The Hunger Games post.

Well, I did it. I finally read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

(The Hunger Games, Catching Fire & Mockingjay.)

And I must admit, I don't understand the hype that revolves around them.  My friends all rave, I've read nothing but positive, joyful reviews by fellow bloggers and critics alike, and yet I could barely muster the energy to want to finish them. 

* This post is not at all a review. It's merely my thoughts/questions/ramblings of all three books.

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The Hunger Games is, if anything to me, entirely too repetitive and shallow.  Katniss barely evolves as a character, Gale is never mentioned beyond the beginning, and Peeta comes on too strongly for little to no reason (save for some bread incident when he was younger), which makes him beyond unbelievable and grossly sappy.  Intense love at first sight? I don't think so. Everything is the same: Katniss is questioning herself and others, she's afraid, she's traveling, she's questioning herself and others, she's afraid, she's traveling some more, etc. I don't think Collins' writing style helped my initial thoughts of the series, either; it's so dry, so unemotional. 

The Game itself is drawn out. I appreciate that Katniss isn't always the damsel in distress and can fend for herself, but until she genuinely interacts with the other contestants, the Game is boring.  It doesn't help that Katniss seems to have some kind of invincibility preventing her from suffering much.

I never connected to Peeta.  He's too nice. I don't fall for the sickeningly sweet romance. I've yet to understand how it's genuine at all.  Why does everyone fawn over him?


Catching Fire feels like a repeat of the first, of The Hunger Games.  That is all.


Mockingjay has more substance by a long shot.  Yet possibly too much, as if everything from the first two books must weave together into some semblance of a completed story.  It doesn't quite drag along, but the character development takes a back seat until halfway through.  And that's my one big, consistent problem.  I can't help but feel as though the characters never grow - instead the action and descriptions take over the story. I would love to know more about Gale.  Even Finnick. Or Annie.  Even Haymitch.  Even President Snow.  Even Boggs. But instead we get glimpses of them; just when they're about to progress, to grow as characters, we're cut off from them and the story changes its course.

The epilogue is strange.  It's quite a leap, and makes me think of settling, as if everything that's happened results in one big settlement.  And that just has me wondering, Why? Why settle? What was all of this for?

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If I had to pick one word to sum up the trilogy, it would be anticlimactic.

So what do you think? Did the epilogue feel like a settlement of sorts to anyone else? What about Peeta - why is he so likeable when he's so unjustified in his actions?


And yes, before anyone asks, I am all for Team Gale.