Thursday, October 28, 2010

Latest Read part II

In September I wrote about "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins and I have now read the complete series. I wanted to share my thoughts about the series and my thoughts about it being made into a movie series.

Click here to read my mini-review of "The Hunger Games".

"Catching Fire" picks up a couple of months after Katniss and Peeta return to District 12. Due to the way they won the Hunger Games, rebellion has begun to spark in some of the districts. Katniss is warned to fix things by President Snow. Due to bad luck (or perhaps further warning?), Katniss and Peeta are brought back into the game for the next year. They build allies with a couple of other people until there are only five left. At this point something crazy happens. I'll let you discover it on your own. You will be left with a huge cliff-hanger, so have "Mockingjay" close by.

Without giving away what happens in "Catching Fire," I will briefly sum up the last book. Much of Panem has rebelled against the capitol and Katniss has earned herself the title and responsiblity of Mockingjay, aka the spokesperson of the Rebels. Katniss struggles with following orders and trusting people, leaving her with just few friends. After training and experiencing the other districts, Katniss leads a team into the Capitol for combat.

This is where things start to get strange for me. I could tell you what happens but there are two issues:
1. I don't want to reveal too much.
2. I'm not entirely sure what is true.

Now, that may sound weird but that is just how it really is. I finished "Mockingjay" with a lot of unanswered questions. Collins leads you to believe a couple of things but they are never determined. The climax of the book completely nose-dives and the book is summed up and ends. Don't get me wrong, I loved the book. I was however incredibly disappointed in the ending. You really are left not knowing what happened even though you are told it works out. Strange way to end a series if you ask me. I have concluded that Collins was unsure herself how things would work out, so she just tells you that it does.

Because I know that this is turning into a movie series, it is my hope that things will be explained a little more clearly. However, I typically enjoy the books more than the movie, so I'm not sure my hopes will be met. I am incredibly interested to see who they cast as Katniss. As I have said time and time again, I typically hate when movies are made from books that I love. To prepare myself, I have looked into the rumored potentials and I am happy with most of them. (Let me add here that every list also included Selena Gomez, Kristen Stewart, Miley Cyrus, and Dakota Fanning. I am NOT happy with any of these. DO NOT put a well known actress into this roll. Especially one who is in her mid-twenties. Katniss starts out as 12 in "The Hunger Games". I don't want a 45 year-old by the time "Mockingjay" is made.)


So those are my thoughts. Have you read any of these? What books are you loving right now?


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1 comment:

Mimi Collett said...

I haven't read them. I was planning on in it until the third one came out. Most of my friends have mixed reviews on whether they liked it or not, even though they all LOVED LOVED the first one. So I can't decide whether it is worth it.

And ditto on being bugged by Hollywood having people in their 20s play teenagers. Surely there are enough talented people in the right age range!