When I first heard about The Hunger Games, the people talking about it acted as if it were a modern classic, a dark, thrilling tale that goes to where no book would ever go, a staple of modern literature. Curious, I read the book on a whim, followed by the rest of the trilogy.
The first book was actually pretty good. It is certainly dark (children sacrifices and all), it has a vivid (if somewhat incomplete) picture of the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, the action is suberbly written and genuinley riveting, and the background characters (such as Haymitch and Cinna) are likeable enough.
The problem is the three main characters are utterly uininteresting
Katniss, the hero, is a Mary Sue. She's not as bad as Bella, but between the Costume Porn, Angst, alternatingly narrating herself between plain but skilled to beautiful but skilled, I really felt alienated from her. Then comes her two, very forced love interests: Peeta, a guy who is so sweet, pure, dopey and naive that he almost gave me diabetes despite all the kids getting murdered around him. Then theres Gale, who is basically Katniss, but much more of an asshole (He manipulates Katniss's emotions in Catching Fire in a way to make her feel bad for faking a romance with Peeta despite the fact she had no other choice, among being bloodthirsty and emotionally distant in the third book). The love triangle between these three feels ludicrious, as both Katnissand her two "love interests" are the weakest parts in the books. The whole thing feels forced and shoddy. However, I was able to look past this, because the action was brilliant, and everything else was well-handled as well, keeping the romance somewhat in the background
Sadly, Collins seems to believe that these three character's love life is more interesting than the Crapsack World and the other, more dynamic supporting characters. Catching Fire spends about half the book trying to "intensify" the love triangle, having less of the action and contemporary questions that are important to our own world. Mockingjay is just pathetic, going on and on about how Katniss is going to resolve this silly situation when theres a far more interesting nation-scale revolution going on.
The first is decent...the rest is Romantic Plot Tumor personified
When I first heard about The Hunger Games, the people talking about it acted as if it were a modern classic, a dark, thrilling tale that goes to where no book would ever go, a staple of modern literature. Curious, I read the book on a whim, followed by the rest of the trilogy.
The first book was actually pretty good. It is certainly dark (children sacrifices and all), it has a vivid (if somewhat incomplete) picture of the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, the action is suberbly written and genuinley riveting, and the background characters (such as Haymitch and Cinna) are likeable enough.
The problem is the three main characters are utterly uininteresting
Katniss, the hero, is a Mary Sue. She's not as bad as Bella, but between the Costume Porn, Angst, alternatingly narrating herself between plain but skilled to beautiful but skilled, I really felt alienated from her. Then comes her two, very forced love interests: Peeta, a guy who is so sweet, pure, dopey and naive that he almost gave me diabetes despite all the kids getting murdered around him. Then theres Gale, who is basically Katniss, but much more of an asshole (He manipulates Katniss's emotions in Catching Fire in a way to make her feel bad for faking a romance with Peeta despite the fact she had no other choice, among being bloodthirsty and emotionally distant in the third book). The love triangle between these three feels ludicrious, as both Katnissand her two "love interests" are the weakest parts in the books. The whole thing feels forced and shoddy. However, I was able to look past this, because the action was brilliant, and everything else was well-handled as well, keeping the romance somewhat in the background
In the first book
Sadly, Collins seems to believe that these three character's love life is more interesting than the Crapsack World and the other, more dynamic supporting characters. Catching Fire spends about half the book trying to "intensify" the love triangle, having less of the action and contemporary questions that are important to our own world. Mockingjay is just pathetic, going on and on about how Katniss is going to resolve this silly situation when theres a far more interesting nation-scale revolution going on.
Read the first, stay away from the rest.