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This is about the books not the movie.
possibly contain spoilers you are warned.
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I was intrigued by the recent hype of the upcoming new movie the hunger game. I heard from many people that the story is really good with a tinge of battle royale elements in it which I find a very good read from the suspense to the mystery for the next events.
To get the feeling for the upcoming release of the Hunger Games movie. (from the trailer I saw it looks pretty good) I decided to finally get my hand on the books and read the whole series before go watch the movie.
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How shall I put it?
The first book was amazingly good. On par or beyond any of the book from the harry potter series and possibly just as good as the original battle royale. Although I can see similarity here and there but there are definitely major difference to set them apart. The story fit well together and there was never a lack of actions. The main character seems well developed. An brilliant young girl with determination and wit who is willing to save her own sister and force herself face down a path of never ending obstacles and make fool of the bad guys.
All in all, the book has a major plot and themes to follow and the story flows. The characters seems lively and real as I couldn’t help but chuckle at the conversation between the main character and the mentor
In addition, I was touched by the sadness, intrigued by the next danger that can happen just around the corner and I can’t wait to start on the second book.
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The Second book. Alas the book that supposedly enables connection between a great beginning and a supposedly super amazing ending. Fall a bit short of my expectation. I admit I wasn't expecting much from Catch Fire but I was still excited to see what happen next to the main characters. I was welcomed by half of the book with details of the victory parade followed the game that brought little character developing to anyone but the main character and her lover. It feels like the time have stopped itself and force us to watch through hours and hours of Katniss and her Chubby go through events in motion not for fun just because it is there to fill the empty space. I find myself more than once beginning to doubt my belief for the main character. Obviously, the love triangle is developing with the ending of the First Hunger Game. But I thought through all the things that happened in the first book, the main character can be at least more determined and more able minded to think what is happening around her. But nothing new happened. The second half of the Catching Fire mainly involved another group of events that seems vaguely familiar from the first book and ended on a cliff hanger that I find myself wondering If I really want to know what happen in the end.
Admittedly I was no longer the same person at the end of the first book. The second book’s storyline definitely deflated a bit. However, I still got hope for the author to put the story back again. Perhaps there is a rebound to the main character’s feelings and we can find our brave and determined Katniss from sadness and through redemption.
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I got some of what I wanted. I guess in the epilogue of the Last book.
How Shall I put it? Disappointment washes over me. The brave and cleaver girl was no longer what she used to be. The story was flatter then the second book and often fill with events you scratch your head to make the sense of it. More than once I was wondering aloud if this was written by the same author that wrote the first book. If the second book was ok, this one is below the belt. From the story, we saw Katniss struggle with herself on events of war and sadness; she was no longer the self assuring confident girl with fire in her eyes. Every other page we find her trying to find a small corner to hide herself from everything that is going around her. She becomes more sensitive to criticism and more selfish to others. It feels like we are getting to know a new person that seems vastly different than the one from the first book. The storyline become very predictable with the introducing of the team 451. A group of stock characters that you know that author put it there to be kill off later. Instead of waiting for unexpected dangers and fantastic new plots I find myself facing down a river of new characters with no characteristics of their own only waiting to get killed in the next page. Even though the story is wrote as a war story to show the gruesome and the scary aspect of the war. I find myself unable to attach my heart to what the main character or for that matter, anyone from the story at all. Everything seems one dimension as Katiness seems to go into frenzy at random interval only to be allowed to do it again and again for no real purposes at all.
The story was filled with main character’s thought and ideas that I felt of only the author refine and develop it more the story can be much more interesting and easier to read.
The Epilogue in the end we saw the love triangle finally got resolved. But I guaranteed that when the time come and you forced yourself to read the ending. You probably no longer care.
Now After I finished the whole series, I felt like I should probably not read the last two books. I was really disappointed and felt a beautiful and possibly well crafted story got ruined. But all this is just personal thoughts and rants.
 
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I am really not sure how they can make a movie out of the last book. I hope they will just leave it alone as it is.
Poll: To people who read the serie. Do you recommand the last book?yes (20) 57% no (14) 40% I don't know (1) 3% 35 total votes Your vote: To people who read the serie. Do you recommand the last book? (Vote): yes
(Vote): no
(Vote): I don't know
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On March 25 2012 04:14 harman wrote:
I am really not sure how they can make a movie out of the last book. I hope they will just leave it along as it is.
Leave it along, but why? I'm sure there will be lots of demands for it. And its most likely they'll create the whole trilogy given that the current one is so successful. I haven't read the books, but judging by this blog it does sound like the worst of the three.
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On March 25 2012 04:31 RogerX wrote:Show nested quote +On March 25 2012 04:14 harman wrote:
I am really not sure how they can make a movie out of the last book. I hope they will just leave it along as it is. Leave it along, but why? I'm sure there will be lots of demands for it. And its most likely they'll create the whole trilogy given that the current one is so successful. I haven't read the books, but judging by this blog it does sound like the worst of the three.
I guess you couldn't say the last book is a bad book per se but the first book and maybe to an extent the second is amazingly well written compare to the last one. If you haven't read it yet I strongly suggest you give it a shot. It gave people the kind of feeling that the author wasn't really there any more when she wrote the last book.
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On March 25 2012 04:38 harman wrote:Show nested quote +On March 25 2012 04:31 RogerX wrote:On March 25 2012 04:14 harman wrote:
I am really not sure how they can make a movie out of the last book. I hope they will just leave it along as it is. Leave it along, but why? I'm sure there will be lots of demands for it. And its most likely they'll create the whole trilogy given that the current one is so successful. I haven't read the books, but judging by this blog it does sound like the worst of the three. I guess you couldn't say the last book isn't a bad book per se but the first book and maybe to an extent the second is amazingly well written compare to the last one. If you haven't read it yet I strongly suggest you give it a shot. It gave people the kind of feeling that the author wasn't really there any more when she wrote the last book.
Will do, I love the movie so why the heck not with the book :D
As a fan, I would feel pretty upset if they just stopped producing the ending. Finish what you started, I guess.
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The first book was fine, but how can you say it was as good, or better, than any of the harry potter books? That just doesn't make any sense.
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On March 25 2012 05:31 scarper65 wrote:
The first book was fine, but how can you say it was as good, or better, than any of the harry potter books? That just doesn't make any sense.
well for the first book, the anticipation to what is going to happen next and the gripping actions certainly is not worse then those from harry potter book. admittedly, the two series are of different genre. But they both have the same amount of plots and stories that make you want to know what is going to happen next to the main character. In my opinion, the story was flowing in a way that I haven't seen since Harry Potter. But too bad the rest of the series just fall off..
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I wouldn't recommend the series to anybody. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't good enough for me to pass it on to anyone else. The second and third book in particular were just awful. The entire second book basically didn't matter at all. The third was just dumb, had so much pointless garbage in it, even more ridiculous and unbelievable garbage, and just...ugh.
The first book wasn't bad, though. Definitely the strongest of the three.
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I really loved the first, and the series got less good with each book. I realise the author seemed to be shooting for turning the main character into a complete emotional wreck by the end, but that just isn't fun to read. This girl is amazing initially and you really like her, but she gets more and more bitchy as it goes on. The love triangle becomes a total farce as she just abuses the emotions of both of the guys until + Show Spoiler + essentially says fuck it i cba.
Also, I know the 3rd book seems to revolve around showing that even good and righteous wars seem often fruitless with the amount of sadness that war of any kind brings, but the deaths were executed wrong I felt. The one given the most focus + Show Spoiler +, you care much less about than that of + Show Spoiler +, who was given such a ridiculously anticlimactic death. It lasted like 1 line, and then there was one more line of 'noooooo' and that was it, he was practically never mentioned again. He is a character who is developed a lot in the 2nd/3rd books and you grow to really love the guy and you get so damn angry when he's gone and ignored in the space of a couple lines.
Also, something that still pisses me off is at the end of the 3rd book + Show Spoiler +katniss voting for another hunger games, WTF is that shit, I can only think its purpose is to show how mentally retarded she has gotten at that point
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Enders Game puts the Hunger Games to shame
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On March 25 2012 06:34 Lyter wrote:Also, something that still pisses me off is at the end of the 3rd book + Show Spoiler +katniss voting for another hunger games, WTF is that shit, I can only think its purpose is to show how mentally retarded she has gotten at that point
+ Show Spoiler +She had to vote yes out of fear of Coin.
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On March 25 2012 05:58 PH wrote:
I wouldn't recommend the series to anybody. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't good enough for me to pass it on to anyone else. The second and third book in particular were just awful. The entire second book basically didn't matter at all. The third was just dumb, had so much pointless garbage in it, even more ridiculous and unbelievable garbage, and just...ugh.
The first book wasn't bad, though. Definitely the strongest of the three.
That's about my thoughts as well. Not sure why some people love it so much.
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Never read the series, but it sounds like Hunger Games could be thrown into the ever-growing category where it would have been much better published as stand-alone work.
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I just finished the first book, and it was pretty good. Nothing I'd go recommend to people, but I liked that I could just pick it up at work and stop in the middle of whatever due to the simplicity of it. But it sucks since it seems that I'll be disappointed for the second book. Xxio told me on IRC that he just stopped reading at the second book too. The ending of the first one did seem like it could make the second book be either really good or really bad since they have a lot to work with.
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+ Show Spoiler +I really liked the first book, but it seemed like they couldn't make a good sequel because of what happened. Second book had a pretty bad plot, I mean, going back to the arena? For real? Ending of the second one was really unexpected though, which I liked, but third book didn't really make much sense either. And the ending of the third book pissed me off really hard. Like she worked so hard to get to Snow's Palace and suddenly the parachutes explode and it skips forward a couple days. WTF. Ending wasn't terrible though. Overall, I really enjoyed the series. Kinda predictable, but still a good read 
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I found the writing style kind of off-putting, but couldn't tell you why. But the first book was still pretty interesting.
Not a huge fan of the second/third book. It feels like the author set out to write a trilogy but only had plot for one book.
Would still recommend the first book to people with some reservations. And since it's a trilogy you can't just read the first book and stop!
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On March 25 2012 12:02 Whole wrote:
I just finished the first book, and it was pretty good. Nothing I'd go recommend to people, but I liked that I could just pick it up at work and stop in the middle of whatever due to the simplicity of it. But it sucks since it seems that I'll be disappointed for the second book. Xxio told me on IRC that he just stopped reading at the second book too. The ending of the first one did seem like it could make the second book be either really good or really bad since they have a lot to work with. I do not recommend the second book either. I really regret reading it. I loved the first book but the second book just shat all over it. Third had potential to be good, but the bridge from 1 to 3 was just too damn shit and cause of that 3 also becomes bad. The best way to summarise it is (as mentioned by someone above): Wanted a trilogy, only plot for 1 book, and shit just falls apart.
On March 25 2012 05:31 scarper65 wrote:
The first book was fine, but how can you say it was as good, or better, than any of the harry potter books? That just doesn't make any sense. As good as 1, 2 and 5*, better than 7, worse than the rest imo. Not a book I'd say "GO READ IT NOW" but I'd def not say no to reading the first book if anyone asked me if it was worth it.
Edit: typo
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I just finished the series, and I have to say, 'Mockingjay' is one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Collins likes to mutilate her characters emotionally/spiritually/physically, and by the beginning of the final book most of the prominent characters are irrevocably damaged goods.
Katniss is a trainwreck. She is so traumatized that every few pages she runs and hides from the world in a closet or something. You keep expecting her to overcome it, bringing back the good ol' Katniss from books 1 / 2, but worse and worse things just keep happening to her, and her state only goes downhill. There's maybe a couple pages at the end of the book where she starts trying to put herself back together, but there's not enough devoted to it for a reader invested in the trilogy to recover with her by the end. Even if it summarized that she manages to live as happily-ever-after as she's capable of, it doesn't qualify as a happy ending.
There's a large number of things left on depressing notes. Her relationship with Gale didn't need to work out romantically, but she now mentally associates him with her sister's death and they've parted ways permanently. Katniss' mother has now lost almost everything and now lives far away. Peeta, morally the best of them all, was not his old self whatsoever for 99% of the book, and may never fully recover. Finnick gets to be reunited with Annie / wedded with her, just to have his head eaten off by a mutt like fodder. Even with Coin dead, it's never really confirmed if the future is much brighter under Paylor, and it's grimly implied that this is just a brief respite from an eternal cycle of self-destruction. I think I could come to terms with it all if Prim wasn't killed off; it feels like it totally invalidates the struggles of the first book (the best book imo).
But hey, Plutarch seems pretty happy at the end of the book, so there's one character.
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I thoroughly enjoyed every book, I don't really have a complaint except Rue dying but it had to happen I suppose. I also liked the movie. Really I wish there were more books but I'll take this lovely story. ^^
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Well, the current contract is for the third book to be made into two films - yeah, I know, right? It's not even like Twilight and HP7 where there was at least a logical place for the split to happen.
I disliked Mockingjay when I first read it, but upon re-reading, I actually think it's pretty true to the universe and the characters - it just happens to be horrifically grim, and it kind of reaches too hard in terms of structure, I think. I suppose I think it's a good book, but in pushing the characters to the brink, turned them all into really unlikeable people - Peeta got hijacked into someone horrible, Gale become a ruthless commander in the war, they killed Prim, whose safety was Katniss' entire motivation for the whole series, and in doing so, made her have a psychotic break.
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EPT
