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

[redbrunja]

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.

Comments

[babydolleyez.livejournal.com]

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.

[lightprincess89.livejournal.com]

Jody had me read it a couple months back. I whipped right through it. I haven't been able to read the sequels yet, but I really do want to.
I liked the book a lot. It was wonderfully written, but it left me creeped out too. What with all the reality shows on television these days...
I thought the outcome of her and Peeta was an awful shame. In that sense that she is kind of blowing him off after everything. Perhaps because I was rooting for them to have a happy ending. Maybe something will happen in the next two books. (did you know that there will be a third one?)

[plural-entity.livejournal.com]

I think I'm just going to make list of the books you talk about, because they all sound so interested, and I haven't heard of any of them. Haha.

[(Anonymous)]

The plot sounds like a rip-off of Battle Royale.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

The second one is just as good.


And if you like The Hunger Games, I highly recommend the Pretties series of young adult books, too.

[zuko-lollipop.livejournal.com]

Oooou, I love the Hunger Games! They're awesome. ^^ I'm waiting for the third book to arrive! :)

[afigureofspeech.livejournal.com]

Hey you read that? I read it a couple years ago, promptly pushed it onto a good friend and we spent weeks squee-ing about pretty much all of it, from the plot to the characters to the relationships to the highly-anticipated sequel. ^___^ I actually own the second one, but have yet to read it for various reasons. But my god did I love the first book. Maybe it's about time that I reread it, since I don't remember a lot of it... But I do know that while I love Peeta, I feel like Gabe has a lot of potential so I find myself unable to fully back either one. I should really read that sequel huh? Hopefully I'll like it as much (my friend did not, unfortunately).

[angel-2606.livejournal.com]

BB, I FINISHED IT! *SQUEES AND JUMPS UP AND DOWN*

*crickets chirp* okay, I'm gonna try and calm down now. first things first: if it wasn't for my damned interview at 10 am today (it's now currently almost 2:40 am), I'd have said fuck it and I'd be in the process of figuring out how to open the zip file for CF!

Second: *flails MASSIVELY* Okay, I'm now going to have to rec out this book to freaking EVERYONE that I know! This is horrible! I read it and now I'm two seconds away from rereading it AGAIN! There was Peeta and Katniss together and happy and then..........GAH! I'm having a hard time keeping my thoughts coherent, aren't I? *head/desk*

Katniss is SO not a children's hero! No children's hero ever tries to kill the freaking cat. But i have to say this much: that girl is a kick ass female in my book.

HOLY SHIT! I just went onto tvtropes.org and there was a spoiler and I read it and.....*whimpers* I'm sad now! And the fact that I can't even crack book 2 open till TOMORROW *sobs*

Although teh icon that you haz with the lovely quote by Peeta is AWESOME! and pretty! Now i know where it comes from! (actually, if I remember correctly, it was part of the reason that I read the first book, because I just HAD to know what the situation was for someone to be saying something like THAT)

I am off to bed now, but will most likely end up squeeing again sometime later today or tomorrow night!

[rosegilmore.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with this post.

Every friend I've talked to since I started Hunger Games, I've told them to READ THIS BOOK1!! lol.