Did you like the hunger games books?

[Lemonvariable72]

I've got the first film sitting on my shelf now, because MissLuckie really likes the series and wants me to watch with her. Depending on the reception, perhaps I'll pick up the books. I can see a few reasons to like the franchise right now, though I'm still wary.

If you like stuff like brave new world, you will like this.

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I LOVED the books.

I'm a big fan of YA Fiction.

Me, too! It comes from so many years of teaching high school kids. I have heard that it's harder to get YA published than adult books, and that it's because kids won't put up with the shit adults will in books- your plotting has to be tighter, your narrative more streamlined, etc.

I have been meaning to try the Divergent series. I also recommend the Graceling series.

I thought the movies were OK, except for how physically wrong most of the lead actors are. Katniss is a starving teenager, and Jennifer Lawrence is a well-fed 25-year-old. Please.

Usually I hate YA fiction, as much of it is crap. That said I loved the the hunger games, and I agree on katniss, I like her because she is real, not you stereotypical "strong" woman lead which some writer use to try to make the book more appealing to certain types of people. Mocking jay fucked me up though.

[Clueless Morgan]

I happen to think that the movies are way better and Jennifer Lawrence has made Katniss into a character I can actually like. (I really don't like her in the books.)

I like the books precisely because Katniss is a mean, nasty girl. She's someone many real girls can identify with: selfish, unfriendly, but principled.

I like Katniss BECAUSE I don't like her, and because I'm not supposed to like her. She's a very flawed heroine, like me.

I've read books where I haven't liked the protagonist but where I still greatly enjoyed the book because the story was engaging and strong. I've also read books where I've loved the protagonist but the story was boring or uninteresting. The HG books falls somewhere weirdly in the middle for me and I can't exactly put my finger on why I like the movies better - they're actually pretty true to the books.

While I don't particularly care for Katniss, I thought the story was interesting and I liked the fact that, for all that I didn't like her, the HG is about a strong, brave, self-reliant young woman. For that reason, I have a hard time reconciling the fact that I think the books might have been better if they had been told from Peeta's perspective. Or if Peeta and Katniss's roles had been reversed in some ways - making Katniss the odds-on loser and Peeta and survival superstar. But I know, also, that if those changes had been made I would have absolutely hated the characters and the books because they would have been so trite and expected (the hunky hero saving the damsel in distress - puke).

The HG books exist in a very strange place on the spectrum of books I like versus ones I dislike. Maybe I need to do a reread and reconsider my position on them. Ah, too many books to read...