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#1 Nov 28 2011 at 10:42 AM Rating: Good
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I read it this weekend. I'm kind of surprised they advertise it as a young-adult story. I found it incredibly disturbing.

I don't think I'll bother reading any more of the series now that I got the gist of the storyline. The writing was ok, but not spectacular.

My son says the story sounds like a copy-cat telling of Battle Royale. But I've not read the latter.

I hope my confidence that our governing bodies would never, ever resort to forcing kids to kill kids is well-founded.

Anyways, Hunger Games is coming out in movie form shortly.



Edited, Nov 28th 2011 5:43pm by Elinda
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#2 Nov 28 2011 at 11:04 AM Rating: Good
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The fiance liked them a lot. I found them decent, but not spectacular. It definitely is young adult fare. Disturbing, but not as graphic as it likely should have been to really paint the intended picture, and the writing seemed to be deliberately simplistic to serve a younger reader.

I didn't like that the underlying themes and messages were hammered at so hard. It's probably suitable for a younger reader that needs a bit more help to pick out the deeper intentions, but for me, it just made for redundant explanations of things that I already understood. I also didn't like reading page after page of lavish description of clothing choices, but that might just be me.

The movie trailer that I've seen doesn't inspire much confidence. It looks like it suffered from an insufficient budget. It's being produced by Lionsgate, which might explain that.
#3 Nov 28 2011 at 11:35 AM Rating: Good
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I wasn't all that impressed by it. Certainly not enough to go read the others. The story wasn't anything special and I don't think Collins is that great a writer in the first place (the Gregor the Overlander books weren't that good either.)
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#4 Nov 28 2011 at 11:48 AM Rating: Excellent
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Elinda wrote:
I hope my confidence that our governing bodies would never, ever resort to forcing kids to kill kids is well-founded.
I wouldn't object to Geriatric Kombat.

It does sound like Battle Royale.
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#5 Nov 28 2011 at 3:04 PM Rating: Good
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lolgaxe wrote:
I wouldn't object to Geriatric Kombat.


You will.
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#6 Nov 28 2011 at 3:22 PM Rating: Good
My first impression of it was "Battle Royale Redux" as well, but it was different enough to be interesting.

My favorite variation on Battle Royale was the Azumanga Daioh! one, where Osaka whines "Why do I have to keep killing all my friends?" before defeating everyone with a letter opener.
#7 Nov 28 2011 at 5:29 PM Rating: Good
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lolgaxe wrote:
Elinda wrote:
I hope my confidence that our governing bodies would never, ever resort to forcing kids to kill kids is well-founded.
I wouldn't object to Geriatric Kombat.


The question is just if they'd be allowed to take their canes/walkers in the ring with them or not.
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#8 Nov 30 2011 at 1:37 AM Rating: Good
I actually really enjoyed the series. I'm stoked about the movie. :P
#9 Nov 30 2011 at 7:55 AM Rating: Good
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Belkira the Tulip wrote:
I actually really enjoyed the series. I'm stoked about the movie. :P
The plot was gripping, no doubt, just too disturbing. I guess there are just some places my imagination doesn't like to go. It gave me a nightmare.

The movie trailer actually looks pretty good and typically stories told via movies are less 'real' to me than those read in books so I might actually see it.
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#10 Feb 29 2012 at 10:12 AM Rating: Default
I liked it, other than the moment where I went "yep, saw THAT coming". I won't say when that was, not going to spoil for anyone else but I'm sure MANY of you know what I'm speaking of.
I will see the movie. And I just started to read the 2nd book. I usually read things FAR beyond this reading level, but lately been having alot of headaches, so this is a perfect easy read for me right now. =P
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#11 Feb 29 2012 at 2:15 PM Rating: Good
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raetoo wrote:
I usually read things FAR beyond this reading level, but lately been having alot of headaches, so this is a perfect easy read for me right now. =P
I didn't know there were reading levels after the Sally, **** and Jane Learn to read books.

Anyways, if you're getting headaches from reading I'd have your eyes checked.
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#12 Feb 29 2012 at 2:46 PM Rating: Good
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Elinda wrote:
raetoo wrote:
I usually read things FAR beyond this reading level, but lately been having alot of headaches, so this is a perfect easy read for me right now. =P
I didn't know there were reading levels after the Sally, **** and Jane Learn to read books.


It's like he had to add a disclaimer, lest we think that he normally enjoys reading popular books.
#13 Feb 29 2012 at 5:17 PM Rating: Excellent
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I enjoyed the series. It wasn't all that amazing literary-wise (as said, the writing is mostly for young adult audiences), but the plot was interesting for the first and second books. I didn't care for the third book, which is the general consensus among everyone who has read all three. Not because the ending was depressing (though it was), but because the entire book seems to pass in a blur as the main character is actually under drugs for most of it. The descriptions are lacking, and the action is way too uneven. At one point a character died and I didn't even realize it until several pages later when they mentioned the name again.

Meh, worth reading, but I like Battle Royale better for a survival story.
#14 Feb 29 2012 at 7:35 PM Rating: Decent
Sped read the first. Lazily written, lazily imagined, no real redeeming features. Do people like the characters? I despised them all.
#15 Mar 01 2012 at 8:19 PM Rating: Good
Kavekk wrote:
Sped read the first. Lazily written, lazily imagined, no real redeeming features. Do people like the characters? I despised them all.


I agree with all of this. I didn't read, but listened to the audio books. I listened to all 3 hoping something great would happen and it didn't.
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#16 Mar 09 2012 at 8:35 PM Rating: Decent
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Other than a slightly different backstory, isn't this basically Running Man? Not saying that makes it bad or anything, but it's not really a new concept.
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#17 Mar 09 2012 at 9:35 PM Rating: Good
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gbaji wrote:
Other than a slightly different backstory, isn't this basically Running Man? Not saying that makes it bad or anything, but it's not really a new concept.


It's closer to Battle Royale than Running Man (both novel and film), but yeah same difference.
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#18 Mar 18 2012 at 3:21 AM Rating: Good
Just finished the first book. Wasn't bad, but I was disappointed it didn't quite go to the dark, psychological, places that Battle Royale went too.

I'll have to finish the rest now, because I'm O.C. in that way when it comes to a series, but I'm thinking if they stick to the material it could be a pretty entertaining flick.
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#20 Mar 21 2012 at 7:33 AM Rating: Good
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The movie's rating 90% on the tomato-meter.

Maybe I'll take the kid to see it this weekend. We've both read the book and have conversed about it a couple times - so it should be interesting.
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#21 Mar 23 2012 at 6:05 PM Rating: Good
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I liked the movie. Smiley: smile

I was pleasantly surprised when Haymitch was first introduced as I had no clue the part was being played by Woody Harrelson.

They took some liberties from the book by giving the President a story. I thought it was a good addition.


I might have to read the next book now.
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#22 Mar 24 2012 at 3:56 AM Rating: Good
Didn't like the 3rd book. Not because of the ending, but because most of it was boring & I don't know if Snow was lying or not. The ending actually didn't bother me & was happier than I thought it would be.

But it seemed, to me anyway, that the author just gave up, resolved the love triangle in a couple of pages, and ended it.

Edited, Mar 24th 2012 5:56am by Omegavegeta
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#23 Mar 27 2012 at 4:48 AM Rating: Excellent
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Omegavegeta wrote:
Didn't like the 3rd book. Not because of the ending, but because most of it was boring & I don't know if Snow was lying or not. The ending actually didn't bother me & was happier than I thought it would be.

But it seemed, to me anyway, that the author just gave up, resolved the love triangle in a couple of pages, and ended it.

Edited, Mar 24th 2012 5:56am by Omegavegeta

I felt the same way, though really my major dislike was the writing style. Because Katniss was drugged up, emotionally traumatized, or in hectic combat most of the time, it just didn't have a good flow. Two parts really stick out as being poorly done: First, I didn't even realize when Finnick dies because the action just briefly mentioned it. I was four pages past when I realized, "Wait, what happened to Finnick?" and had to go back and carefully scan the pages to figure out where he bit it. And second, like you said, the ending. The end of the book just comes suddenly; bam, it's 20 years in the future. The end. What? No. Lame.

In other news, I'm finding it disconcerting how many people in the twitterverse seem upset to find out Rue is black. It specifically says in the book that she has dark skin, so I'm not sure why it's such a surprise. But man, you'd think the author had made her a three-legged mutant from a bunch of the tweets you see online.
#24 Mar 27 2012 at 5:46 AM Rating: Good
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[quote=Omegavegeta]

In other news, I'm finding it disconcerting how many people in the twitterverse seem upset to find out Rue is black. It specifically says in the book that she has dark skin, so I'm not sure why it's such a surprise. But man, you'd think the author had made her a three-legged mutant from a bunch of the tweets you see online.


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#25 Mar 27 2012 at 7:41 AM Rating: Excellent
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LockeColeMA wrote:
In other news, I'm finding it disconcerting how many people in the twitterverse seem upset to find out Rue is black. It specifically says in the book that she has dark skin, so I'm not sure why it's such a surprise. But man, you'd think the author had made her a three-legged mutant from a bunch of the tweets you see online.


Sad. I don't find the number of people saying stuff like that surprising, though (as I've said before, play some CoD online for about 5 minutes, and you'll be convinced that about 50% of the population are card-carrying KKK members).

What's interesting is how so many of them can say stuff like that, while clearly believing that there isn't anything racist about it. The old "I'm not racist, but [something incredibly racist]." Yeesh.
#26 Mar 27 2012 at 8:57 AM Rating: Good
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I had watched the trailer to the movie while I was reading the book, so had envisioned many of the characters similarly to how they were portrayed in the early trailers. My son, however, said he had envisioned Rue as oriental.

Regardless of skin color she was adorable.

Her death in the book was the most disturbing of all as she was entrapped in that net. It was just so primal and animistic. One small change to the story from the book to the movie though changed all that. In the book Katniss didn't have time to cut her out of the net before the thrown spear took Rue down. In the movie Katniss did get her out of the net. Rue was standing, no longer a trapped animal. Funny how such a little thing can make such a difference - to me anyways.
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