I had a rather unplanned staycation this week when I came down with strep Monday afternoon. Of course, me being me, I didn’t go to the doctor until my tonsils practically closed my throat. Up until then, I swore I had a cold with bad sinus drainage. Not so.
So with the unplanned sick leave and the inability to sit up for longer than 5 minutes without blacking out, I read the first two books of The Hunger Games in two days. This says two things: 1) the books are incredibly fast reads; and 2) the books are complete page turners.
I know this series is all the rave right now, but I really had my misgivings about it, especially after the Twilight series. Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean that it’s great. Well, so far, The Hunger Games has been absolute greatness.
The second book was a little “Really?!” at times, but it all came together for me very well near the end. With everything that happened, I’ve decided to step back from the series for a bit. It’s suspenseful and very violent. Almost too much for me at times, and it’s to the point that I will not see the movies when they release. How can I feel this way about this series and love Gears of War as much as I do? I suppose it’s because Gears is about killing monsters, and this is pretty much about children gladiators fighting other children gladiators. These monsters sit in the governmental seats.
With my luck, the final book is going to be a complete disappointment, but I’m holding on to some faith. But at least so far it’s been fairly consistent with a few weak plot devices in the middle book. The biggest disappointment is the names of the characters. I honestly think the author just gave up with this part of character development. Names aren’t everything, but I hate cringing every time I read it. Every name. Every time. They’re all bad, trust me.
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