The Hunger Games **spoilers for Catching Fire and Mockingjay**

[Dozmonic]

Collins is taking up quite a bit of shelf space at work, Hunger Games has been going well, though I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Grant's hardbacks are always great, they have various bright colours for the paper :-)

[Intox504]

I really enjoyed the Hunger Games, it was a fun, quick read.

[rol7805]

Just finished Hunger Games. Good read, especially for YA fiction. The central plot element bothered me - children killing each other. But then again, I think that's the author's point - to make us think about violence and its impact on youth, and whether we can become desensitized to it.

[Aun Doorback]

My daughter has just forced me to read this and I thought it was superb, a real page turner! I thought the plot was brilliant, especially as big brother is on a the moment and our desensitised view of the world now, because of wall to wall, war coverage etc.

[HareBrain]

Originally Posted by Boaz

Against all better judgement, I liked The Hunger Games. The first person narrative put a much more personal and realistic twist on the teenage savior story. That made me sympathetic towards Katniss... and I know I'd have disliked her if the story was presented in the third person.

I sense you're right, that it probably wouldn't have worked in third-person, which is odd because quite often third-person allows greater reader identification and sympathy with the character than first-person does. I'm not sure why this one works so well, but it does.

I have to say, though, that even though it's an excellent page-turner with great characters, I don't think it's saying anything very profound about us or our society. I can't believe the premise of watching kids kill each other on TV, as set up in the book, could ever come to exist. I can just about see us sliding to that point if the audience was encouraged to support one contestant and the other was thoroughly dehumanised, but in this case they are all presented to the audience at their best advantage. This would humanise them too much. If society really degenerated to the point where its members would then be happy to watch the contestants kill each other, I don't think it would have survived.

That's not really to take anything away from the book, though. I'm sorry to hear the sequels aren't as good, but I'll probably read them anyway.

BTW it reminded me more of Stephen King's The Long Walk than Running Man.

[Aun Doorback]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

I don't think it's saying anything very profound about us or our society. I can't believe the premise of watching kids kill each other on TV, as set up in the book, could ever come to exist. I can just about see us sliding to that point if the audience was encouraged to support one contestant and the other was thoroughly dehumanised, but in this case they are all presented to the audience at their best advantage. This would humanise them too much. If society really degenerated to the point where its members would then be happy to watch the contestants kill each other, I don't think it would have survived.

I'm not so sure - Kids fighting in a cage in front of baying adults is happening now. Give it a few more years and prehaps our perception of what is 'real' may in fact lead to something like this. 12 year old gymnasts compete in front of huge audiences where one slip can break their careers before they hit puberty in some cases. Mix it up with some branding and a bit of sponsorship, give a face to love, but remember that it becomes tribal with the fact that districts are either gaining or losing out with victory or defeat and bingo, you've got the future. Or at least, one possible dark future.

[bookemist]

the sequels aren't as great (katniss turns whiny), but they're still good reads. And the original is just absolutely fantastic.

[Riley Dawson]

Big Fan here

ready for the film.

[TL Rese]

haven't read the other comments on here, because i'm currently working my way thru the 3rd book and am worried about spoilers.

but so far, it's been a fantastic read! i thought it was a trilogy, tho? i kno the movie is coming out soon, which i'm def going to see. =D

[TheDustyZebra]

With the movie coming out, I decided to read the book and see what it was all about.

Yesterday morning, I started reading and was immediately apprehensive about the first-person present tense. I flipped to a few random spots in the book to see if it was all going to be that way, and it was. I had to go to work, but I went back to it at lunch. I stayed up way too late last night, and this evening I just finished the book. It's going to have to be one heck of a movie!

It's interesting, though, how there is no detail whatsoever about the technology that makes it all work. If this had been my story idea, I would have been utterly paralyzed trying to figure out how they do the arena and the cameras can pick up every moment, and how they manage to drop the gifts so precisely. I would have given up on the story entirely at that point. The author manages to convey a whole world of technology without ever explaining anything more than a feeling of "it's there, trust me" -- and I don't feel shortchanged. That's definitely something!

I don't think we're that far away (psychologically, not time-wise) from this scenario. Experiments prove that people are willing to deliver supposedly lethal electrical shocks to other people just because a guy in a lab coat tells them to; people of all ages will stand by and let others get beaten to death rather than intervene; just last year, hundreds of people stood on the beach and watched a man drown himself in the ocean, and even the first responders who were present refused to go in and save him in neck-deep water because they "weren't trained" in that sort of rescue. Sure, there are miracles of heroism every day -- but there are also hideous examples of man's inhumanity to man. Package it as reality TV, and people wouldn't blink an eye. And if the general population stood to suffer punishment if they didn't go along with it, as in the book, or gain great rewards if their representative won, well, bring on the bookies.

I hope the sequels are as good -- but now I'm not holding out hope.

[Alex, The G and T]

My 17 year old daughter staged a personal protest when all of her friends were going to see the opening of Hunger Games, the movie. She stayed home and indulged in a marathon re-read of the Twilight books.

She said something along the lines of "I refuse to be pressured into this hype of tripe."

I'm not sure what that means. Probably just a chip off the Jaundiced Eye.

[biodroid]

I'm busy going through it now and quite enjoying it.

[Parson]

Originally Posted by TheDustyZebra

With the movie coming out, I decided to read the book and see what it was all about.

Yesterday morning, I started reading and was immediately apprehensive about the first-person present tense. I flipped to a few random spots in the book to see if it was all going to be that way, and it was. I had to go to work, but I went back to it at lunch. I stayed up way too late last night, and this evening I just finished the book. It's going to have to be one heck of a movie!

It's interesting, though, how there is no detail whatsoever about the technology that makes it all work. If this had been my story idea, I would have been utterly paralyzed trying to figure out how they do the arena and the cameras can pick up every moment, and how they manage to drop the gifts so precisely. I would have given up on the story entirely at that point. The author manages to convey a whole world of technology without ever explaining anything more than a feeling of "it's there, trust me" -- and I don't feel shortchanged. That's definitely something!

I don't think we're that far away (psychologically, not time-wise) from this scenario. Experiments prove that people are willing to deliver supposedly lethal electrical shocks to other people just because a guy in a lab coat tells them to; people of all ages will stand by and let others get beaten to death rather than intervene; just last year, hundreds of people stood on the beach and watched a man drown himself in the ocean, and even the first responders who were present refused to go in and save him in neck-deep water because they "weren't trained" in that sort of rescue. Sure, there are miracles of heroism every day -- but there are also hideous examples of man's inhumanity to man. Package it as reality TV, and people wouldn't blink an eye. And if the general population stood to suffer punishment if they didn't go along with it, as in the book, or gain great rewards if their representative won, well, bring on the bookies.

I hope the sequels are as good -- but now I'm not holding out hope.

Hmm! As good? I'm not sure, but they are certainly good. The big change in them is that the focus slowly shifts from strictly a personal agenda to a more "national" agenda. There are some things that you will find surprising, but there never is any working out of the technology. As you say, "It just is."

[Grizzgreen711]

Originally Posted by Boaz

The Hunger Games is nothing new. This post-apocalyptic near future world seems the same as every other... actually, it seems a very simplistic model. The plucky teenage heroine has been done many times before... not as much as the teenage boy, but it's been done enough. Rags to riches. Local kid makes good... even against Big Brother. It seems improbable to me that a totalitarian government that it that brutal, corrupt, uncreative, and two faced could survive a decade let alone generations.

Now the characters are all familiar, so much so that they're almost caricatures. The author delves into the protagonist's continued dealings with personal loss... but the exploration of the theme of social justiced seemed heavy handed. The game itself has been done many times before.

Against all better judgement, I liked The Hunger Games. The first person narrative put a much more personal and realistic twist on the teenage savior story. That made me sympathetic towards Katniss... and I know I'd have disliked her if the story was presented in the third person.

The neverending setbacks and stress on Katniss is staggering. By telling the story though the first person, the author puts the reader directly into Katniss' shoes... I, for one, felt her pain, frustration, hatred, and complete mistrust of everyone.

I don't particularly like Katniss, but the sorrow of her life is real and I felt sympathy for her. I felt much more sympathetic to the people around Katniss. Peeta, Rue, and Thresh were much more likable to me. It was painful to read of Katniss' efforts in accepting and rejecting relationships with them.

I cannot put my finger on the reason, but The Hunger Games is a page turner. There is never a good place to stop... each chapter ending begs to immediately continue into the next chapter.

But I don't know that I'll be reading the sequels... until my niece turns thirteen or so.

If you ever finish the next two, you'll see that it's far from a 'rags to riches' story. It's actually quite depressing :P

I read these at the request of my girlfriend. Not my usual thing, but I enjoyed them. Fast-paced, quick reads that you really can't put down. I give all three books high marks.

[monsterchic]

Originally Posted by TheDustyZebra

With the movie coming out, I decided to read the book and see what it was all about.

Yesterday morning, I started reading and was immediately apprehensive about the first-person present tense. I flipped to a few random spots in the book to see if it was all going to be that way, and it was. I had to go to work, but I went back to it at lunch. I stayed up way too late last night, and this evening I just finished the book. It's going to have to be one heck of a movie!

.

I also started reading them because I was going to go see the movie and wanted to see how good of a job they did on it. But unlike DZ, I didn't even notice it was in present tense, because I was so taken up in the story!! But I'm reading Catching Fire right now, and it's a little more noticeable