I started out not particularly liking The Hunger Games trilogy - the first book struck me as a watered-down imitation of Battle Royale, and I was in no particular hurry to finish the series.  However, I’m happy I did, as the change in tone from the first to the second and third is rather startling.  Spoilers about all three books behind the link…

The main thing that irked me about the first book was the way they played the Katniss - Peeta - Gale love triangle.  YA romantic shenanigans of this sort give me flashbacks to Twilight (ugh, worst).  The idea of this teenage girl, our Katniss, playing to cameras and continually kissing this guy she doesn’t really have feelings for grosses me out.  It should gross me out more that she’s driven to do this as a survival technique in a battle royale with other teenagers, but no, somehow that’s a-okay in my brain; I don’t get it either.

Actually the more I probe my reactions to these books the more twisted I feel.  I started out the series ambivalent towards Katniss.  The more shit she went through, and the more damaged she became as a result, the more I liked her.  Cool collected warrioress!Katniss of Hunger Games?  Take her or leave her.  Shell-shocked PTSD!Katniss of Mockingjay, constantly looking for places to hide, plagued by poor impulse control, broken?  I can relate to her.  Her reactions feel appropriate to the horrors she’s experienced.  Speaking of experiencing horrors, oh my god poor Peeta.  Again, he kind of annoyed me at the outset, but after he came back from the capitol hijacked and insane, love!

My cat sat curled up next to me as I finished Mockingjay.  I got to the part where Buttercup comes back and just started bawling, petting my cat and telling him I love him.  If a book or film or song can elicit a genuine emotional response from me, it gets my stamp of approval.  So, The Hunger Games!  Those are a few of my thoughts.  Probably going to read Ender’s Game next.