The Hunger Games Review

 The Hunger Games Review

 

Sometimes there is that one series. That one awesome series you don’t get around to it, but you’ll know you’ll love. Then before you know it, it has movie deals, the whole series is out, and you’re behind. Then you get to it, and it’s awesome. Well, for me that was the Hunger Games. And some pre-knowledge before I continue. One, I have not read the series. I don’t know if I can reread books like I rewatch movies before I review them, because I don’t read nearly as much as I want, and then I’ll never get to review anything. Maybe I’ll read the future books and update this review, I don’t know. But for now, this is it. Also, I did watch the movie first. Technically I read the first few chapters in my school, then watched the movie. But it’s a big hit movie series and I’m a big movie guy, and sometimes they even play hit movies in schools, and what can you do? But I don’t think that took anything away, because I loved this book, even more than I loved the movie. And the main attraction, the story and pacing. I would give you a synopsis, but it’s pretty much common knowledge now. Kids go to the death in these cool games, it’s on TV, love triangle that’s sort of there, that’s about it. And it does it awesomely. For these games, the events hit you for shot after shot. And Katniss, who is probably my new favorite female book protagonist, is a hunter. She survived before by hunting, so in essence she’s perfect for this. One of the poorest things about the movie that they couldn’t do anything about was get in Katniss’ head, and that’s where all the fun was. She over evaluated everything, practically everything was survival with her. And contrasting with the other character Peeta who, sorry, is just a lot less tactical, is really interesting to watch. Her mindset is perfect for these games. And the pacing really gets you. I haven’t been locked this much into a book for awhile, and I mean awhile. Turning into a writer destroyed my reading time, and books are expensive, and it got to be a bit much. But no, not today. This had me finally sitting down and reading the damn thing without forcing myself. And it had the perfect amount of characters. I wasn’t trying to remember who the fuck was who, and who looked like what, it was right. And I know some authors would be like, "Oh no, the reader should know every person in the games.” But no, that’s a stupid idea, and we got probably the perfect amount. And for instance, there’s a character, her name is pretty much just Fox Face. I didn’t need to know here name, she was called Fox Face, that sums up pretty much everything she’s going to do. As for the characters, they’re all good. I remember thinking, "Well, Peeta’s pretty damn stale, but watch as he doesn’t show up they’re going to make me miss him, and then that one scene will happen and…” then it happened, and he was good. Haymitch was my only other roadblock, but we’ll get into that in the spoilers. Everyone else was great. I met characters I didn’t meet in the movie, they were cool. The scenes were all cool, each had me flipping pages in that extra speed because you can’t be damned to flip pages slowly. And Katniss was fighting like five battles at once, again why her head was so damn important. She was thinking about cameras, life back home, what other people were thinking, her emotions, and… God she went all over the place, and it was just interesting. Overall, I know this will be my new modern classic. My new teen series that I’ll just love. And the writing style is actually smart and well put together, I don’t feel that guiltiness if it’s not all neat or constructed right. But no, it’s all good, it’s awesome and constructed well. I am looking forward to Catching Fire, so much so that high books prices be damned, I can go to library!... but really am hoping to get the books for my birthday next month. Anyway, the book that was surrounded by all these voices making their own hype, definitely lived up.

The Hunger Games gets a 5/5

Spoilers: Okay, I mentioned in the review my roadblock with Haymitch. I remember somebody getting mad about the movie because they thought he didn’t act drunk enough. Well… I kind of liked that. I mean he’s a drunk, I get that, but when he’s falling in his vomit muttering nonsense I can’t take him seriously. Even though he’s dope, I would really prefer that part be out. He’s falling into a dumb trope when he does that. And he’s smart, I don’t get why he quickly fades from bumbling fool to the idea guy. But I loved Haymitch, don’t get me wrong. Just that one scene. As for Peeta, I get his character now. More of a plot piece than a gimmicky character. As for the love triangle, yeah, it was a lot better than I expected. There is something new and fresh to it because she is forced to go into this fake relationship, and you don’t know how much is real, and just waiting for the cameras to go away. If I could change something, I’d like it if Gale wasn’t just a friend zone person she might eventually date. I think if they had an on and off relationship, or maybe they did something once, I don’t know. Just the friend zone thing seems like a cop out. I don’t buy that these two open individuals who although may not think sexually often, they still open up everything, and the fact that that never crossed their minds, but it clearly is in Katniss’ thoughts, so I don’t know why the friend zone. Although again, it’s done great, and already raised the bar. I think after Twilight I’m afraid of love triangles, and afraid I won’t like at least one character in them. This was one where the confusing of the character not being able to decided between the two was genuine, and she had the excuse, and it was valid. If you were allowed to like two dudes, it would be her. She isn’t like "woe is me, and my feelings!” She was like, "Man, Peeta should be giving me more slack, I did it save our lives.” And yeah, I liked that a lot. But for a person whose used love triangles, I understand.. And she did it better than I could. Anyway, very cool book, that’s the compliment I seem to be giving it a lot, and it’s true. It’s very cool. But go Katniss! Not team Peeta or Gale, just whatever team says how much of a bad ass Katniss is.