which is essential to better-establish the wider backdrop of the series. On the characterisation front, Katniss isn't always a sympathetic protagonist and often makes mistakes, which makes her more relatable and real. Other characters, like Peeta and newcomers like Finnick, are also given some solid scenes and character-building moments. The mutual hatred and anger between Katniss and President Snow is also well-handled. However, the Capitol and its rulers are rather dense in this book. Everything they do seems designed to inflame the situation and further the rebellion, which is weird for people who've been in charge for a century and have used the Hunger Games as a form of propaganda and control for seventy-five years, which requires some savvy knowledge of media and PR. Instead, the plot feels set-up ahead of time and both the reader and the characters are along for the ride.

Catching Fire (***½) is a drop down in quality from The Hunger Games, but still an enjoyable and entertaining novel. It is available now in the UK and USA.

[Werthead]

Book 3: Mockingjay

The districts are rebelling against the Capitol, united by the symbol of the Mockingjay. Katniss Everdeen, the symbol of the rebellion, is now living in the secretive District 13 where she finds that she is to be used as a figurehead to bring President Snow down. However, Katniss is unhappy with the demands being put on her, and also with the fate of Peeta, now a prisoner of the Capitol. As two sides prepare for a final confrontation, Katniss has to ask if her new allies are no better than the enemy they seek to destroy.

Mockingjay brings the Hunger Games Trilogy to a suitably bloody and epic conclusion. Though it has to be said it's also a somewhat rushed and predictable conclusion.

As mentioned in my review of Catching Fire, Collins wasn't planning for this to be a series, so had to scramble quickly in the second book to lay out a larger and more epic story. Whilst laudable, this effort was flawed because the story wasn't originally set up that way, and so many new characters and concepts had to be introduced in Book 2 that the actual plot of the book, Katniss fighting in a second Hunger Games, was fairly rushed. That problem extends into Book 3. Whilst the possibility of District 13 was first voiced in Book 2, we don't see it until Mockingjay. This means that in the space of a 430-page, large-typeface novel, Collins has to set up a whole new faction with its own cast of characters, ideology and goals, then bring in the existing cast and have them interact, then have them unite for the final assault on the Capitol, and then examine the issues raised by these storylines.

Collins does a credible job, but it's clearly not ideal. If the series had been planned as a trilogy from the start, District 13 and its dubious rulers could have been introduced and established earlier. Katniss's relationship with them and her lack of respect for authority, even an authority trying to achieve her long-term goal of destroying President Snow's regime, makes for a solid storyline, but it is under-explored here. In fact, the book is so packed that lots of elements are under-explored, and characterisation suffers. In particular, Finnick lacks the flair and fire he showed in the previous novel that made an interesting character, whilst Peeta comes across badly. Katniss continues to be a more complex heroine than expected, but most of the other characters suffer (and Coin, the head of District 13, is a bit of a two-dimensional figure at best).

On the plus side, the rapid pace means that the book is certainly action-packed, and Collins has some ingenuity in coming up with more weapons for the Capitol to deploy against the rebels. There's also a nice contrast between the deadly serious final attack on the Capitol and the Hunger Games of the previous two novels. This is also a harsher novel: Collins is pretty ruthless with some characters and it's definitely a bloodier book where Katniss has to do some more morally questionable things that in prior novels, which raises the stakes and the tension in the ramp-up to the finale.

Mockingjay (***½) is a readable conclusion to the series, though the rushed pace hurts some aspects of it. However, the series is brought to a solid-enough conclusion, if a reasonably predictable one. The book is available now in the UK and USA.

[Liadin]

I need to read this, or at least the first one. Any piece of YA lit that gets praised at Westeros is bound to be good. :P

[SkynJay]

I need to read this, or at least the first one. Any piece of YA lit that gets praised at Westeros is bound to be good. :P

And its a quick read, so your not out a lot of time.

[Medieval Housefly]

I thought the first part of Hunger Games, book 1 was great, the second half wasn't as good. I liked how the action was developed, but not the romance.

[Spring Bass]

I recently read Book One. I enjoyed it, but I really got the "Battle Royale-lite" vibe that Wert was talking about in his review. It was fairly predictable, and while I liked the story, it really doesn't have the emotional punch that Battle Royale or Stephen King's The Long Walk have.

I never got around to reading the second book.

[Medieval Housefly]

This really is a cross between two Stephen King books, The Running Man, and The Long Walk. Personally, The Long Walk is a lot more raw, and focused on the emotions of the scene, it has to be one of his best books. Hunger Games if very teenish, but enjoyable. The author is pretty good at writing action, but the romance is just too kiddish.

[Tammy]

This really is a cross between two Stephen King books, The Running Man, and The Long Walk. Personally, The Long Walk is a lot more raw, and focused on the emotions of the scene, it has to be one of his best books. Hunger Games if very teenish, but enjoyable. The author is pretty good at writing action, but the romance is just too kiddish.

You know, I loved this trilogy, and I think I'm in the minority in loving all three books. There were some aspects that were predictable, but I was even quite taken with the romance aspect. There were a few things that I was less than satisfied with but overall I really enjoyed the entire story.

[wolverine]

How YA is it? I have a fair number of students who have read this and I kind of want to but I have not ben able to get into other YA books in the past like Harry Potter (made about 10 pages), Wizard of Earthsea (made it about 50 pages), The Golden Compass (actually made it through the first two here), and some others.

But I have really liked some YA'ish stuff like Enger's Game.

[Errant Bard]

It's about a 16 year old girl and her love troubles, with a survival game as background. That's how YA it is.

[Humble Asskicker]

I'm baffled by the low ratings of Mockingjay. Sure, the love triangle is profoundly irritating, but it has been a problem since the very first book, and mercifully it's not as prominent a feature as it was in book 2.

As for Katniss being catatonic and unlikeable for much of book 3, well, she is kinda a war child. The bullshit philosophy that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger is in fact bullshit. Sometimes what doesn't kill you does destroy you otherwise. I loved that this series turned on its head the cliche of the hero encountering traumatizing obstacles and instead of becoming, you know, actually traumatized they power up and become the super leader.

And yes, the bad guys were pretty evil. So were the good guys. They were all really despicable and did horrible things. This is perfectly believable. What kind of world do you guys think we live in that you consider this an unrealistic portrayal of the behavior of people who have nearly absolute power over another demographic? People really can collectively be this shitty to each other. They can torture and murder children, starve whole populations or just slaughter them outright and perform all the numerous atrocities depicted without also showing the softer side of autocracy and genocide. And guerrilla warfare and terrorism can be just as brutal as autocracy.

The good guys and bad guys were perfectly convincing in their behavior - including the slaughter of the children to gain sympathy points. This is not far fetched, and this is something that could work if you had iron control over your government and PR.

I loved the casual fatalities also. Why do people expect that everyone should have their moment of glory with violins playing as they make their important speech or grand sacrifice before the end, as though their deaths had meaning? This is a fucking revolution. People die in revolutions and usually those deaths aren't something that fortuitously move the revolution plot forward. That's the whole point of the story.

And the ending was excellent. Katniss didn't make a perfect recovery at the end like so many other fantasy heroes. The events she experienced scarred her for life. It's not something you get better from. It's something you take to your grave. I think this was well represented. At a certain point Katniss became disconnected to reality because of all the trauma she was dealt. When you're in shock and that shock is protracted, and all around you is the possibility of your own death or torture - and this is sustained - you don't weep for every friend who dies.

I think the death games themselves were pretty cliche, and while the onset of revolution in book 2 was well done, it was bogged down too much by the absurd interactions between Peeta and Katniss. Book 3 is what elevated the series in my eyes.

Edit: I also think there's a real meta commentary about people "feeling" less about the deaths in book 3. Katniss felt so much pain with the major death in book 1, which many readers seemed to relate to. But slowly, as the deaths became commonplace, and everyone who seemed remotely important died, it began to affect her less and less. It's interesting how the emotions of the reader seem to so precisely mirror that of Katniss.

[SkynJay]

I liked the ending of Mockingjay just fine. It was the journey there i didn't like. I didn't feel the author wrote a interesting war story. Her first novel was an interesting distopia, and felt believable to me (Having never heard of Battle Royal at the time, I also didn't see the cliche's that some did). The second was a rehash, but still had some neat stuff. The third was a mess, with bad urban warfare waged unrealistically. Then she somewhat saved it with an ending.

Please don't think that everyone who dislikes Mockingjay does so because they were hoping for this great happy ending, with good guys being good and bad guys being bad. I

[Errant Bard]

Same, I liked what she did with the ending (that is, the heroes being scarred for life), I just did not like the writing on the whole: the world felt (more) stupid, the "evil" guys were cackling buffoons, with the depth and intelligence worthy of children puppet show, nothing was actually convincing (not the villains, not the heroes, not the war, not the politics), and when the main character loses the person that motivated her for the whole series and all I feel is rolling my eyes, there is a problem.

[Medieval Housefly]

I just finished with the complete trilogy and I have to say I was disappointed in many ways. I know many people love the books, but I think even those who love it would see the flaws I found to be somewhat valid...

1. The romance is just too too YA. I think the best writer for YA is probably VC Andrews with Flowers in the Attic, or Heaven. I think the author was too cautious, and there were a few scenes where there should have been sex instead of kisses to further the story line. I think a 16 year old can handle a sex scene in the right context.

2. What makes an unbelievable story believable are the number of believable elements in it, and with this trilogy it's just too unbelievable. My examples are the number of coincidences that occur, and reactions that just wouldn't have happened. There were just too many 'just in the nic of time' situations, and 'there's no way that could have happened' moments.

3. It relied too heavily on repeating the same story line. The first book was great with the hunger game portrayal, but did it have to be repeated in the second book? And then the third with the infiltration of the capital? In the second book it would have been better if they had put two of the people she was closest with, like Prim and Gale, in the Hunger Games. It just lacked imagination.

4. I would have liked more character development from others, such as: Madge, the baker's family (would love their interaction with Katniss, especially the moms), more of the other victors, Anne, and even Snow. I think the reason some don't like Katniss is because there's just too much of her in the book, and not enough of everyone else.

[Seventh Pup]

I just finished these books. I loved the first two, had some problems with the third but ultimately loved the ending. It was that thing that is so hard for endings to be, bittersweet.

There where some plot holes in book 3 that just really did not need to be there, but the story was strong enough that I forgave them. Katniss was an awesome character, and I'm glad there is a character out there like her in popular fiction.

[Myrddin]

I read the first book last weekend. Quick and enjoyable read.

Getting my hands on the second one now.... (Yes, I'm preparing myself for disappointment)

[Original Ned's Bones]

Speaking of that, not that I mind, but it's annoying to see once again that gruesome deaths are cool to have by the bucketful, but the most you can get out of romance is holding hands and a few kisses. From 17 years old.

The ending... I don't know what I was supposed to feel about it. The "twists" felt forced, some details didn't make sense at all, and it all felt like a giant caricature.

Spoiler

This was my problem with the book. It couldn't really decide who it was catering to, it was stuck between YA and adult. She went too far, but not far enough, if that makes any sense...

I thought these were OK, but honestly I didn't think her writing was very good. Actually I thought the ending was the only redeeming part. The third book as a whole was bad, but the ending for me felt like the only bit of heart-felt writing in the series.