It’s almost a little embarrassing to admit how engrossed I got in the Hunger Games book series. I suppose it would be slightly less embarrassing if the series were in a section other than “young adult literature” . . . but I’m comforted with the knowledge that I am not the only 30-something who went off the deep end for a few days, not sleeping and ignoring my children to finish these books. I can’t remember the last time I was so obsessed with the book that I was willing to forego sleeping, eating, and basic hygiene to keep reading. (Okay, yes, I CAN remember the last time I did that, and it’s equally embarrassing. Team Edward.) Anyways. Did you read it? Did you love it? Are there things you need to process with a group of like-minded people? Well, here’s your place.
Disclosure: I’m about to give away major plot points, so if you haven’t read the books and don’t want to hear about the ending, LOOK AWAY! Go read this blog making fun of crazy things on pinterest. Like this:
Source: hungergamesarena via by Denise Froehlich on Pinterest
Click here to read the rest of this post, but only read on if you’ve read all three books or don’t care if you learn the ending.
HUNGER GAMES SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! PEOPLE READING IN GOOGLE READER, AVERT YOUR EYES!
Alright – about the books. I truly loved them and initially, I was really satisfied with the ending . . . but probably because I was Team Peta and appreciated that we weren’t left hanging about what happened to both of them. However, after a day or two I started mulling it over, and felt a little disappointed that the ending was so rushed. It almost felt as though the author just gave up or got tired towards the end, and threw together a quick ending. I found it odd that so much of the action of the ending took place “off-screen” For example, the trial that we learn about after the fact . . . why wasn’t that written out? Or Gale . . . he was a major character and we just get a paragraph about what happened to him? So I’ll admit, the ending left me wanting a bit, and I have some hope that the movie will provide a bit more closure.
I was also not thrilled with the way Katniss was left alone at the end of the book. She was basically a hero who saved her generation from the likely tyrannical rule of Coin, and yet she’s left alone with a drunk and a guy who tried to kill her twice? Why didn’t Gale or her mother check in on her?
My biggest curiosity, though, is a part of the book that Mark and I interpreted very differently. (That’s right. Mark read the whole series too. There was about a week there where CPS probably could have laid claim to our children for neglect, because the two of us were so addicted to these books). Anyways, towards the end, there is a scene where the Hunger Games contestants who survived meet with Coin, and she makes them vote on whether or not they should hold more Hunger Games as a punishment for The Capitol. Peeta votes against it, which is consistent with his character, but Katniss votes for it. Why does she do this?? When I first read the book, my assumption was that she did it as a ploy to stay on Coin’s good side, so that she would have the opportunity to take her down. But Mark (and many others I’ve spoken to) thought that it was her true vote . . . that it signified a breakdown in her own moral compass after having been through so much. Mark felt it illustrated man’s propensity towards revenge in the face of grief. Honestly, I feel like that interpretation really changes the book and the character for me.
So, what do you think? Was Katniss’s vote an attempt to keep Coin appeased so she could have time to enact her revenge on Coin? Or had Katniss been through so much that she was willing to place other children in the same horrific situation? And how does her motive here change the ending and moral of the book?
