Friday, October 31, 2008

The Hunger Games

I'm so disappointed that I missed the book review, so I thought I'd make a few comments on my very own blog. It's taken me quite some time to even figure out how to do anything on this blog (thus explaining why I never make any posts), so now my time is limited for the actual book review. But here goes: When I first began reading the book I found the style of writing a bit awkward, but soon got use to it and learned that it made for easy reading. It seemed that all of you found the lack of excess wording refreshing. I found the story a bit brutal at times and am surprised that it fit into the teen category. I guess our society has become much more violent so that this level of cruelty isn't as hard for our young people to accept. I read the book in a day and at the beginning of the month, so I've unfortunately forgotten a lot of the particulars, as my mind isn't what it use to be. But I can remember feeling a bit irritated with Katniss at times. I can understand why she would shut people out, but still it wasn't something that I enjoyed about her. I got a little weary of her inability to recognize the goodness in Peeta and accept his love for her. I liked Peeta as a person, but wasn't as enamored with him as Jenny. I like my heroes a little more manly. I have a feeling, though, that he will grow on me in future books. As far as Gale goes, his character wasn't well enough developed to cause me to form an opinion of his character or possible future relationship with Katniss. I hated this horrible government and can't even begin to imagine how it could come about, but am really looking forward to it's demise and how that will be accomplished in the rest of the series. I loved sweet little Rue and hated how quickly her part in the book ended; especially how brutally it ended. I did love the part about Kat covering her body in flowers in defiance with the government. I thought Haymitch was an interesting character that you started out hating, then came to understand, and soon found him intriguing. I'm sure that he'll play an important part in future books. I didn't like the mutants. That was my least favorite part of the whole book. Hope she leaves that kind of stuff out of future books. I did like the compassion that Katniss showed when she killed her suffering foe. I could see as I was nearing the end of the book that I was going to be disappointed in the ending, as it was obvious that so many questions were going to be left unanswered. In the Harry Potter series, each book wrapped things up at the end, so it wasn't so difficult to wait for the next book. But this one ended quite abruptly and I hate thinking about waiting a year or more for just a few more answers. Because I'm sure that she will leave us hanging just as badly at the end of the second book. Hope she's a quick writer! Though I was disturbed by much of what happened in this book, I will be hanging around the book store, ready to grab up the next one as soon as it comes out.