Off-Topic

After reading them all (thanks to Amazon Prime lending library to my Kindle, I got them all for free over the last few months), I'm curious to hear your thoughts. I wasn't a huge fan of Collins' writing style, but there's a lot of interesting and potentially subversive stuff going on in these books. Obviously they're a (broad) parody of reality television, but I wondered whether Katniss' choice between Peeta and Gale was merely a storytelling hook or whether it was also a commentary on the role of women in most young adult fiction, or, heck, most fiction in general. Obviously the hook throughout the novels was to find out who she was going to wind up with, but that in itself felt like a weird meta-commentary on female, uh, proactiveness? in romantic situations? So often in fiction women are kind of cardboard cutouts that exist for a man to pursue and win over, and I'm curious if Collins didn't set up Katniss' dilemma as a kind of remedy to that situation.

@Rorie: The romantic subplot was honestly the least interesting part of the books for me. I was way more interested in the whole Katniss being groomed as a symbol versus her urge to be an active participant in how things played out, especially in books 2 and 3, which go further into far more interesting territory than the first book did. I somehow doubt the movies are going to do that, and I'll be incredibly impressed if they capture all of what happens at the end of book 3, but I hope they go there. That's the neat stuff, a story that hinges upon the idea of accepting responsibility for the power of choice, no matter the fallout.

"Don't care for his writing" is beating around the bush. The writing is outright tacky. Everybody talks in sentences, the narration flows like bricks. He stumbles over just about every fiction writing faux pas you can think of.

But the concept is pretty unique. Unique, that is, within the pool of popular young adult fiction. Outside of that pool, however, Hunger Games loses a lot of what makes it special.

Still, I appreciate it exists because, like you said, it's nice to have a popular young adult series that does something with its characters that is compelling in some way. The execution of that idea is dodgy, and the idea itself is a frankenstein of old ideas, but if you put me in front of the Barnes N Noble young adult section and demanded I pick a title to read, Hunger Games would at least pique my interest.

I haven't read these books yet. Are they worth reading? I know that's a pretty vague question, but are they good books? (Which I know is also a vague question. Sorry.)

Someone explain young adult fiction to me, it looks really pandering. Isn't "young adult" the worst of both teenager and adult dime store fiction worlds?

Everyone keeps on comparing this to Twilight, why? It's not sci-fi satire like Battle Royale?

I liked the first book, thought the second was below average, and hated the third. The games were the best part of the series and the further they got away from them the worse the books got. Though I did like how the third book wasn't afraid to do something unexpected

I've never felt more like a 14 year old girl attempting to get through these books.

I've had some friends reading these, but the trailer looked pretty unappealing to me. Honestly made me think of the Tekken movie, with some over the top contest going on in a messed up world state. Except without Shang Tsung playing Heihachi Mishima.

As a pure outsider that didn't enjoy the trailer, what is the appeal? I hate to generalize a book based on a film adaption, but it's all I got to go on!

@csl316 said:

As a pure outsider that didn't enjoy the trailer, what is the appeal? I hate to generalize a book based on a film adaption, but it's all I got to go on!

Same, I want to know what's the appeal.

I had a huge reply written up but for me it all boils down to the way Katniss has conflicting issues with the way she was raised and the world that she has been thrown in to. It's no Battle Royale; however it is easy reading and that's what I like about them. There is enough gap in the dialogue for me to fill in my own view on the world itself, the way I see it is probably completely different to somebody else, which I like in a book.

You could say there are a lot better books for me that deal in similar situations, without the YA love stuff in there.. By all means, please recommend something to me. For now, these books (I'm up to the second, about half way) are interesting enough for me and I'm enjoying seeing how Katniss deals with the consequences of her and her posies actions towards a seemingly impossible situation. As for those of you maybe more interested in the survival side to it, it's no Hatchet.. But it's good enough.

Shout-out to Cinna for being one of the more interesting sub-characters in a book I've read lately.

Movie, looks like arse. They said it's much like the book, but that's... not likely the case.

Never read them, and have no interest in reading them from the opinions I've heard.

@PatVB said:

I haven't read these books yet. Are they worth reading? I know that's a pretty vague question, but are they good books? (Which I know is also a vague question. Sorry.)