I felt it better, and easier, to give a brief review of The Hunger Games Trilogy as a whole, rather than as individual reviews, because with them there is another topic I'd like to broach, which is YA.
First things first - no I do not think you have to be under 19 to enjoy "Young Adult" novels. Some of them are very well written, have great characters, and are fun and exciting. Just because you pick up one YA novel or series does not mean you have to start reading ALL YA novels, but if you enjoy it, you might look into some others. (Goodreads is a great place to get book suggestions!)
Second - one of the current trends in YA (after paranormal romance) is dystopian. Hunger Games and some other big named books fall into this category. I think the trend is interesting and I do think YA is a great place to have dystopian novels. Young Adults, who are your target audience are those that are most likely to look at the world and say, something needs to change. They may or may not be "right" about it, but sometimes it's the people without experience in the "real world" that can see what the rest of us can not. It's easy to keep going on because you have to - there are bills to pay, people to impress, personal and professional goals to reach. You tend to lose track of the system when you are so ingrained into it. Young Adults are fresh, they have new eyes on the system. They look at it and say: "OK, but WHY do we do this?" And sometimes that can be a good thing.
So, on to the Hunger Games. As a whole, I enjoyed 3/4ths of the trilogy. Well, probably more than that, about the last 50 pages of the last book makes me hope and pray Hollywood actually CHANGES a book to movie translation. (It is super rare to hear me say that. I was ready to lead a revolution if Neville Longbottom didn't get his due in the last Harry Potter film. Thank the gods of entertainment that it all turned out all right in the end!) I enjoyed Catching Fire more than many others did, though I read it and Mockingjay AFTER I saw the Hunger Games movie. I didn't care for the end of The Hunger Games itself, either, so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by the end of Mockingjay, but I just felt the end of Mockingjay was a bit too depressing. I'm not in the camp that everything has to have a happy ending, but I do think an ending has to have some movement from the beginning. The ending to the whole trilogy felt a bit forced and without hope, which is pretty much how the books started.
In terms of dystopian literature, I know there are usually two possible outcomes - what happens pretty much gets overwritten (1984) and everything goes back to the way it was. Or, the heroes triumph and go about trying to make a new world. I just think, especially in a YA novel, you need a little more of the triumph of revolution.
If you haven't read the Hunger Games they can be a bit violent. I don't really recommend them for the younger crowd - but you know your child best. I will always suggest that until your kids are in the 13-15+ range you read the same books they are reading. (I honestly suggest you do this beyond, so you can discuss the books with your kids.) Still, I recommend reading all three. If you plan on seeing the movies (or have already seen the first) they will help fill in some of the gaps that I feel complete the picture, and I do recommend reading all three before seeing the movies.
What did you think of the Hunger Games? Love them? Hate them? Not giving into the hype? Let us know!
6 comments:
I didn't think the end of the hunger games was depressing at all. I thought that it was saying that now the world was what you make of it, and that yes there needs to be rebuilding but the rebuilding now has as many possibilities as you can imagine.
It wasn't the ending, ending itself. Pretty much from the point where the bombs are dropped, and I didn't like the epilogue. I think the issue was that, she had to get Katniss to do the thing she did without having the typical consequences. And so they did it with the bombs. And that just pissed me off, so the whole ending was a bit tainted from that point forward.
As a whole I felt the ending was lacking good resolution. Whether that was tragedy or happy I don't care. I just wish she would have picked one or the other, and not been so middle of the road.
I removed my comment because I realized it was riddled with spoilers.
OK. Here's my comment again, this time with proper Spoiler warnings.
SPOILERS!
That's the part that bothered me. I think Snow still would have gotten her to kill Coin even if Prim hadn't died. But she would have had to either face the consequences or die. I also think it was a little too ocnvient that that single act also got Katniss out of the love triangle, because it was Gale's tech. I just want an imaginary Hollywood ending where Prim doesn't die and everyone lives happily ever after. :)
Post a Comment