"the Hunger Games" Series By Suzanne Collins ***SPOILERS***

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FireGurl26

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Dec 20, 2011
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Absolutely love these novels! Recently just heard from different outlets that the whole premise of the hunger games in our reality...is one that has to do with wealth inequality or Class Warfare. I totally disagree on that one! If these people would've paid attention, it has to do with Government Tyranny and the control.
Could not put down any of these books. Read em all fairly quickly. I do have to say, however, the first movie did not do the first novel justice....but, Catching Fire was absolutely amazing on the big screen! Actually, helped me understand a few things that were a lil' confusing to me in the book. Definitely felt things come more alive on the big screen than the 2nd book!
 

Shasta

On his shell he holds the earth.
Absolutely love these novels! Recently just heard from different outlets that the whole premise of the hunger games in our reality...is one that has to do with wealth inequality or Class Warfare. I totally disagree on that one! If these people would've paid attention, it has to do with Government Tyranny and the control.
Could not put down any of these books. Read em all fairly quickly. I do have to say, however, the first movie did not do the first novel justice....but, Catching Fire was absolutely amazing on the big screen! Actually, helped me understand a few things that were a lil' confusing to me in the book. Definitely felt things come more alive on the big screen than the 2nd book!
Hi. I think it's about both government control and class warfare.
 

skimom2

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Oct 9, 2013
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Yeah, I'd agree with that. I really liked the first book, enjoyed the second, and didn't like the third much at all--it felt like a retread of the first two, and he ending was so rushed! Made me wonder if Collins was given a word or page limit by her publisher: "We can recoup our costs on X amount of pages, so do what you can with that."
 
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NightShifter

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Nov 8, 2013
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Actually, helped me understand a few things that were a lil' confusing to me in the book. Definitely felt things come more alive on the big screen than the 2nd book!

I had a hard time visualizing the Quarter Quell arena described in the book, so I really appreciated seeing how it looked in the movie. I was close in what I imagined though. I only have two chapters left in the final book! I'm going to finish it tonight and then start "Joyland."
 

nate_watkins

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Dec 9, 2009
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I liked the first movie pretty well. The arena in the second movie was how I pictured it in the book. Although, I don't exactly remember where the cornucopia was supposed to be in relation to the beach. I look forward to the third movie!
 
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Walter Oobleck

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I've only read the first book & although I enjoyed the story, I thought the telling is lacking in some regards. For instance, when
when Katniss goes to the capitol with the others...this is her first time there. There's very little reaction from her. These are all new sights, sounds, smells...but we get very little in the way of reaction from her. Granted, that is not all that important to the story...but it threw me off my feed. The same could be said when Katniss is "in the woods"...in trees. I spend a good deal of time out in the bush...I love it. Nothing equals the solitude & the quiet of a winter night in a spruce tree, the branches of all trees laden with thick blankets of snow, the world black and white, and the sounds of a deer's step below the tree. I look forward to experiencing that again soon. But when Katniss is in the assorted trees...we get nothing. We get tree...we get branches. I think even Edgar Rice Burroughs description in his Tarzan stories has more detail that paints the bush...and he was not writing for length...he was writing for story.

It's not the case that Collins cannot write descriptive scenes...as there are some scenes that are very vivid and to try to duplicate, or to tell what impressed me, beyond noting that she is capable of such scenes...would do the story injustice.

I enjoyed the story, as I said...I simply thought some things were lacking in the telling.
 

NightShifter

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Nov 8, 2013
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I finally finished "Mockingjay" last night, the final book in "The Hunger Games" trilogy and wow, that was REALLY depressing.
I liked the final book until I reached the 3rd section where the rebels leave the former tribute beautician's fuzzy underwear shop - from there things just got worse, and worse, and worse.
I THINK Collins chose to write a realistic end to the series instead of the endings we are used to with epic stories, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but I can't help but feel disappointed that a series that was great until the last 100 pages. I fear for the movie :-/ Am I alone here?
 
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skimom2

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I finally finished "Mockingjay" last night, the final book in "The Hunger Games" trilogy and wow, that was REALLY depressing.
I liked the final book until I reached the 3rd section where the rebels leave the former tribute beautician's fuzzy underwear shop - from there things just got worse, and worse, and worse.
I THINK Collins chose to write a realistic end to the series instead of the endings we are used to with epic stories, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but I can't help but feel disappointed that a series that was great until the last 100 pages. I fear for the movie :-/ Am I alone here?
The TWO movies, you mean. Last I heard, Mockingjay was supposed to be in two (or even three) parts. :nope:
 

JoannHBuchanan

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May 20, 2014
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Hi. I think it's about both government control and class warfare.
I have to agree with this...it's about government control and class warfare. I think it's also about fighting for freedoms. If you read it there are few freedoms in the world she created and to me it's a metaphor how far those in power will go not only to hold onto their power but to expand it as well. The series talks about how hope literally brings about a revolution.

“The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion.” ~~Catching Fire.
 
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ghost19

"Have I run too far to get home?"
Sep 25, 2011
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This is one of those very, very rare instances where I actually liked the movies better than the books so far. By the beginning of the third book I had started rooting for the Government...anything to keep from having to read another thirty page monologue from Katniss' viewpoint of the reluctant rebel.
 
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JoannHBuchanan

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May 20, 2014
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The only thing I didn't really like was
when Collins killed off Pren. That child was Kat's motivation. Then she, by default, ended up with Petah.
That was lame. To me she could have pushed it harder and farther, but it was YA so I get the boundaries. Either way it's a series I will not soon forget because I have a 14 year old daughter and they had kids in there as young as 12. That was what got
 
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Kurben

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Apr 12, 2014
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I've only read the first book & although I enjoyed the story, I thought the telling is lacking in some regards. For instance, when
when Katniss goes to the capitol with the others...this is her first time there. There's very little reaction from her. These are all new sights, sounds, smells...but we get very little in the way of reaction from her. Granted, that is not all that important to the story...but it threw me off my feed. The same could be said when Katniss is "in the woods"...in trees. I spend a good deal of time out in the bush...I love it. Nothing equals the solitude & the quiet of a winter night in a spruce tree, the branches of all trees laden with thick blankets of snow, the world black and white, and the sounds of a deer's step below the tree. I look forward to experiencing that again soon. But when Katniss is in the assorted trees...we get nothing. We get tree...we get branches. I think even Edgar Rice Burroughs description in his Tarzan stories has more detail that paints the bush...and he was not writing for length...he was writing for story.

It's not the case that Collins cannot write descriptive scenes...as there are some scenes that are very vivid and to try to duplicate, or to tell what impressed me, beyond noting that she is capable of such scenes...would do the story injustice.

I enjoyed the story, as I said...I simply thought some things were lacking in the telling.
I see what you mean. Don't you think that has to do with her reason for being there, in the nature i mean, she isn't there because she actually enjoys nature, at least not in the beginning. It gives her a way to survive. Her main objective is to feed her family. That alters slowly when she meets gale but she is ever the practical type. Feelings make her confused. Borroughs hero loved his jungle so it comes to the surface there but if Katniss allowed that it would put her off focus. The only thing she admit to herself that she loves, in the first book, is her sister.
 

Kurben

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Apr 12, 2014
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Yeah, I'd agree with that. I really liked the first book, enjoyed the second, and didn't like the third much at all--it felt like a retread of the first two, and he ending was so rushed! Made me wonder if Collins was given a word or page limit by her publisher: "We can recoup our costs on X amount of pages, so do what you can with that."
Sure. About these things but i also think it is about TV-shows of a certain kind. Drawn to an extreme level of course but still the similarity is there to some tv-shows. Only there they dont die they just loose their chance of winning. It is just the next step. And also i find that she must have read the lottery by Shirley Jackson. The opening scene where the people gather and they draw lott has certain similarities. The first was very good i thought, the second OK but the third... Katniss in the reluctant rebel suit is not as convincing. And i thought the ending sucked. I always get the impression that when she wrote the first one people where over her badgering her to make it a series but she ran out of steam after awhile in the second. She just managed to drive that one home safely but she never found out how to trickstart that vehicle again in the third book. But i still like the trilogy. You can jump the lame parts when you reread.
 

JoannHBuchanan

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2014
70
379
Sure. About these things but i also think it is about TV-shows of a certain kind. Drawn to an extreme level of course but still the similarity is there to some tv-shows. Only there they dont die they just loose their chance of winning. It is just the next step. And also i find that she must have read the lottery by Shirley Jackson. The opening scene where the people gather and they draw lott has certain similarities. The first was very good i thought, the second OK but the third... Katniss in the reluctant rebel suit is not as convincing. And i thought the ending sucked. I always get the impression that when she wrote the first one people where over her badgering her to make it a series but she ran out of steam after awhile in the second. She just managed to drive that one home safely but she never found out how to trickstart that vehicle again in the third book. But i still like the trilogy. You can jump the lame parts when you reread.

To me, the metaphor of the TV shows is also about the audience. The people watching are like the mobs in Roman days when the gladiators would battle to the death in the arena. The MOB was ROME, control the mob control the people, the same is true for the audiences in the book and more to the point, today's world. Think about all the reality shows are on TV...the brainless stupid idiotic "best friends forever" bull that is all scripted. PLEASE...lame. But it does prove a point. If you're so busy watching what other people are doing and how they are making mistakes then you aren't paying attention to your own life or what the gov is doing.

I also see where she ran out of steam and I think that's why
she killed off Pren
, to me that stole her entire motivation. But that's just me. You have to leave a reader with hope. Even Mr. King leaves his readers with hope. Key people die, but in the end good overcomes evil and hope is given. She missed the mark on this most important part of the story.
 
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