The Hunger Games Left Me Hungry

I just started reading The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I also finished within three days. One book a day, because I was hooked! I'm so glad I had forgotten I wanted to read this when it first came out in 2008, I can't imagine having to wait a year between each of the following novel's releases.

From Wikipedia:

The Hunger Games takes place after the destruction of North America, in a nation known as Panem. Panem consists of a wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. District 12, where the book begins, is located in the coal-rich region that was formerly Appalachia.

As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol in which a 13th district was destroyed, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected by annual lottery to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised event in which the participants (or "tributes") must fight to the death in a dangerous outdoor arena controlled by the Capitol, until only one remains. The story follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the 74th annual Hunger Games in place of her younger sister, Primrose. Also selected from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a baker's son whom Katniss knows from school, who once gave her bread when her family was starving.

The first book, The Hunger Games, was quite riveting and has all the elements of a great novel. Collins' style of writing makes for an easy read and draws you in quickly. There are no real lulls in the story as she weaves character back stories throughout allowing the reader to better understand each character little by little. With the story told from Katniss' point of view, Collins could not have done a better job taking the audience on a journey with and becoming attached to the protagonist. The way Katniss is depicted through her thoughts and emotions bring her to life.

Cathing Fire is the second book of the trilogy and the ending leaves you on such a cliffhanger you feel more than compelled to pick up the final book right away. In this sequel, you can't help but grow more attached to the characters as Collins builds on the relationships and intricacies set by their previous experiences. Without revealing more, I'll jump straight to the third book, Mockingjay.

While Collins does an excellent job depicting themes and the breakdown and rebuilding of characters, unfortunately after the first two books, this one left me feeling very empty and flat with many questions still lingering. So much so that part of me regrets reading this last book - it feels so incomplete and leaves the reader without closure. Much of the plot is lacking the same structure and build up of the first two novels. Perhaps there was some publisher interference, or Collins had a deadline to meet? The ending feels so rushed and is beyond vague - I read and re-read the ending several times to make sure I hadn't missed anything, and was sad to find that I had not. (Though the last few lines were very clever/cute.)

This trilogy could have benefited from a fourth book, rather than just three. The third book could have been split into two books to make the events/timeline seem more plausible without lacking character and relationship development that Collins did such excellent work to build and preserve.

Either way, I highly recommend this trilogy and I will be watching the movie as some point, hoping the movies will be adapted and fill in some of these blanks! (First one is to be released March 23rd.) Lionsgate has already confirmed that the trilogy will be broken into four movies, so there is hope for some of these loose ends to be tied up, eventually.

SMBS #2

"Chop and forksticks. Oops."

Hand Written Letter

I was going through old mail and started tearing up this one piece of junk mail when I noticed it wasn't even addressed to me - it was addressed to someone else and had been delivered to me by mistake. With this piece of mail (now torn into three pieces) I noticed "Enclosed is a special message from your sponsored child, Palash".

Crap.

Waves of guilt swept over me as I carefully opened the letter.. that was now torn.. by my owns hands.. into three pieces.

Please let this be just a solicitation letter.

It wasn't.

Man, I am such an asshole.

So do I tape it back together and mail it to the philanthropic soul who could very well be expecting a letter from little Palash? Or do I just set this aside and ignore it?

(I foresee myself going to the post office.)

Is it Winter?

This beer makes me think it should be cold outside. A winter ale in 50 degree weather seems almost wrong, but still so good.

Play Dead

My boyfriend just told me he sometimes plays dead to freak out our dog.

Fortune

Not exactly well phrased but I'm taking this as a sign that I need to get on the grind!

SMBS

I should really start a blog called "Shit My Boyfriend Says"

"I wish I were an alien so I could talk like one." Followed by bom bin bew blip sound effects.

Food On My Dog

Thanks Alisa for sending me this link! My favorite might be the Spam.. or the slice of pizza! Too many cute photos!

foodonmydog.tumblr.com/

Too bad Logan can't do this, he still isn't too great at "stay".