redbrunja: (This World Is Going To Burn)
redbrunja ([personal profile] redbrunja) wrote2010-01-09 02:13 pm

Leave All Your Loving, Your Longing Behind | You Can't Carry It With You If You Want To Survive

The Hunger Games, ohmygod.

Once I finally sat down to read this book I just bombed through it. While I was reading I wanted to shove it at everyone I know going "read it, read it" so that other people would know how awesome it was. To everyone who recced it to my: you guys know my tastes well, and have mad book-picking skillz.

The Hunger Games "introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where a powerful government called the Capitol has risen up after several devastating disasters. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the ruthless and evil Capitol randomly selects one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, who are then pitted against each other in a game of survival and forced to kill until only one remains" (wiki).

Now I don't usually like post-apocalyptic worlds; they get really depressing, fast. But Katniss is a very matter-of-fact narrator and that, plus Katniss' success at keeping her family fed and safe, plus the gentle doses of humor, keep this from being a downer book.

Also, it has an excellent, excellent romance. Honestly, I'm not sure if I want her to end up with Gabe or Peeta. I was really pleased that both potential love interests were good guys and that Katniss understandable doesn't know what she wants or what she feels. The question of what she really feels for Peeta versus what she was playing for the audience is a rich one, that I can't wait to see explored more in the sequel (which I already have, no spoilers please).

I have mixed feelings about the way the Games turned out; specifically, having the young girl get killed seemed, in some ways, an easy way out. However, I don't blame the author for avoiding the conflict that any reader would expect, and instead going in new directions. Both Katniss and Peeta surviving seemed like a realistic outcome of the choices that they both made, so I'm quite cool with that.

All in all, everyone should read this book so I can squee about it with people.

Finally, I'm really pysched about the fact that the movie rights have been picked up. I remember thinking it would be an excellent movie but a hard one to adapt to screen, considering that it's first person and has a lot of flashbacks.  I think that having the author herself adapt it is both a good and a bad thing; good because she'll know what the most important things are to preserve in a film and bad because I don't think she has much experience writing scripts, and it really is a different medium.

Also, they need to make The Hunger Games into a movie so that someone can make a Katniss vid to Dog Days Are Over.

[identity profile] babydolleyez.livejournal.com 2010-01-10 12:02 am (UTC)(link)
I LOVED the Hunger Games. I read it after reading the blurb on a book list for my adolescent lit class (my best friend got it for that project- darn her!).

It has the RAREST of love triangles in that I know which side I prefer, but I wouldn't be upset if the other side did.

I predict controversy surrounding the movie.

[identity profile] redbrunja.livejournal.com 2010-01-11 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Lucky dog! I would have LOVED to babble about the Hunger Games for class, and gotten an excuse to read it several times in a row.

It has the RAREST of love triangles in that I know which side I prefer, but I wouldn't be upset if the other side did.

Agreed. What is your preferred pairing?

I predict controversy surrounding the movie.

Hell yes. Especially considering that a lot of fans are already fantasy casting (none of their choices make me go 'yes!', randomly.)

[identity profile] babydolleyez.livejournal.com 2010-01-11 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Lucky dog! I would have LOVED to babble about the Hunger Games for class, and gotten an excuse to read it several times in a row.

And that list led to many library reads (The Graveyard Book, which is awesome, Living Dead Girl, which is awesome, but oh so utterly heartbreaking, and ESPECIALLY the Adoration of Jenna Fox, which gave me serious Dollhouse vibes) and a huuuge to read list(Graceling, the Knife of Never Letting Go, Nation).

Agreed. What is your preferred pairing?

I do prefer Kat/Gale, but mostly because their characterizations just caught me (and I really do have a thing for best friends/parallel experiences), and I do really like Peeta too.

Hell yes. Especially considering that a lot of fans are already fantasy casting (none of their choices make me go 'yes!', randomly.)

Also the violence involved, especially since I can just see some idiot ad agency trying to market it as a kids movie.

[identity profile] afigureofspeech.livejournal.com 2010-01-11 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Um, I haven't read any of those other books, but I have read Graceling and I totally recommend it. Also, the companion-book Fire. (I actually liked Fire even more.) :)

[identity profile] redbrunja.livejournal.com 2010-01-12 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
Graceling sound like exactly the kind of book that I would love.

[identity profile] redbrunja.livejournal.com 2010-01-12 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
Oooh, I just went through the books you mentioned. Several of them made it to my wishlist.

Also the violence involved, especially since I can just see some idiot ad agency trying to market it as a kids movie.

God no. Katniss is the girl who tried to drown the family cat. She is NOT a kid's heroine.