Did you like the hunger games books?

[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...