The Hunger Games Trilogy – Review

Author: Suzanne Collins

Well it took me about 5 to 6 years to read them but here I am, and I am done with all of them, I think I broke my own personal record with this one, I read all three books in two weeks give or take. Maybe you are saying that is not fast but between work and life, it is fast.

I really did not have any intention of reading them anytime soon but for some reason, re-watching The Hunger Games movies made me want to read, I picked them up and started with the first line that I already knew, and then got past it, the weird first-person narrative. And then I couldn’t stop, I knew the whole story but it was an easy read, and it was good to read something as if for the second time; since I really like the movies I didn’t know how I would feel with the books.

I cannot really say which I like best, so I will leave it at: they are both good.

Peeta (sorry for Josh Hutcherson), they could have found another Peeta, not that he did not do a good job is just that in the books, you pictured him differently, and his mannerism is slightly different. The same with Gale but I like both versions of Gale, because Liam Hemsworth did actually manage to portray most of Gale.

No more movies! Alright, I hear you.

This is about the books, and whether or not I recommend them. Do I? I do, I think that if you like Dystopian stories, this is a good one to read. Although Fantasy, Romance and the sort are more my alley, surprisingly this kind of stories have made it to my list of favourite genres.

BTW: the prize to the survivor of the Games, the sole Victor of all of this is Buttercup. Come on, is a cat.

Alright, let us specified each book for a moment.

The Hunger Games

My main issue when I started was to get the hang of the strange first person, perhaps because it was too much of a first-person, every little thing she did we knew; after getting over that, I read and then really started to read realising that I liked it, I think reading it years later after the boom of the story and the dystopian stories passed was something good, because I got to appreciate it much more and realise once again that I actually like this kind of stories. The first book really captures your attention with the whole kids-are-being-send-into-their-death-thing, to fight for their lives, but the shocking thing is that Katniss didn’t actually care for a rebellion, not for a long time.

Peeta captured me and Gale had me, not here but later; Peeta did have my attention after the first half of the book but he kept it, it is a very well-constructed, beautiful character, who paints and somehow that makes me love him even more since Julian Blackthorn paints as well and it is the fictional love of my life. Okay, next book.

Catching Fire

We knew in this one that Katniss was an idiot, more than before because she is so clueless it is a bit annoying, how can she not know that she liked Peeta and Gale, and that they were madly in love with her? She was a bit like Bella in Twilight, completely clueless of herself, as other perceived her and that is one of the most annoying things in books, heroines should be like Izzy Lightwood, even Clary Fairchild, they know what they want, of course, Clary had her moments of dumbness but that is to be expected from a sixteen-year-old, but not Izzy she is great, and Claire Fraser, Tessa Grey, alright this is not about other characters, but really, Katniss should not have been so clueless about those things.

The story in this book is also good, I believe I liked it better than the other two, I sure read it faster, hmm… curious, and I really read it, I did not gloss over any dull parts, there weren’t many actually, perhaps that was it. We met Finnick and Joanna, saw another side of Haymitch, how he won the games. It was pretty good.

Mockingjay

Ah! the Mockingjay, this one I do not quite know how to feel, even though it was good, it had a lot more political and war things thrown in as to be extremely good, and poor Peeta being crazy, the end with Gale broke my heart. I don’t think what happened to Prim was really necessary. And Katniss was crazy, really lost it, not just post-dramatic stress, she was a goner. Katniss would have turned into a female version of Haymitch if it were not for Peeta, I think we know that, and she would have stayed with both (Gale and Peeta) if the author hadn’t come out with the most heart-breaking way of ending Gale and Katniss relationship.

We all knew that Coin was one psycho, game-believer, power-hungry woman, so no real surprise to what she wanted in the end.

What else to say? I know I really did not say much about the story in the books, but I am fairly sure that either you have read them already or you have seen the movies, and no matter what people say there is not much of a difference between the two. Only that Katniss was not into rebellion, not the way the movies painted her, she was quite selfish actually, only the people that she loved mattered (Yes, we all have a bit of that but this was a big deal here). By the end of the third we saw her change gears, and be more the Mockingjay but the rest? She pretty much wanted to rescue Prim, save Peeta, protect Gale, and that was it.

I think that is it. I do recommend the whole trilogy, better to read the books one after the other as one big book. If you like this trilogy let me know or share this little post, which turned about to be much longer than I would have thought but hey, at least I got your attention with my ramblings.