The Hunger Games Trilogy

I read them this summer, and I really enjoyed them. Posted an article here as to why I thought they were a good thing for teenagers. I'm glad that there's something out there for teens that preaches the questioning of authority. Plus I think Katniss is a great role-model for girls; she's capable and strong without being an unatainable superhero.

That said, by the last book I was ready for it to be over. Wasn't chomping at the bit for more.

I think it's a terrific series, and if you think it's brutal now, wait until Mockingjay.   It's basically Apocalypse Now for teens.  

They are great for teens. Strong characters, a true sense of character danger. People you like may not live and people you hate may live the longest. It is a dark story, unusually dark for teen fiction. My department has debated adding it to our Freshman reading selections, but we have been hesitant. It sits on my shelves and is constantly borrowed by kids.

Ratty, I had never even thought Apocalypse Now till you said it, but damn if you are not right about it.  Like Sebastian OB, I was ready for it to end with Mockingjay.

Catching Fire felt a little like treading water. The story could have gone straight from Hunger Games to Mockingjay with a minimum of tweaks. In retrospect, Catching Fire seems like an attempt to squeeze an extra book out of the story.

Would be hilarious if the 2nd book was the one that the movie adaptation will split into two.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

Catching Fire felt a little like treading water. The story could have gone straight from Hunger Games to Mockingjay with a minimum of tweaks. In retrospect, Catching Fire seems like an attempt to squeeze an extra book out of the story.

Yeah, I finished Catching Fire completely underwhelmed and was debating not finishing the series. Maybe I'll head back after Dance of Dragons is done.

Mockingjay avoids the carbon copy feeling of Catching Fire. I thought it was a fine way to wrap up the story.

I seem to remember lots of roundtable discussions in Mockingjay.  Also, the climax is a tad on the silly side.  But OMG how can you not find out who Katniss ends up with in the end??

I love this series, I love Katniss, and people who are comparing this to Twilight are in for one hell of a shock.

Just finished The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

I liked it. The books are really a lot darker than i expected. Executions, Threats and Life threatening injuries. And they have some intriguing ideas in the Battle Royale/Running Man contest.

Katniss sorta reminds me of Season 1 Olivia from Fringe. A bit of a hardass that cares deeply for her family. She's kinda oblivious about certain things about herself though.

Fucking loved these books. Finally had a chance to read them when I got my Kindle Fire for Christmas. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

Catching Fire felt a little like treading water. The story could have gone straight from Hunger Games to Mockingjay with a minimum of tweaks. In retrospect, Catching Fire seems like an attempt to squeeze an extra book out of the story.

I liked the way Catching Fire gave development to the Peeta/Katniss relationship. The Games aspect was less exciting than the first book though.

Katniss reminds me a little of Season 1 Olivia from Fringe. A strong determined girl who's a little unaware on the effect she has on people.

I liked the development in Catching Fire, of

Just so wicked and vicious. Plus it gave us a bitching new set of kills and characters to care for. I love Finnick; kind of a cocky ass in the 2nd book, but becomes one of my favorite guys in the 3rd. I want to tell everyone that it's not just a more violent Twilight, it's an actual story with people you give a damn about and sure there is a love triangle, but I get it. Katniss annoys the shit out of me sometimes (it's strictly a clash of personalities, I'm very laid back and accepting, and she just fucking hates evvvvvvverybody; I don't quite get anger) but at the very least, I understand where she's coming from. And she's a scrapper, what does Bella do ever?

Though I was always shocked by the shit Collins put Katniss through. Jesus, it seemed like every other page, she was getting knocked out or sedated in Mockingjay. Unrelenting savagery.

I hate the stupid face of the actor who's playing Peeta, though.

This is a great series. It's light and not 'teh best writing evar', but it's clearly above a lot of the YA stuff out there. Hell, I am in no way the target audience and I loved it. Breezed through these in about a week. Hey, George, have you considered taking a cue from Suzanne and writing a story, not a history? If you gave me 300 tight pages of dragon battles, I'd buy a dozen of the next book you long winded sonofa...

Yeah I'm thinking I may give these a go, to see what the kids are getting into post-Potter and that Sparkly Mormon Misogyny thing that seems to have at last run its course.

Are they Rowling-level quality writing? Who's the author best likened to?

So I'm gonna have to be the asshole who says he didn't like the book all that much? The fact that just as much attention was paid to the lame romance as children killing each other (I find the murder being held up as proof of the series' "maturity" strange) was really wonky. Also it was difficult to tough through the prose. Collins fucks up her tense so many times.

I mean, yeah, it's way better than Twilight. But a lot of things are, even without leaving YA fiction. I'm still interested in the movie, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiteboy Jones 

(I find the murder being held up as proof of the series' "maturity" strange)

Geeks get hard for the gritty.

I haven't read these, but may peruse at some point but...

why do they have to be for teens?  Why do teens have to have books aimed at them?  I was reading Steven King at the age of 11, and that's not some "I was mature for my years" statement either.  I read To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Hard Times etc etc in English Lit when I was a teen.

So why do they have to have their own section of literature now?

Not being snarky, I'm just confused.  If these books are as full on as people are saying, what is it that makes them "for teens"?

Because they are about teenagers?  "It" featured a teenage gang bang FFS.

I find it odd.

Having said that, I find the fact that there is a "Teenage" section infinately preferable to the fact that there is a "Paranormal Romance" section.

Part is marketing. Part is public libraries get grants for teen literacy. Still another part is getting things cleared on a school library panel. For example, my school system has 17 schools with libraries, that could conceivable stock YA lit but not true adult fiction. Each one buys books independantly of the others, so you can sell one book to each. With certain activity, it won't be bought. Further up the thread, I laughed at there is no sex or foul language in the novel at all, but tons of violence. You can call youth lit YA that way. There is a certain Lexile reading score to YA, as well as formatting.

tl;dr: It's about the money Lebowski.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTyres 

Part is marketing. Part is public libraries get grants for teen literacy. Still another part is getting things cleared on a school library panel. For example, my school system has 17 schools with libraries, that could conceivable stock YA lit but not true adult fiction. Each one buys books independantly of the others, so you can sell one book to each. With certain activity, it won't be bought. Further up the thread, I laughed at there is no sex or foul language in the novel at all, but tons of violence. You can call youth lit YA that way. There is a certain Lexile reading score to YA, as well as formatting.

 

tl;dr: It's about the money Lebowski.

thanks for the considered response :)  I suspected the marketing but it never occurred to me about the school thing.

I had to look up what the Lexile reading score was, and stumbled on this:

and I may be misinterpreting it but to ME that says that Where the Wild Things Are is more complex that Twilight :) I can't really comment on that since I've only read one of those books. (Hint: the movie of it didn't star Robert Pattinson)

Finished these on my new Christmas Kindle myself (was the #1 book on Amazon Prime, so first was free), was surprised how much I loved them, especially the first book.  Sure it's a Running Man rip-off, but Collins added a lot after starting there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

Would be hilarious if the 2nd book was the one that the movie adaptation will split into two.

Not sure how any of the books could be divided into two.  They are all fairly tight--Mockingjay is what, a third the length of Deathly Hallows?  (Granted, I thought DH could have been a better 3.5-hour movie than Parts I and II, but I realize that is blasphemous among Potter fans).  Not that many action set pieces in Act 1, either.  More of a slow burn...

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

Yeah I'm thinking I may give these a go, to see what the kids are getting into post-Potter and that Sparkly Mormon Misogyny thing that seems to have at last run its course.

 

Are they Rowling-level quality writing? Who's the author best likened to?

I never thought Rowling was a particularly good writer.  An expert at creating imaginative worlds and creating believable/relatable characters, but not that solid when it came to the mechanics of writing.  And in serious need of an editor from Book 5 onward, to cut out subplots and just speed up the story.

As I said above, these books move.  And the author knows how to turn a phrase, and is a master of the one-sentence cliffhanger at the end of a chapter.

What did you think of the love triangle?

hehe What happens when one thing the world loves meets one thing the world hates?

The Hunger Games by Lana Del Rey.

Just re-read the first one on a plane ride, and I do wish that Cato had been given a bit more dimension than "big bad mean boy".  Would have made the finale a bit more intense if he was a person and not a soulless baddie. 

I love how Katniss mercilessly manipulates Peeta and thinks nothing of it until the very last page.  Gotta appreciate a fucking proactive heroine who gets shit done.

Regarding "gritty" young adult fantasy/sci-fi books: I think it does help if there's a certain darkness, especially now that I'm not necessarily in the target audience. As a young lad, I did tend to appreciate works like Animorphs that assumed I could handle some tougher stuff and that I was more intelligent than freshwater fish. And there does have to be a balance, something I thought Rowling got better and better at with Harry Potter. Heck, even His Dark Materials (which I adore) has breaks from the grimness, especially as the last book winds down.

In short, The Hunger Games trilogy has my attention, and I'm eager to read it soon. The movie looks pretty solid too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by felix 

What did you think of the love triangle?

The end result seemed a foregone conclusion from Act II of Book I (maybe even longer with the flashback in Act I).  Doesn't help that the losing party seems to just have a cameo in Catch a Fire.

I did think it was kind of cheap how he takes himself out of the picture at the end, a little too out of character that he would have agreed to his actions in the finale.

I just finished re-reading the series.  My God, I'd forgotten how brutal Mockingjay is.  Wonder how that is going to play with an audience.

Yeah, the Child Murder Olympics is really just the start of the slippery slope of darkness. Hope the films can pull it off without too much bowlderization. 

Read the first book. I loved it, though it wasn't without its flaws (clunky prose here and there, Collins isn't the most subtle author at times). Laundry list!:

-I know I just said the prose was clunky at times, but that was mainly near the beginning, as Collins has to set up the world and Katniss' character. Once it got going into the Capitol, it improves a lot.

-Collins also excels at the breakneck pace of the Games themselves; the action kicks ass, frankly, and I am at a loss as to how this will be PG-13 without toning some of it down.

-Katniss Everdeen can eat Bella Swan for breakfast. She's a terrific protagonist, perhaps the best YA female one since Lyra Belacqua.

-The revelation of what the mutated wolves actually were was easily the most horrifying reveal in the entire book.

-Haymitch and Cinna are easily my favorite characters next to Katniss.

Yeah, probably something like that. That scene was one of the ones that almost completely destroyed me, especially when Katniss started singing. More thoughts for the laundry list!:

-I like how this differentiates itself from similar stories through the use of media. Since the Games are televised, it makes sense that the "tributes" would use this to their advantage (at times, it reminded me of how contestants on reality game shows like Survivor will do the same thing), and so we get a lot of stuff where Katniss and Peeta play up their romance to get the audience on their side, Cinna and Haymitch advise Katniss on how to present herself, etc.

-I love the realistic little details like Katniss cleaning and reusing her arrows, going deaf in her left ear as a result of the supremely badass act of blowing up Cato's group's food supply, how she has to deal with her awful-sounding burn wounds and later Peeta's slashed leg (Collins' clinical descriptions just make things even worse), or Haymitch saying he'll stay sober enough to help Katniss/Peeta as long as they don't actually interfere with his drinking.

-Those tracker jackers are some nasty little assholes. Again, how on Earth are they gonna do stuff like that or the mutated wolves for PG-13?

-Does President Snow become more important in later books? He has a rather small part in Games, but it's definitely strong enough of a "watch out for this guy" vibe, and I can't imagine they'd cast someone of Donald Sutherland's caliber if he didn't have a larger part later on.

-Katniss' sullen, distrusting nature is again much more believable than the whining of Bella Swan; the former has grown up in a world where it's dangerous to get emotionally attached to people who aren't your family, so it didn't surprise me that she had trouble figuring out her feelings for Peeta. And this might be one of the few YA love triangles I actually care about as a result.

Ooh, fun. Always nice to have hateable baddies in my YA. Sure, it's nice to have more complex issues of right and wrong *points at His Dark Materials*, but sometimes it's also nice to just have a Voldemort you can hate with all your might (and even then, you get where Voldemort comes from, but he's still pretty much Wizard Hitler).

Even more intriguing!

Anyway, I've been looking over the movie info we have, and I have to ask: why Gary Ross as director? He is certainly not a bad one, but giving this series to the man who directed Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and wrote movies like Dave and Big seems an odd choice.

Still, that cast is pretty awesome, soundtrack has some great names, and they seem to have the look down judging by the footage. So we'll see.

On time and under budget. He can also handle actors, getting the most out of them (Pleasantville is a wonderment of acting showcases and Dave & Big were kinda kingmakers for Kline and Hanks).

Ah. Don't misunderstand, I love Pleasantville (and it DOES have everyone acting their butts off), Dave and Big (never saw Seabiscuit), it's just weird for me for a director to go from films like THAT to something like THIS.

Especially since this is his first successful directing gig since Seabiscuit, which was nearly ten years ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

Ah. Don't misunderstand, I love Pleasantville (and it DOES have everyone acting their butts off), Dave and Big (never saw Seabiscuit), it's just weird for me for a director to go from films like THAT to something like THIS.

 

Especially since this is his first successful directing gig since Seabiscuit, which was nearly ten years ago.

Living off his riches?

I can see the visual elements he used in Pleasantville as a primer on what will surely be quite a bit of fx in the Hunger Games.

I also think we as the cinephiles and rabid film fans often 'first impression' people. Sam Raimi did Evil Dead? He's a horror director, what are his qualifications for directing Spiderman or A Simple Plan? Justin Lin directed Better Luck Tomorrow, what the hell makes him qualified for the frenetic action of the Fast and the Furious franchise? I'm not saying it's going to be a good movie (though I hope to god it is), but there are many sides to everybody, maybe an action/adventure/survival is something Gary Ross is quite good at but has never had the chance to feed until now.

Yeah, I suppose it was kind of a "first impression" thing. It's just SO different from anything he's ever done before.

Just started reading these and tore through the first book over the weekend, and am about halfway through Catching Fire now. Took me until a couple of chapters after the old man in Catching Fire to realize what the four notes at the end of the movie trailer are. I thought the trailer was pretty effective before, but when I watched it again to make sure about the notes it just fucking gut punched me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fafhrd 

Just started reading these and tore through the first book over the weekend, and am about halfway through Catching Fire now. Took me until a couple of chapters after the old man in Catching Fire to realize what the four notes at the end of the movie trailer are. I thought the trailer was pretty effective before, but when I watched it again to make sure about the notes it just fucking gut punched me.

When I first showed the trailer to a friend who had read the books, she liked it well enough.  When she heard those notes, she launched out of her chair and started whooping.

First positive review is in.

http://www.ifc.com/fix/2012/03/how-the-hunger-games-succeeds-where-twilight-and-harry-potter-failed

I've to say that i like the footage i've seen so far. Looking forward to the film next week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by felix 

First positive review is in.

http://www.ifc.com/fix/2012/03/how-the-hunger-games-succeeds-where-twilight-and-harry-potter-failed

 

I've to say that i like the footage i've seen so far. Looking forward to the film next week.

Nice review. I'd hoped that the filmmakers would take the ball and run with it now that the story is out of Katniss' head.

People are raving about it coming out of the premiere, but I have to keep my expectations in some form of check here.   

But goddammit, I'm starting to get properly pumped.  I have my midnight IMAX tickets secured.