Last night, I finished a whirlwind weekend reading of the Hunger Games series for the very first time. I'm now in the process of going back and re-reading the books to make sure I didn't miss anything...with a story as riveting as this, I tend to "skim" so I can get through the suspenseful parts faster. And these books, especially the very last, was VERY suspenseful.
It's kind of hard to form a solid opinion on these books, since this genre isn't my cuppa tea and I picked them up on a whip out of pure curiosity due to the movie buzz and thanks to a former NWebber's book review (her taste generally does not let me down). One thing I can say for sure, is that I'd be hard-pressed to name another series that I found so absolutely riveting. It's fascinating, really. You take such a horrific concept, and weave it into a story that people not only want to read, but are left wanting more. I wonder if that's a sign of the times; that these days it takes a book that offers more than a good story, but a bone-chilling proposition to get us to THINK.
Forgive me for rambling, but the whole concept of the Hunger Games reminds me a lot of Torchwood's Children of Earth season. It really touches on what is maybe the most terrifying kind of fear for any human being, especially adults. If you're unfamiliar with that particular season, I won't go into a lot of detail but I will say that it deals with an alien invasion that is centered on one simple thing...the aliens want ten percent of the world's population of children, and they WILL have them. Utterly horrifying and bone-chilling.
I think that perhaps one of the greatest fears of adults, and parents especially, is not death and destruction and horrifying monsters, but the mere threat of children. Children are helpless, vulnerable. They're supposed to protect them. And the idea of not being able to is one of the most scary things you could think of. So, not in very different way, the Hunger Games are the same. The Capitol takes the children. There's nothing anyone can do about it. And that is what makes it so absolutely horrible. I wonder if the reality of the depth of this madness is maybe a little lost on the target audience of these books, who are teenagers themselves. They feel empathy for the characters, and horror, but not the way an adult would. It's different; it's hard to explain.
Anyway, on to the books. I am clueless as to what is considered a spoiler and what isn't (one never knows with recent books), so if you haven't read these books, you might want to skim.
When I started reading, I only knew two things for sure: That Katniss survives two Hunger Games, and that Peeta is her love interest. I didn't know exactly to what extent Peeta was her love interest (and after I read THG I wondered if maybe that was the extent of it, and that it might be Gale all along). But then based off some things I read, I figured that was too easy and that it was deeper than that, and generally stuck to Peeta and Katniss officially being in love at one point or another. Whether Peeta would die shortly afterward, I didn't know. I guess that's maybe why I never really gave Gale much of a serious thought so "coming to" all this Team Peeta/Team Gale thing surprises me a bit.
I have to give Suzanne Collins credit. When I started reading THG I mentally made predictions on how the book would end. I figured that somehow, both Katniss and Peeta would survive the arena and it had to do with love. She surprised me with exactly HOW that came about, though.
Didn't see the suicide act coming. Oh, and from the very first moment that Rue was noted out of all the other tributes, I KNEW that she and Katniss would become allies and that Rue would die at the hand of someone other than Katniss or Peeta. Not a terribly genius guess given the circumstances but anyway, smelled that one a mile away. The exact circumstance of her death was a bit different than I thought, but not terribly so.
Anyway, more later...I've got to pull my thoughts together.
Just finished my second reading of THG, and on to CF tomorrow...
I kept hoping that she'd write a fourth one in the series.
I love the first part where Aerin's position and motivations for dragon slaying slowly unfolds in McKinley's dreamy prose. Talat is one of my favourite "cranky mounts". The storyline with Maur also happens to be one of the most memorable bits of the book, even if the resolution only takes about two pages. I would be a 
