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books, let's get literate! 2009, ya fabulous

I'm not surprised my fondness for the book came and went depending on what part I was reading. A big reason I read this book was because of the similarities between it and Battle Royale and the accusations of intellectual theft (lolz drama). I don't know if Collins read Battle Royale, but through the whole book I kept seeing things that made me uncomfortable enough to pause. Really? I would stop and ask. The general consensus is that she based it off Theseus and the Minotaur. Okay!

Katniss lives in Panem, District 12; the least loved district concerned with mining. Each year, every district must choose two kids to play Panem's Hunger Games. On the day of the reaping, Katniss finds herself taking the place of her younger sister and shipped off to prepare for next round of The Hunger Games with another tribute from her district, Peeta. The plot is pretty straight-forward after that and by straight-forward I mean: don't get attached to the world-building, this book is all about THE ROMANCE. Will they make out? Won't they? Will there be sexy times? Will Katniss stop being romantically dense? Will Peeta stop acting like Katniss should read his mind? Will Renay kill herself by banging the book against her head? Stay tuned!

Here's how Battle Royale is better and it doesn't really have anything to do with theft: the tension. Battle Royale gave me nightmares. The Hunger Games at best kept be attached to the book, but most of the time made me roll my eyes, because fuck, I knew when I started this book and the love triangle began getting rammed down my throat that there was no way the promised end to the games would happen. All the strength Katniss possessed, all the brains and the ability to think on her feet was apparently not enough to make her smart enough to see what was going on until she had been backed into a corner. I had a hard time swallowing that. It's an okay weakness, I suppose—a character can't be perfect, but I didn't want Katniss to fill that particular role. Love triangles are almost impossible to do well enough that I don't want to punch walls. This said to me that the love triangle was going to be important later on and that's really disappointing because I want more awesome world-buildng and less sexy times drama. Something was going to happen to change how the games worked: Collins codes the damn ending before the games even start. Battle Royale absolutely never did that, bad translation, weird perspective and all. Therefore, the readbility of this book the entire book blogging community is raving about in order to shill this title to everyone who might read it wasn't there for me. I read it over three days, only really attached during the actual games when Katniss was by herself. Maybe I'm being a stick in the mud, but I kind of wanted to love this book and came away...not disappointed but less than thrilled.

Don't read Battle Royale before The Hunger Games because I don't think The Hunger Games measures up, even though both are dealing and critiquing the same ideas and concepts. Battle Royale kicks ass in dealing with its themes. The Hunger Games is too busy shacking up its main characters. Theme? it asks. Here, Katniss, make out with your competition for some drama as men (don't think I missed that) steer you into appropriate sexual behavior that will get you rewarded. Is that actual critique of our reality-obsessed based entertainment, that the big corporate sponsors (men, in the form of Haymitch) bully and entrap people (girls) into doing stuff that maybe isn't so smart for fun times for other people? Maybe the whole thing works as a critique of something. Maybe I'm not the audience. Maybe I am a big old bummer who wants to dislike everything popular!

Also, the end was full of shark-jumping hilarity. The book is good, sure, but it's especially worth it to read the book just to watch the end of the novel unravel its last, ridiculous and "terrifying" event and make a joke of whatever tension and suspension it had. Am I the only one who found it to be just a little hokey and overblown? Outlook: likely. Probably I shouldn't have laughed at that part. I am a mean person.

It is a pretty readable book, though. Plus, the fanfic is hilarious.