Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Book Recommendation: The Hunger Games

For those of you who know me well enough, you will know that The Hunger Games is one of my favorite book series of all time. When I first read it, it was the best book I had ever read at the time, and it is still one of the best books I have probably ever read before.
I read this book way before it got a huge fan following, so I got to form my opinion of it before I heard everyone around me telling me that I should go read it (I also read this book before Mockingjay came out so I couldn’t just go and pick up a copy from the library when I finished Catching Fire. No. I had to wait six months on a waiting list before I could get it).
I honestly read the entire book in one day, staying up until four in the morning to finish it because I couldn’t put it down to go to sleep. It was that hooking and suspenseful that I needed to finish it right there and then.
You don’t have read for very long before the action begins to pick up and pull you right into the book. After Katniss *SPOILER ALERT* volunteers for her sister Prim in the annual Hunger Games, the question starts to form in the reader’s head: will she make it out alive?
Considering that Katniss was the main character and the fact that there was already a second book out, it was pretty easy for me to predict that she’s going to survive the games, but that still didn’t stop my heart from speeding up at every fight scene or chase.
Another thing about the book was that I became attached to the minor characters, including the other tributes in the Hunger Games including Cato, Clove, Thresh, and who couldn’t love Rue? This is one really good and really bad aspect of the book. It’s good because minor characters are very important to the plot and often help to shape it better, but in this case it’s bad because in order for Katniss to survive the games, all of these characters you’ve grown attached to *MINOR SPOILER* have to be dead by the end of the book. If you have not read this book, go grab a tissue box and keep it next to you for the rest of the series, or in the words of a fangirl, prepare your feels to be broken.
Another positive thing about this book is that I personally thought the movie adaptation was amazing. Well yeah, like with every movie adaptation, things are going to be different, not every single detail about the book is going to be right, they’re going to add in some things, or you’ll think the casting is way off, which if you’re a hardcore fan of the book like me, will really bother you. I will admit that the first time I saw it, I thought it was just ok and not amazing, but the more times I watched it (five times in theaters by the way), it just kept getting better and better. I started to understand why they made some of the changes that they did, and I even like some of the additions in the movie better than the book  *SPOILER ALERT*( Seneca Crane’s death I thought was better portrayed in the movie than the book). I also wasn’t a huge fan of Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, or Liam Hemsworth when they were first casted, but I did say that they did an excellent job in the movie and portrayed the characters well.
I don’t want to say that this book is life changing because it’s clichéd and no one who reads this will probably believe me, but honestly, it did have a large impact on my life. I made some of my best friends I have today because of The Hunger Games. It was discussions over our love of the book that brought us together, and even though we don’t talk about it nearly as much as before, we’re still great friends today, and it was The Hunger Games that started our friendship (you guys know who you are).
So yeah, to sum things up, just go read The Hunger Games if you haven’t already because you are really missing out.
~K.M.D



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