Hunger Games Trilogy discussion -- COMBINED thread

[KateDanley]

So I finally finished the last book yesterday... I rarely read YA books, but are they all this violent?  I was shocked at how violent they are.

They aren't!  It was one of the things that makes The Hunger Games controversial, actually.  I, too, was pretty shocked by it.  In order to get through the book, I had to think of it in the context of the Roman gladiators.  And then, by the time I got to the end of the series, it dawned on me that Suzanne is not actually any more violent than what kids are seeing in movies and video games, she just happens to give the characters a soul instead of making them mindlessly violent.  I really want an English teacher somewhere to bring these books into the classroom, because when you start dissecting them from a literary standpoint... it's like falling down a rabbit hole.

[4eyesbooks]

Okay....so I just finished the first book and I have to say I'm hooked.  I'm ready to read the second one and find out what happens Katniss, Peeta, Gale and Prim...I HAVE TO KNOW!

[M.P. Jones]

I finished the first book last week..in about three sittings.  I, too, have been wondering when to read the next one.

I think the whole concept is incredibly clever and really resonated with me as a fan of the old Ian Livingstone "choose your own adventure" type D&D books when I was much younger.  The fact that this was children made it all the more shocking of course and I think the author was brilliant at pulling no punches at all throughout the book.  You just knew that bad things were going to happen but you just had to read on.

Having said that, the general impression was that this was pulp fiction, in the sense that it was sensationalist stuff, aimed at grabbing a wide audience without being too focused on pure literary merit.  I can't blame the author for that and perhaps it wouldn't have worked any other way.  Personally, I could have done with more depth.

I am never a fan of present tense narratives, but at least it was first person and not third person - I find those unreadable - an it did keep the tempo up nicely.

I am intrigued to read here about a movie.  I am not sure I could watch such graphic scenes, as a parent, but it would be interesting to see how it is all done...

MP Jones