shadowfireflame | Feb. 18th, 2011

Recently finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I'm sure you've heard of it, perhaps in a tone of admiration--some have even called it "the next Harry Potter," so I thought, Well. Must check it out, then.

For me, at least, the truth is that while the book is quite entertaining, and certainly addicting, it's...nothing special. Certainly no Harry Potter. The world-building is minimal, the characters not particularly interesting, the outcome not unexpected. BUT. I was very interested in not what would happen but how it would happen. How Katniss would outsmart her opponents, how she and Peeta would learn to at least tolerate each other, how they would win over the crowd, how they would deal with certain injuries. In that respect, the book held my interest.

But I confess my disappointment that with all this new technology, what the game-makers chose for the gladiator arena was essentially a glorified forest. I wanted something more exciting, like that barren wasteland mentioned where everyone either froze or starved to death in a few days. Good luck hiding in trees there, Katniss! Maybe it's better in the sequels.

And Katniss herself was a character I still don't feel comfortable with. Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful to be reading about a kick-ass heroine who emphatically doesn't want children and who couldn't care less about her appearance and who has romance forced upon her instead of choosing it. But the thing was...you know, I didn't really like her at all. She just...wasn't a friendly person, but unlike Lisbeth Salander (first kick-ass heroine who comes to mind) she wasn't so cool and downright fascinating that I could instantly forgive her for being that way. And at the same time, she wasn't an empty placeholder like Bella Swan (worst heroine who comes to mind) so I could just replace her in my mind with myself. I don't know any young girl who's that good at archery. Her overwhelming, all-encompassing love for her sister felt extremely forced and kind of awkward because we hardly get to know her sister at all. (Though I did like Rue, who's basically a stand-in.) I kind of related to her mom being crazy, but it wasn't enough to sustain me throughout the whole book.

I did quite like Peeta, but when he wasn't in the scene, things dragged a lot, and I felt really sorry that Katniss couldn't understand what he was trying (pretty transparently, it seemed to me) to do.

On a random note, definite kudos to Collins for mentioning body hair on girls. It's the first time I've seen an author write about such a topic. And kudos for the violence, which was handled very well. On the whole, though, kind of an average experience. Plus, do we really need a book telling us about how de-humanizing reality television is? Surely just watching one episode of reality TV will accomplish the same goal?

EDIT: I highly recommend that everyone read this meta by