The Hunger Games Trilogy

Yes, it is completely crazy that it took me this long to read this series*. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to selecting books. I don't want to read something just because everyone else is reading it. I finally picked up the first book thanks to a friend of mine. He's not a book reader, so when he told me that The Hunger Games kind of interested him, I immediately offered my copy...I just had to read it first.

It can take me years sometimes to get around to reading something, but the very next day I picked it up. Two days later, I told him he could take it and was already a third of the way through Catching Fire. Shortly after that, I was on to Mockingjay. Then I put it down...for a while. Part of this could have been that I was just burned out on Panem. But part of it was definitely that I wasn't immediately gripped by the story as I had been with the first two. I'd been in the world long enough to know how it worked and was quite ready to see how it was going to come crashing down.

I didn't read any of the reviews when Mockingjay came out. I knew someday I would get around to reading it and I wanted to come to the series knowing only what the description told me. I'd been told quite a few times that I just had to read it, and my librarian co-workers were shocked that I--one of the teen queens--had not gotten around to it. I knew that there were some people who didn't like as much as the first two, and I can't understand that. It took a little more effort for me to keep reading as well.

One thing I really liked about the final book was that it did not do what I expected at all. People who, in any other series, would have lived, died. I've been mulling the ending over for a couple of weeks now, and I do like it. The truth of things is that even after people who are loved die, life goes on. I feel like this was really captured in the ending. The Epilogue wasn't absolutely necessary, but it does show that there is comfort in memory and shared experience.

Ultimately, I'm glad I finally picked up this series and saw it through. My friends have read it through as well and both were pissed at the ending. Of course we'll all looking forward to the movie!

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*Note: I finished the series in Oct. of 2011.