READER'S ROCK LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE VOL 2 ISSUE 4 NOVEMBER 2014 VOL 2 ISSUE 3 OCTOBER 2014 | Page 42

Normally I would do a cool Halloween post for
this month but I'm going to take a little
departure from that and dissect the Hunger
Games trilogy as I finally forced my way through
the books and can legitimately give my
criticism. It took far too long for me to finish
this series and I am still apologizing to my
daughter because of it. However, I struggled so
much with the writing style, the characters and
ultimately the ending that it is a miracle I even
finished it at all. Despite my distaste for the
book, I find myself looking forward to the film –
even though they have split the book into two
movies in an apparent attempt to make more
money.
Allow me to start with the style of the book and
how the plot was executed. While I understand
and almost forgive the trend in YA fiction to
overload on adverbs and write in first person, I
found the pace and character development to be
erratic. Attempts to conceal info-drops were
poorly executed and resulted in disposable
characters who were discussed for several
chapters before they disappeared only to be
mentioned in passing somewhere down the
line. For example, Katniss met two characters in

the woods, I won't give anything away but she
meets them, spends time with them, discusses
them ad nauseum and then their fate is an
afterthought in the next book, a mere sentence
in the madness. Beyond that, the end of
MockingJay is a mess of incoherent ramblings.
Yes, I understand that it was probably done to
reflect Katniss' mental status but it was so
disjointed that it made no sense.
This brings me to the characters. Jennifer
Lawrence deserves and Oscar for making
Katniss a likable character in the movie.
Honestly, I could barely tolerate Katniss in the
book. She was more than reminiscent of Bella
Swan with her irritating “woe is me attitude.”
Yes, her life is rotten and she has been thrust
into something bigger than her but if this is
supposed to be a character to give strength to
young women then this is an epic fail and it is a
darn good thing J-Law took on the role for the
film. Gale and Peeta are irritating at best and
again I draw comparisons to Twilight and wish
that YA writers would stop with the ridiculous
love triangles in these books. Honestly, as far as
the book went, the only characters I truly
enjoyed were Finnick and Joanna – tertiary