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Old 05-08-2012, 06:22 PM   #26
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Ho-oh

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Originally Posted by Rangeetsuper View Post
70 pages in. Here to say that this gets my seal of approval. I KNOW when a book's going to be good. This...is. Unless it has some kind of a major plot hole/ messes up majorly towards the end.
Yay!
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Old 05-10-2012, 03:46 AM   #27
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So I've finished. I will enclose two different reviews in two different spoiler boxes. The first is spoiler-free, the second is not. Both are pretty short, because that's how I roll.

Spoiler: show
How do you spot a legendary book? Well, I know how I do. When I finish reading it, I ask myself, "Will I remember this; will I remember the exact feelings and the words and everything five, ten, fifteen years later?"

I got a "Yes" to Harry Potter. I got a very, very, resounding "yes" to His Dark Materials. I asked myself this question about the Hunger Games. It's a "no". They're great books. Make no mistake about it. They're great books, but they're not legendary. They're more than worth reading, but they're not legendary. They occupy a strange "limbo" state: They're above good, but they're not legendary.


SPOILER version.

Spoiler: show
Good to see Katniss ended up with easily the better guy. The end seemed just a little drawn-out, and then exploded. It could have been dealt with much better. I felt a little- just a little bit of His Dark Materials in it. But not enough. Like I said, it's not legendary. It's a great book. It rises above, say, Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, or Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series. But it's in a strange position, it doesn't have the X Factor. One particular thing I was pleased to see is Suzanne Collins used the word "repaired" about Katniss's ear. The Capitol didn't fix or treat her ear, they "repaired" it. A very nice word to choose. But it was a bit of a flash-in-the-pan, no other moments quite like that.

She also didn't deal with one thing I thought she would. Under the circumstances, it seems Katniss's life would be quite empty after the epilogue. But that doesn't seem to happen. I'd hoped she'd deal with that more thoroughly.


And there you have it.
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Old 05-10-2012, 05:59 PM   #28
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The ending wasn't satisfying. Plain and simple.
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Old 05-10-2012, 09:21 PM   #29
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His Dark Materials went from really good to really strange and ended badly, but that's a topic for another day/thread. I do agree with you about the not-quite-legendary status of the book, though (any reason you put that in a spoiler when we have a
Spoiler: show
handy helpful guide
right here on
Spoiler: show
the forums
written by Talon?)
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Old 05-11-2012, 02:26 AM   #30
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I put it in a spoiler because it looks neater. Something Talon obviously cannot appreciate, being a doctor and all. *shot*

P.S Shut up His Dark Materials are THE best books of all time.
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Old 05-11-2012, 08:53 PM   #31
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So I read the first twenty or so pages of mockingjay and I'm all ready really disinterested.
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Old 05-11-2012, 09:22 PM   #32
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Quote:
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So I read the first twenty or so pages of mockingjay and I'm all ready really disinterested.
Same here. But The action starts much later
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Old 05-11-2012, 11:15 PM   #33
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Mockingjay is weird in that it's trying to fill in all the holes that she never really covered in any good detail really quickly. As much world building as Catching Fire tried to do, it didn't really do that much and Mockingjay is kind of a last-ditch attempt to put all the cards on the table before she starts the action.

Don't worry, though; it gets good but it's kind of all at once near the middle.
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Old 05-19-2012, 12:24 PM   #34
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Mockingjay starts slow, since the author tries to develop the characters'personalities more and what has happened to them over the year. It gets good halfway through the book though, don't worry
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Old 05-19-2012, 12:32 PM   #35
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...Let me put it this way. If you actually have to take time out to develop the character's personalities...you're more than likely doing it wrong.
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Old 05-26-2012, 10:27 AM   #36
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I feel like it should've been 4 books so that Mockingjay has more time to explain stuff, and it allows the war to be a little longer and possibly allow Katniss to travel to more districts besides
Spoiler: show
8 and 2.


Also
Spoiler: show
as a supporter of Gale/Katniss, I'm very disappointed with the ending .
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Old 05-27-2012, 02:06 AM   #37
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Thanks, Charm, for spoiling which districts she ends up going to.

Anyway, I have finished the first two books and am a few chapters into Mockingjay, and I can safely say a few things about the series as far as I've gone. One, while this may not be the best series I've ever read, it is still consistently good, and only gets more interesting with each book, something many series cannot claim. Two, the big downside I find with the books is that they are PREDICTABLE, and I have only been caught off guard a couple times, usually able to see most of the way through the books. While this may or may not be due to intentional foreshadowing, there is WAY too much of it to not be able to know how the rest of the book is going to go by the time you're halfway through.

If I had to rate it so far, it would get an 8/10, great read, but not legendary. We'll see where I stand after finishing Mockingjay.
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Old 05-27-2012, 07:11 AM   #38
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It does read as somewhat predictable, and I knew certain things would happen in the third book just from the first, like
Spoiler: show
Prim's death and her falling in love with Peeta, as both were so heavily foreshadowed
. I know the third book was fairly slow but a lot of that seemed necessary because
Spoiler: show
for one, it set up Prim's role for the end. We knew she was a good healer, but that was almost it. Her ability to adapt into the militant district 13 and thrive as a healer there, as well as her enthusiasm for it set up the healers' rush, to where it's entirely believable she would rush into a deadly zone just to help heal people, innocents and soldiers (for her side) alike. It's a horrible death, but the way the book sets it up, even though you may cry, you know that's exactly how she would have wanted to go, helping people to the last breath. The set up with Peeta's hijacking was also fairly important in the story, although those who prefer Katniss/Gale may prefer not to see it that way. It becomes obvious a fair way through the last book that she could never be with Gale. Gale becomes too much a soldier, and, even moreso, far too stable. Katniss, herself, had already been down on her spiral, with everything pointing towards an even deeper spiral to come, and Peeta's instability, as odd as it may sound, became a stable spot for her. Gale was still very attached to his mental stability, but Katniss and Peeta, they both went through many horrible things, some of it together. It does a lot of pointing to the ending being not so "happy ever after" and more "life endures." I know not all of you may share my opinion, but it is an apt interpretation.

As well, it shows a lot of separation on the generations. The younger set were almost always the voice of reason, the moral compass, while most of the authority were either practically useless (aside from the healing of Gale, Katniss's mother did almost nothing, and went way out of focus for the end; Presidents Coin and Snow were each other's greatest enemies, as well as the greatest enemies of any who dared challenge them or interfere with their rivalry; Haymitch was a drunk depressive who couldn't pass a polygraph if asked the colour of the sky; the entire series' "moral authority" condemns 23 children to death and 1 child to an even worse fate every year). I think it sends a very bold statement to teenagers and young adults. We're told Gandhi said to be the change we want to see in the world, but we need to be willing to take the reins. It's not just an ability, it's our role. I think Suzanne Collins was saying that we need to be able to take action when action is due while we still have intact morals and actually listen to our hearts. Whether you agree or not is w/e, but that's the kind of lesson I see in the text. Reading into it too much? Maybe.

Sorry for rantness
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Old 06-21-2012, 11:30 PM   #39
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I just had to say this one thing, even though I finished reading ages ago now...

Haymitch reminds me very heavily of our own Mozz.
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Old 07-05-2012, 08:34 PM   #40
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I loved the first two books, and the third one was okay. It could've been a little better, I think.
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Old 08-04-2012, 04:47 AM   #41
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I don't care if I'm really late finishing this triology because I need to talk about it so I'm bumping this old thread D:

I finally finished Mockingjay today, after reading The Hunger Games and Catching Fire in like April/May and then getting distracted with work/life for so long I almost forgot I had a third one to read.

Also the first film was really good. It was really well directed, it had a brilliant score, most of the changes I actually preferred and they really captured the scenery perfectly. But I don't know if I'm actually excited for the sequel. And Mockingjay doesn't need to be two films, I hate how people now think that's a good idea. It worked for Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, but I really don't see it for Mockingjay. It just seems unnecessary. But oh well.

So I'm going to give my views + respond to some of the posts throughout this thread all in one big spoiler tag just incase:

Spoiler: show
Well wasn't that ending shit.

Like the books are really engrossing and compelling and somehow draw you in within you really realiising, despite all the faults they have (and there are many), they are immensely enjoyable. But I can't help but feel it's almost like she couldn't think of an ending and kind of just slapped it together really last minute because she felt like she needed one. You know? It was just kind of like 'oh now Katniss and Peeta are together and have kids!', and Gale is just gone and Katniss doesn't really care that she doesn't see her BEST friend or even really want to see him (the line about her trying to register anger or regret over Gale but instead just finding relief was really jarring). There's no real closure for any of the other characters we've come to love either. Like what happened to Effie? And Johanna? And then important characters like Gale and Katniss' mother are just summarised in offhanded lines. Like I don't really even mind that much that she just ended up with Peeta, I care more for the fact that she didn't really give us any closure on most of the characters. Really disappointing.

Which leads me onto the next major problem. Which is that, especially in the middle of Mockingjay, Katniss becomes so unlikeable. And as the series is obviously driven from Katniss' first hand view point of the world this is a pretty big problem. Especially as its kind of a deterioration. Like I found Katniss really endearing in the first book, but then by the end of the trilogy I really didn't care for her too much and didn't really care about whether or not she was in love with either of them. I liked her enough, but you should probably like the leading character in a series more than 'yeah, she's alright'. I think for me the decline of liking Katniss connects directly to the amount of 'Katniss being torn between two boys' present, like in the first book the idea that Katniss is struggling between Gale and Peeta is a suggested, but then it consumes the majority of Catching Fire and Mockingjay. So much so the books focus more on that than The Quarter Qwell or the revolution taking place for instance. I think the author became too obsessed and overwhelmed with creating this love triangle to keep us in suspense she kind of lost her way a bit. Or maybe it only feels that way because there isn't a satisfying payoff. I guess if she had resolved the Peeta/Gale/Katniss triangle better then it wouldn't feel like you wasted two books wondering what she will to kind of just find out it happens with no real basis or explanation for it.

Though I think my biggest complaint about the book series as a whole is the criminal underuse of some of the best and most likeable (and enjoyable) characters. Prim and Effie immediately spring to mind. Like Effie is easily one of the best things about the first book, but then she is absent from about halfway through Catching Fire and then she suddenly crops up in the last 40 pages or so of Mockingjay. The list goes on but I'm not really going to dwell on it. But it was just a bit sad to see that a lot of the decent characters in the books were just kind of shelved for most of it.

Oh and I just need to say that Prim's death was really underwhelming. I mean in the first book I cried when Rue died, and I've never really cried reading a book before (that I can think of). It was heart wrenching and really moving. But Prim is just kind of killed off really randomly out of nowhere in the last two (maybe three) chapters, and then at that point in the book everything seems like its on super speed and before you know it all the characters have kind of just gone. Like 'oh Gale is now in District 2, never mind'. Like there could have been a really touching scene with Katniss and her mother or something for some kind of real emotional payoff, but instead we get an offhanded line about how she just rang her. Like the scene with Buttercup was something, but I felt that it could have been so much more.

But then there were a lot of good things about them too. The plot for one I thought was actually really good. And at most of the points it knew how to be heart wrenchingly sad (Rue's death) or really touching (Katniss and Buttercup or Finnick and Annie's reunion). While some of the cliffhangers and suspense moments fell flat (like the end of Catching Fire was a total non-event), most of them really made me want to continue reading to find out.

Quote:
Originally Posted by deoxys View Post
I will say, while emotional, nothing made me come close to crying. Not even Prim's death. I did love Katniss' downward spiral into utter madness though, which had been slowly developing since the first book. Her utter breakdown into insanity after being used as a tool multiple times and her life being the reason so many others died. Pretty riveting. When she chose to assassinate Coin instead of Snow, that was a pretty big 'fuck yeah' moment. I didn't like Coin from the start, and always felt like she and Snow were two halves of the same whole.
I think Katniss' surprise assassination of Coin was one of the highlights of Mockingjay. It was just pretty perfect. That and the scene where she is talking to the burn victim and then gets shot.

Quote:
Originally Posted by deoxys
Also, of course, PeeNiss wound up coming true in the last paragraph, which was a little nice to see. I was almost sure by that point she was going to end it with Katniss living out her days as a deranged woman, or eventually successfully committing suicide. I would have been fine with those endings, too, if only because it became what was expected by the last 50 pages.
I was hoping the ending would the Katniss living as a deranged woman alone in the Victory Village with Buttercup, especially after the full decent into madness that had occurred throughout the last bit of Mockingjay.

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The whole book was spent building her relationship with Gale and then it was just kind of... abandoned. I mean. I don't dislike Peeta/Katniss. But I've never really been convinced of the ship. It just feels like everything that Katniss wanted for herself when the book started was totally abandoned and the rest of her life was just the total opposite of her desires. And she ended up with Peeta. Because it was just how things had to happen.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't see the endgame with Gale working out. And I like the idea of Peeta and Katniss. But it had to be on Katniss's terms. And I feel like it wasn't.
It was a very hodgepodge 'oh Peeta's here now, so I'll just go with that'. I would have been better if Katniss had actually chosen him, or something. Especially, as you rightfully said, Mockingjay was kind of all about her and Gale. And he's just kind of shipped off for no real reason. I don't really support either ship, but I guess deep down I preferred her and Gale. But I think I would have been dissatisfied either way. I don't think the ending necessary required her to have to choose one of the boys. But I guess there's no use dwelling on it.

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The problem with Suzanne Collins, or more likely her editor, is she isn't good at writing. She can tell a damn good story, but the writing...
Quoted for truth. Especially during some of the action scenes.

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Two, the big downside I find with the books is that they are PREDICTABLE, and I have only been caught off guard a couple times, usually able to see most of the way through the books. While this may or may not be due to intentional foreshadowing, there is WAY too much of it to not be able to know how the rest of the book is going to go by the time you're halfway through.
I think my problem was that you knew Katniss was never really in danger, as the books are written from her perspective and it's not like the books ever shifted perspective so you knew Katniss would survive right until the end. Even when she was lying in a hospital bed many times inches from her death, or in the arena about to die, you knew she'd turn it around and survive. At least in Harry Potter there was a moment or two where you can believe Harry might die. And then as you said, most of the plot twists can be seen quite a way in advance.

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Originally Posted by Kairne View Post
Katniss and Peeta, they both went through many horrible things, some of it together. It does a lot of pointing to the ending being not so "happy ever after" and more "life endures." I know not all of you may share my opinion, but it is an apt interpretation.
That's the way I look at it. Because I'm more annoyed at the ending due to the treatment of the other characters, rather than Katniss x Peeta, but I think if you look at it in this light it kinda makes it a bit more of a fitting ending.

I feel like I need to end this on a good note. Despite all their flaws, they were enjoyable, compelling and emotional (whenever Katniss would mention Rue I would begin to tear up, damn that was definitely my favourite scene in all the books).
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Old 04-14-2013, 10:46 PM   #42
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BORKED

The trailer for Catching Fire just hit Youtube!

Who's excited?
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Old 04-15-2013, 12:02 AM   #43
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Well, UPN actually just ate the last post I tried to make, so, to sum it up:

It looks really amazing and I can't wait, but at the same time I'm afraid of the liberties they're going to take that will be drastically different from how things happen in the book.
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Old 04-15-2013, 01:25 AM   #44
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Goddamn that was actually really, really good looking. I can't wait.
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Old 10-31-2013, 05:27 PM   #45
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This trailer isn't particularly new any more but I thought it was worth sharing when I saw it in the cinema yesterday:

BORKED

So Catching Fire looks amazing to be honest.

Pre-movie thoughts anyone? Excited? Displeased? Worried?

And warning movie spoilers kinda:

Spoiler: show
I read an interview with the director that said they've changed Peeta's storyline in Catching Fire 'a bit' to 'toughen him up', but gave no further detail than that. As well as explaining they cut out quite a lot of the characters that appear in the book for the movie.

And while I'm here the idea of Mockingjay being a two parter makes me really worried for the future beyond Catching Fire though, as there really isn't enough in that book to justify that at all so they're either going to be very slow-paced or a lot is going to be added in.

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Old 11-01-2013, 06:23 PM   #46
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Oh God my Jennifer Lawrence boner is acting up again.

RE spoiler tag:
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Any chance of a link to that interview? Peeta was essentially useless in the book to my memory, so I'm optimistic about his role being bumped up a bit.
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Old 11-09-2013, 09:34 AM   #47
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The first movie? Great, minus the shaky-Cloverfield-camera.

The second movie has no shaky-camera-BlairWitch camera work? I can only see greatness from this vantage point.
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