My Hunger Games Book Review

So it seems like I'm doing an extra post this week. I wasn't planning on writing any book reviews since I'm doing Writing Wednesday, but since I read this series this week, and it's been all I've been able to think about, I just needed to get it written down.

So here it is. My review of all three Hunger Games books. It might be a little spoilery.

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Let me just say that I finished the series in three days. Yes that’s one book a day, but I just couldn’t put them down. It was hard to go to sleep after finishing each book because I wanted, no, I needed to see what was going to happen next. It’s very rare for me to sit down and read an entire series like this. Yes, I happen to be a very avid reader, and I can read rather quickly. But for a book to hold my attention that much is a feat. There’s only been several series to do this to me.

With The Hunger Games, I was really uninterested in reading the book. The cover really didn’t do anything for me. I hate to admit that I’m the type of person that judges a book by its cover. If it doesn’t pull my eyes to it on the shelf, more than likely I won’t read it unless someone puts it in my hand. After several people telling me I needed to read these books, I finally caved. And I was not disappointed. Although the first book took me a while to get into it. It was until the third chapter that I was totally in love with the story and I knew all my time would consumed by reading the series until I was done.

I was amazed by how Suzanne Collins was able to build this dystopian world, and slightly shocked that it was so gruesome. I couldn’t imagine having to be a participant in these games. I probably would’ve been the first to die, unlike Katniss. At least with her, she knew she had to stay alive to protect her family and then Peeta.

The love triangle that everyone talks about really didn’t hit me at all. To me, Gale could’ve been replaced by anyone, young or old, or even another girl. He just felt like a big brother. The relationship between Katniss and Peeta was what kept the story moving for me. I liked how Katniss didn’t even realize she was in love with him and she couldn’t separate how she was feeling from how she was acting. I just wish it hadn’t taken her so long. Peeta is one of my favorite characters of all time. Yeah I know that sounds cheesy, but with him I could see why he was making the decisions he was making. He wasn’t just a character doing what the author was telling him to do. He was almost like a real person.

Even though I loved this series, and had a problem putting it down, there were a few things that I didn’t like. One was how weak Katniss turned out to be at the end of Catching Fire and all throughout Mockingjay. The strong, fighting character that I saw in The Hunger Games was completely gone. Instead she was replaced by someone who was living in the nightmares of what the Arena did to her. Now don’t get me wrong, I completely understand how she cracked under all the horrors she went through. I just wish she would’ve kept that strength up, and kept fighting for what she believed in instead of letting everyone else make those decisions for her. I know she probably couldn’t really have done much, but I felt like there was no fight left in her. Just the desperate need to make sure she could get Peeta home safe. That’s all she wanted was to make sure he was safe. I hate to admit that was really the one reason I kept reading. I needed to make sure he didn’t get hurt.

Mockingjay was by far the hardest read I’ve ever had. I was a book I loved to hate, I guess. As much as I wanted to keep reading and get to the ending, I also wanted to put the book down. But like Katniss, I needed to make sure Peeta was all right. If I didn’t have such a strong liking to his character, it would’ve taken me longer to finish the book. There just wasn’t much action. Just a lot of back-story, a lot of talking, and a lot of walking around aimlessly hiding from all her problems.

This Katniss was a completely different Katniss from the first book. To me this was a problem. She wasn’t the heroine anymore, not like she should’ve been. She wasn’t the girl on fire; she was just the female protagonist. And that makes me sad.

As much as I really truly did love this series, the third book killed it for me. I should’ve stopped reading right after Catching Fire. The first two books were amazing. It’s just the last one that’s been eating me from inside and depresses me. I do understand why Collins wrote the story the way she did; I just wish she kept Katniss strong.

I highly recommend reading these books. The story, the plot, the characters, and the description are overwhelming beautiful, even if they are disturbing. So if you haven’t read it, you better read it!

I do have a question. How do you feel about how Katniss developed as a character? Am I the only one who sees her as being weak? I’d love it if you leave me some comments!

(Also, I can’t wait till March for the movie. I am totally fan-girling right now!! I think my hubby is going to kill me now that I have a new book to movie series to follow! Hehehe)