Amph The Hunger Games - best-selling trilogy, in production for a movie

Just started the third book.

The trailer doesn't look too good, imo. I don't have high expectations for this movie.

I hated 75% of that last book.

I hated 75% of this thread!

I don't know why, I pictured him taller and more...idk...manly? I always saw him as the handsomer of the two boys.

I always thought Gale was the handsomer of the two. Peeta always gets by on his charm and personality so perhaps his looks aren't supposed to be as striking (although that's not to say a person can't be gifted with both).

I can see that. I guess I pictured Peeta as the pretty Baker's son (at least as seen by Katniss) and Gale as more of the rugged outdoorsy type. I always imagined Gale to have a hint of a 5 o'clock shadow while Peeta would normally be well-groomed (I found the lack of facial hair in the previews a bit odd, in fact, especially in District 12, which is so poor). So in my mind, the Peeta/Gale dynamic was the pretty boy/bad boy dynamic, with Katniss displaying little to no interest in either.

Then again, I could just have been projecting because as soon as we had a teenage love triangle, I was rolling my eyes and waiting to get to the interesting bits.

Have you read all three?

I have. And if you want my advice, you can stop right now with the first one and be completely satisfied. You're unlikely to take my advice, of course, but remember these words after you've read the third.

(I can't imagine reading the second and not reading the third. Otherwise, I'd suggest that.)

Sound advice.

Maybe because I'd been told how bad the third would leave me unsatisfied I expected so much worse. I liked it quite a bit and felt it a perfectly fine ending of the series. Actually agreed sharply with the events happening as they did.

I will admit that the first time I read Mockingjay I felt a bit bummed and the ending didn't blow me away. But after reading it a second time, I get it now and I feel satisfied with how the story ended.

I was delighted with the events of the first book, but had to read on because it didn't feel like it had an ending. So I am reading book two right now, and I'll be honest save for the absolutely lovely SW reference I'm pretty much bored out of my mind.

I was also bored during the first half of Catching Fire, so I think I missed that SW reference. Refresh my memory so I don't have to pick the book up again, pls?

I love you.




EDIT: Anyway, Catching Fire finally got a little bit interesting, but only because the least surprising thing that could possibly have happened... happened.

I admit to not catching the SW reference either...

Interesting fact: Did you know that before writing The Hunger Games, Suzanna Collins wrote for the Nickelodeon series Clarissa Explains It All?

Right, I don't know what page it's on since I'm reading on my Kindle, but at one point in the first half of the book Gale says to Katniss, "I love you." Katniss can only think of the 'worst possible response', which is "I know".

I remember that.

Oh! I remember that now. Although I admit that I didn't connect it as a star wars reference at all. In fact, I remember adding it to the list of things I didn't like about here. She doesn't quite pull that line off.

Brian, my friend, I finished Mockingjay this evening and immediately remembered your words.

It was good advice.

Hahaha.
Three things I liked about books 2-3.


1. 75th Hunger Games
2. Katniss visiting the hospital.
3. Invasion on the Capital

Those were enough for me to read through some of that garbage.

I don't mind first-person narrators, and I realise the idea was to see the story of the way from Katniss' particular perspective... but still... I felt like I was stuck in a hospital bed / cupboard / dining hall / kitchen or any other dull room with her whilst the interesting stuff was always going on elsewhere. And even though Katniss was in the Capitol at the time, that Snow's capture happened completely off screen really annoyed me. Sure, it allows for ambiguity in his line about being about to surrender, but still it felt like a total anticlimax. Being with Katniss worked a treat in the first book, and worked well in the last third of Catching Fire (although reading through a second games was extremely tiresome), but if she wasn't in an Arena she was boring, annoying and a lot of the time impossible to like. I started thinking about who else's head I would rather have been in. Pretty much anyone's.

1. I'm sorry I was right. Truly.
2. I agree with Everton on this issue*.

*I am so happy I get to use that again. Almost made reading Mockingjay worth it. Almost.

Is anyone else concerned that with Donald Sutherland playing Snow, the character will be gifted far more screen time than Collins gave him in the books? Snow was a triumph for me - one of the few characters I believed in right the way through. He's a bastard, but he didn't annoy in the way a poorly written character does. That we saw him in person so infrequently across the trilogy - and particularly in the first book, was great. Made me relish his mysterious nature when we finally did see him. Chilling and thrilling. Indeed, although Mockingjay was ****, his short conversation with Katniss in his rose garden at the end was probably my favourite scene in the book. One of the reasons for that was his enigma finally giving way just a little. Give him more to do in the films (although I can't see them getting as far as Mockingjay), and I'd expect his power would diminsh pretty quickly.