Lisa D
I read this book in a little over twenty four hours, mainly because ... well, anything I say might give away something. It's hard to believe and completely, I don't want to say predictable, in it's craziness.
I admire an author who can come up with something like this. I'm also very, very frightened of that author...
I wanted to write a glowing review of this book, but I find that I feel as if I will be digesting it, and learning from it for days, weeks, and even months to come. I've gained some perspective on a few things in my own life, and a rather substantial list of possible books to read from it, and I know that those are not the only contributions it's made to me.
A review would simply not do it any justice as every single person who reads this is bound to take something completely different from it, as it affects the differing aspects of their life.
I had trouble with this book. The story is good. I think. But I found the writing really awkward; redundant and repetitive in spots, and overly explanatory in others. It didn't seem to flow in any way, and none of the characters seemed to have their own voice. Sometimes it seemed the author had added extra phrases or expressions just to up the word count, or in an effort to explain something that needed no explanation. And there was an overuse of cliche expressions, to the point where I wanted to keep count in the text.
As I said, I liked the idea of the story; it could have been a fabulous novel. But sometimes a good story just isn't enough to make a good book.
I must admit, I read the publisher description of these books repeatedly, and had no idea what all the fuss was about. I'm a person who will read anything, and there was nothing in the description that made me have any interest whatsoever.
But then, I started seeing the trailers for the movie. And something about them caught my attention. I don't know, even now, what it was. But something made me want to read the books, because I firmly believe that the books are always better than the movies.
And so, I read the entire trilogy in a week. Because I just couldn't stop reading. I won't go so far as to say it's on my list of favourites, but it might be close. Something about Katniss made me want to both smack her, and protect her. And Gale and Peeta... well, there's so much a person could say. The characters must be considered a driving force to the popularity of these books. I find that I can believe the authenticity of any situation, if the characters are written strongly enough. If I can believe wholeheartedly in the people, then the situations never seem out of line.
I don't even know if I feel the need to see the movie. I can go back and read the book any time that I want. And that's better than anything Hollywood can come up with.
I read this book, first about 2 years ago. I have to say, I didn't like it very much at all.
When I saw the new movie adaptation on the weekend, I was determined to read it again because the story made so much more sense to me after seeing it on screen.
While I did enjoy the book a bit this time, I think it's safe to say it may be the only book where I actually like the movie better...