I don’t typically write anything resembling book reviews. I like to just read it, rate it, and move on. But I sat down to type a quick update and it apparently turned into a book report. I always hated book reports, but I actually enjoyed doing this, as jumbled as it probably is. Kind of relaxing, crazy as that sounds.
I’ve had the Hunger Games trilogy sitting on my bookshelf for a few months now, borrowed from my sister and neglected in the rush of Christmas. It’s on my book challenge list, I’ve heard tons of great things about it, and was looking forward to watching the movies after I read them (always read the book first!). I wasn’t hesitant about this series the way I am about a lot of books that become crazy popular overnight, that everyone reads and everyone loves (ahem…Twilight, Fifty Shades, etc). Unfortunately, I should have been.
The Hunger Games wasn’t too bad. I liked it, it was a decent read and I liked Katniss well enough. The premise was very different than anything I’ve read before, and there seemed to be a lot to build on for the next books. I thought the attention paid to fashion and stylists a bit out there, but I guess it made sense within the premise of everything being a televised event. I gave it a 3/5.
Really and truly, the author should have just stopped there. Let us come to our own conclusions about what happens next. Everything went downhill from there. Catching Fire was boring and pointless until they went back to the arena for the Quarter Quell (except by then I didn’t want a rehash of the first book’s games, I was ready for them to move on to something bigger and better). I felt like most of the story went on in Katniss’ head, and we didn’t get to learn enough about the other characters. And don’t get me started on the love triangle between Katniss, Gale and Peeta …just don’t…I can’t even… Nonetheless, I was ready to forgive this book for being a transitional book, a story to set up the grand finale in the last book. Katniss was going to kick ass in the final book, she was going to turn into that strong character we has caught glimpses of in the first book, they were going to fight a revolution, etc, etc.
Except no. Mockingjay was a disaster. I don’t usually get worked up about the books I’m reading. They’re either good or they aren’t. But Mockingjay SHOULD have been good. It should have been a dramatic, strong finish to the series, and it was a total fail. I was so angry that the ball was dropped so completely in the end of this series. Katniss spent most of the book drugged out and in her own head, not contributing to the war effort around her. Fail. She was whiny, immature and uninteresting. Fail. Every time something actually started to happen, she would do something stupid, get knocked out, wake up in the hospital, and miss the action completely. Fail. The storyline with Peeta was dragged on way past the point of being interesting or even necessary (and WTH with the random jump to the cheesy happily ever after ending?) and characters like Finnick and Prim had extremely random and stupid deaths. Fail and fail. And revolution? What revolution? I think there was a war in there somewhere, but we spent the whole time filming tv spots and not learning about the how or why of the revolution. And at the end it didn’t seem anything had changed other than a new person running the same old show. Lots of unanswered questions, and not in a good, speculation kind of way. Just in a frustrating, undeveloped plot kind of way.
Catching Fire I gave 2/5. Mockingjay was a 1 – tempted though I am to give it a zero.
This series crossed off my list brings my total to 47/101. Hoping my next read is a little less depressing!