The hunger games preview

The Guide to our Grades. About author. Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since He founded Parent Previews in , and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and of course on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children. Language: At least half a dozen mild profanities are included. Page last updated July 17, Related news about The Hunger Games.

Archery Catches Fire Outside the Theater. Counting Down to Divergent. Why Movies Ignore Women. The 10 Top Grossing Movies of Catching Fire Blazes to a New Record. Perhaps I wouldn't have had such a problem with the questions if Collins didn't frequently go on a mad, frenzied self-questioning rampage, like so: If he knows this, what else does he know? And how does he know it?

Haven't we for years? Those questions were all in one paragraph. And here's the rest of Katniss' internal monologue, for your reading pleasure. Drink it? And how? Hey, Peeta, remember how I was kind of faking being in love with you? Who else will be dead if I don't satisfy President Snow? That really isn't the point, though, is it?

Disappeared into the woods and never came out? Blow my lips up like President Snow's? Tattoo my breasts? Dye my skin magenta and implant gems in it? Cut decorative patterns in my face? Give me curved talons? Or cat's whiskers? Do they really have no idea how freakish they look to the rest of us? How far south have we come in a day? If I had a bow and arrows, would I just keep going?

What do they do? Have preliminary drawings? Thresh's grandmother? One of Rue's little sisters? How did I not know that? Was it enough? BUt what can he do? Have I? But will he even come? Didn't I do the same thing to my mother? Was that directed at me? Did he try to come to Gale's aid before I got here?

District 3? From the Capitol itself? I have to try to fight? How could we do that here? Would the people of District 12 join in or lock their doors?

What do I mean when I say I love Gale? Is he really planning to go through with it? What, in his twisted brain, will that achieve?

Is it for the benefit of those in the Capitol? And then he'll kill us? As a lesson to the districts? Who else would I be? Could it be true? Could there be somewhere to run besides the wilderness? Somewhere safe? What side? Am I unwittingly the face of the hoped-for rebellion? Has the mockingjay on my pin become a symbol of resistance?

Has Thread turned on the fence as an addition security measure? Or does he somehow know I've escaped his net today? Is he determined to strand me outside District 12 until he can apprehend and arrest me? Drag me to the square to be locked in the stockade or whipped or hanged? I thought no one saw me sneak under the fence, but who knows? Or is Thread acting on his own? What does it mean? Existing pool of victors? Where to go? What could I possibly want here?

Broiling themselves? Or do I see the president fixated on me as well? That we're sorry for the other's lot? That we ache for the other's pain? That we're glad we had the chance to know each other? Something to upset them? You, who have given your talents to the Games?

Are they jealous of its beauty? The power it might have to manipulate the crowd? Keep a secret from who? Where on earth is he going with this? And me? And it could be true now, couldn't it? That every victor has? Every parent in every district in Panem? Where is he now? What are they doing to him? Torturing him? Killing him? Turning him into an Avox?

For Finnick to win my trust, and then swim out and drown Peeta? Know him better? Owe him more? But to what end? And who knows what the night will hold? So how can I kill him in his sleep? Why didn't he just let him die? And why was he so determined to team up with me? What does that signify? One ring for each district? But why? Was it because she was so old her days were numbered anyway? Where is it? Peeta's life above their own?

What are they doing to her? Why is she part of the games? Do they have her up in the trees? Why didn't Peeta come to help me? Why did no one come after us? I've set thousands of snares. Isn't this just a larger snare with a more scientific component? Could it work? What do we know about harnessing power from the sky? How can I protect him from a distance? I think. What is happening? Did he actually try to drive the knife into the force field the way Peeta did by accident?

And what's the deal with the wire? Was this his backup plan? What would that do, anyway? A great deal? Fry us all? Why would I need reminding? Will there be a victor of the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games? Moved them from hospital to prison? Or did he really have no idea what Beetee intended?

How is he even here? But Katniss doesn't keep her questions to herself; she annoys everybody else with them! I couldn't bear to NOT share the following with you. Katniss takes it upon herself to question everybody, everywhere "You're hideous, you know that right? How can I aim higher? Like Effie's hair? To paint them out? Not being straight with each other? You don't think I'm mad?

You'll go with me? SEnd her over? What does that mean? A shot of a bird? You think you're just going to find some new city with people strolling around in it? And that's just fine with the Capitol?

If it's true, why do they leave us to live like this? With the hunger and the killings and the Games? Is it out of season? Out loud! Exclamation point! I begin to question them casually I want to ask them more To the districts that are rebelling? Knowing all the others? Headlamps or fire? Why does that not surprise me? Can't you hear it? She got them for me? Why not? Like how they'll use Annie for bait, Finnick?

Here's a great example from Chapter 15; Maybe he's too pretty, or maybe he's too easy to get, or maybe it's really that he'd just be too easy to lose. Yep, that was altogether! Here's a few more, Maybe she expected it. Maybe they can even confirm my suspicions of an uprising there. Maybe some fishhooks. Maybe you're a Class A irritating fuck, that's what.

Some of Collins' sentences are also horrific; Then I'm at a party where everyone wears masks and someone with a flicking wet tongue, who I suppose is Finnick, stalks me, but when he catches me and pulls off his mask, it's President Snow, and his puffy lips are dripping in bloody saliva Yeah, by horrific I don't mean the content. Check out that eyesore. AND she starts a lot of sentences with conjunctions.

Which I do continually. Which, in my opinion, is fine if you are stating something emphatetically or are not a published author. Perhaps it's even okay to let the odd one slip if you do so happen to be so lucky as to get your shitty novel published. When that odd one adds up to the point where it's actually noticable and fucking annoying, then you've got a problem. Just when I was starting to get really irked at this flaw, I stumbled across this gem from chapter 16 to prove to you exactly what I mean.

Because, on the whole, I don't hate them. And some I like. And a lot of them are so damaged that my natural instinct would be to protect them.

But all of them must die if I'm to save Peeta. TL;DR: This book sucked balls. View all 66 comments. Apr 23, brian rated it it was ok. View all 28 comments. I stand by the fact that this series would not be half as great if Finnick did not exist. Yes, victors are our strongest. They're the ones who survived the arena and slipped the noose of poverty that strangles the rest of us.

They, or should I say we, are the very embodiment of hope where there is no hope. Katniss Everdeen has survived The Hunger Games. But the Capitol is not happy with her. Katniss and Peeta have unknowingly become the spark of rebellion when they decided to not play by the I stand by the fact that this series would not be half as great if Finnick did not exist.

Katniss and Peeta have unknowingly become the spark of rebellion when they decided to not play by the Capitol's rules. It's an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which I was a piece, just as I was meant to be a piece in the Hunger Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Hunger Games, I knew I was being played with. Our victors, though filthy rich, now have to face the fact that there will be no end to what they had to endure.

The scars of what they had to do will always be with then for the rest of their lives. The Capitol will not let them forget. In revenge, President Snow and The Capitol set events in motion that will ensure that everyone's favourite couple — The Star Crossed Lovers of Panem — will never have their happily ever after.

I think the writing really improves with this one. There is more emotion in it and even though the real action only begins in the last pages, the rest of the book is still filled with intense moments that has you catching your breath.

Most of book 1 was set in the Capitol or the arena — it was really interesting to see more of how things worked in District 12 while reading this book. I also enjoyed exploring other parts of Panem and reading about the conditions the other districts are in.

Life in District 12 isn't really so different from life in the arena. At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it.

It still astounds me how well thought out this world is! Okay let me talk about the romance. Internet Archive's 25th Anniversary Logo. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. It got too preachy at certain points though, didn't it?

And I understand that not all books are unicorns-and-ponies happy endings, and that this series has always been intense and dark and a bit bleak. But that only works when there's an underlying message of hope and of optimism.

I felt it in the 1st books, but this ending was devoid of all hope and happiness. Yes, humans are disgusting creatures who hurt and kill one another, who do horrible things because of greed and selfishness and just pure malice. But humans are also capable of love and compassion and kindness, and I wish she'd incorporated a bit of that into the story as well so there'd be a more hopeful ending.

Even in real life, no matter how bad things may be, there is always hope. Isn't that the kind of message you really want young people to be left with? Instead of pessimistic doom and "give up on mankind"? I finished the book feeling hopeless and lost and depressed, and not in that deep, profound way where it motivates me to get up off my ass and do something to make a difference.

Gosh, at least Harry was his own person and got to face Voldemort in the end. What did Katniss get to do except be an empty canvas for them to paint and feed lines to? Though I guess since I'm feeling so passionately about all of this, it wasn't a worthless read. It was just very, VERY disappointing. Edit: I just re-read this review a month or so after I wrote it and I sincerely apologize for my sloppy writing and overindulgence in run-on sentences!

I was in a rush to unleash all my feelings after finishing the book so I wouldn't forget anything. I hope this review was understandable and enjoyable anyway : That's the end of the review and you can stop here but I wanted to add on.. Sometimes you've got to think about the greater good! This is war! Don't think I don't know how this might end. I've known it for years. Whatever faults the last HP book may have, I just have to say: Thank you, Harry, for giving me hope again and proving there are still admirable heroes in young literature.

View all comments. Cherry Ugh I agree! This book was so disappointing! You put my feelings I words. I was also on team Gale.

I mean, sure, Peeta is ok, but Gale is way better. Elizabeth Given up! Dec 03, Tatiana rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: anyone who prefers to think instead of obsessing over love triangles. Shelves: , favorites , , , ya , , , dystopias-post-apocalyptic. I keep switching the rating of this book from 5 to 4 to 5 again, changing my opinion with each reread. On the one hand, it has so many wise things to say about war, propaganda, grief, trauma and healing.

It touches and breaks my heart every time, like very few books do. But, on the other hand, there is a large chunk of this novel in part 3 mainly , that objectively makes almost no logical sense. I wish Collins took more time to work it to perfection, like she did with the first two. Going back t I keep switching the rating of this book from 5 to 4 to 5 again, changing my opinion with each reread.

Going back to 5 again. For that epilogue. And cat. This reread just makes me even more skeptical about what a story about Snow has to offer, in comparison to this one. So, of course I had to read it again after getting only half of the story from the Mockingjay movie.

Unsurprisingly, cried and cried again. My feelings basically remain the same about this installment. Structurally, the novel is quite messy.

There is such a big game going on and Katniss' motivations and actions don't always make sense to me. But the ending is brilliant, especially the final chapters. I need something to cheer me up ASAP.

Is a kitchen towel drenched in my tears a good indicator of the quality of Mockingjay? I think it is, considering that I am not a crying-over-books type. The book is lying next to me now, so deceitful in appearance, with its innocent, bright, cheerful cover. Who knew there would be so much darkness hidden between its pages, so much heartache?

Mockingjay is indeed a DARK, DARK book full of deaths, sacrifices, torture, betrayal and despair, a book which takes you to a very disturbing but very real place. These books are about love indeed, but they are also about survival, freedom, and peace. I find it amazing that people are disappointed that Katniss doesn't take a Katniss-becomes-a-superwoman-and-takes-over-the-world-while-deciding-on-which-boy-to-pick route.

How realistic is it to expect a child damaged by hunger, oppression, and violence she had to witness and take a part in, and thrown into the midst of all kinds of political intrigue, to achieve that? How many soldiers do you know who came out of a war unscathed or empowered by the atrocities they have witnessed? How many children? This is why this book has such a great effect on me. It takes a very difficult but honest route, portraying the infinitely damaging consequences of war regardless of the righteousness of its cause and Katniss's journey to stay true to herself and do the best she can.

And the love triangle resolution. Truly, it couldn't have ended any other way. Is Mockingjay a perfectly written book? Absolutely not, it's not nearly as perfectly constructed or clear as The Hunger Games , but just like another imperfectly perfect successful series finale - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - it brings its message across in the most honest and powerful way possible.

Suzanne Collins is a genius, she is fearless and I have a great respect for the gutsiness of hers that didn't allow her to settle for an ending all wrapped up in pink paper with a perfect little bow. I am sure she knew that the faint of heart would be enraged. But she stuck to her guns and stayed true to her message and to her characters. It will probably take me months and a score of Georgia Nicolson diaries to get over it. But I love this book anyway, in spite and because of all the pain it has caused me.

Jan 28, Hope rated it it was amazing Shelves: bittersweet , best-characters , reads , favorites , reviewed , best-couples , to-reread-someday , dystopian-utopian , young-adult , thought-provoking. It's good, and yet not good. Katniss is a different person from the first two books. I found her softer, more thoughtful, and also more open granted, she's still kind of a brat sometimes. But don't we all have our moments? This book is filled with more emotion, and I liked her best in this book, even though it's a tragedy of sorts.

Something so painful. It was a fantastic novel. I don't think I can come up with any better way for a trilogy of this kind to come to a close. The perfect note of sadness and sweetness, pain and healing all mixed up in a jumble.

This book was far more severe than the first two. Much harder to read, and with more emotional depth, I think. Sometimes I just had to close the book for a while and breathe because I needed to stop for a bit, to regroup myself so I could get through a certain part. Collins wove in a few questions to ponder. Where do you draw the line? Do you give just what you got?

Is it right to kill innocent people just because the leaders on their side of the line killed innocent people on your side? Contrary to what some believe, this is not an anti-war book. Actually, I think Collins is trying to get us to ask ourselves questions about what justifies war, and where the line should be drawn between justice and vengeance.

Not that we shouldn't fight, but that we know what's worth fighting for. Several notable characters die. The last three pages make all the heavy, intense, painfulness of the rest of the book almost worth it, in a strange way.

Bittersweet is the perfect word. Sometimes we need a little help to pick ourselves off the floor and start again. It left me feeling emotionally drained and like I'd lost something. I'm not sure if I'm shell-shocked or simply worn out by the intensity of it all. I'm glad, in a way, that it ended like it did. I'm also sad, and a little confused. Not because I didn't like the ending, but because I simply feel emptied out for the time being.

I just wish I wish that there could have been more happiness for these characters that I love so much. I think that unfulfilled wish is, at the end of the day, why I'm feeling this way right now. In time the feeling will pass, I know, but at the moment I'm sorry for it.

No matter how I enjoyed this book and I did, I really did , I'm in a sort of grieving state. Happiness was there in the end, but it just wasn't enough to compensate for all the sadness. Then again, I think that was the point. I finished Catching Fire and wanted this in my hands immediately. Not like uber-happy, of course, I'm not unrealistic I don't care! I'm not making any predictions because it feels like either my wishful thinking or my most dreaded outcome.

I can't find a balance in between. Call me weird. All I can say without bias is that the ending will not be all walkin' in a field of flowers and happiness. Nov 25, Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies rated it it was ok. Ok, short summary. This is day 3 of my Hunger Games binge after I watched the last movie last Saturday without knowing anything about the books and not having watched any of the movies. First book. Second book.

Third book. And now that we've gotten that over with What the fuck happened to Katniss?! How did she end up being so admirable and awesome in the first two books and turned into such a sniveling, squishy mess in this one?

The answer: Peeta. What the fuck happened to Peeta? Ok, fine, we know what happened to Peeta, but that doesn't make it any better because he's collateral damage. And Katniss is the one who gets hurt with her stupid obsession of him.

In this book, Gale was my favorite. He's the voice of reason. It's war, people have to die in order for there to be peace. Because I love d? Fuck your single-mindedness, Katniss.

And that ending. That stupid ending. I'm sorry, I know that life doesn't always turn out well, but dammit, Suzanne Collins, you put us through the wringer with the last two books. May 24, Kat rated it really liked it. View all 30 comments. Feb 09, Jayson rated it liked it Shelves: subject-war , genre-dystopian , author-american , pp , genre-young-adult , read-in , genre-science-fiction.

View all 61 comments. View all 71 comments. Feb 11, Annalisa rated it liked it Shelves: cover , cried , young-adult , dystopia , sci-fi. I'm not sure how to react to Mockingjay. I didn't love it and I'm not sure it satisfied me, but it was a disturbing read that will stick with me. Not that the series isn't good, but I'm not longer sure it's for the masses of YA readers.

Like Catching Fire , Mockingjay took awhile for me to get into. When the pages turned into the triple digits and I wasn't hooked, I go 3. When the pages turned into the triple digits and I wasn't hooked, I got worried it wouldn't be epic. Like Catching Fire , the stakes are upped, the gruesomeness of war more real, and the intensity more fierce.

And in the end, that was my biggest problem. In my opinion, this crossed the line with violence into shock value for the sake of shock value. Yes, it's meant to be thought-provoking and show the price of war to humanity, but at the peak of all this violence, I pulled out of the story. I could see the questions running through her head: "What is the worst thing I could do to Katniss? What will break her the most? The death that should have hurt most hardly fazed me view spoiler [Primrose hide spoiler ] ; at that point, I had already shut down in a story that was working too hard to manipulate my emotions.

It was view spoiler [Finnick's death hide spoiler ] killed me no pun intended , and it disappeared like a whisper. It seemed like Collins picked the only character she made us care about in this book on purpose. It should have felt natural to the progression of the story, but it didn't. There is a lot of bleakness in the other books in the series, but it is balanced with a humanity and hope that I think is crucial in YA fiction.

My review of Hunger Games states that Collins took an unbelievable story and made it believable. Here, she took the believable violence and cruelty of war and made it a little unbelievable for me. I struggled to find motivation from President Snow targeting children, to understand why the citizens of the capital continued to believe him, to accept that these villains could be this sadistically evil, to believe that this much could go wrong for one person, to champion Collin's bleak take on humanity.

Not that this story is any more unbelievable than The Hunger Games , but Collins delivered this one with such a numb, detached string of events that relied on violence instead of characters to deliver her message. Even more important than hope in YA is a strong character you would follow anywhere. I didn't want to follow Katniss in this story. She shut down in the end, but really she'd been shutting down the entire book.

After the fiery character of the first two books, it was hard to get nothing from her especially as a first-person POV and still feel vested in the outcome of her story. Her cold, detached comments to view spoiler [Peeta hide spoiler ] in particular bothered me, especially after everything he sacrificed for her. I had to keep reminding myself of all the horror she'd been through because although her detachment realistic, it bothered me. I couldn't remember why anyone wanted a self-absorbed teenager as the Mockingjay.

Without any character development from any of the characters , the story relied too heavily on action without connecting the pieces, developing those story lines, or making me care about the characters involved.

I would have almost rather heard the story from a third party watching a broken Mockingjay than the emptiness with which Katniss tells her story. What I really wanted is Katniss back.

I know I can't have her, but if I had to lose her, I wanted to feel heartbreak instead of nothing. About the love triangle But I was happy with the resolution for these reasons: 1. Gale never showed up in this book, not the intense Gale hiding a painful love for Katniss that I loved. Not once in this book did I feel his love for her. Was comfortable with her, coldly understanding, wanted to win her because it was a competition, but never once did I sense any love. And when he knew the enormous hurdle he had to overcome to win her back, he laughed and walked away.

I would not have minded if the Gale who showed up for this story had been one of its casualties. It was pretty clear from the first chapter that Collins was directing us away from this relationship she had dangled in front of us. If this is the way the relationship had always been, as this book seems to imply, than this is the relationship that should have been there in Catching Fire.

For the first time in the trilogy, Peeta was not a Gary Stu, a doormat, a little too sacrificial for me to believe. He bite back. Unlike during the games, I never doubted that he could survive on his own. He stopped wanting to be a pointless martyr the death pleas were still there, but this time they made sense. Not that I ever wanted Peeta to be mean or broken, but he can have heart and a backbone too. He could have a few flaws. Finally, I could root for him. My last reason is not that as Gale and Peeta changed, Katniss did too, and so did the world they lived in.

In a harsh war world, you need someone strong and skilled by your side. In the other books, Katniss needed Gale. In a world where you have lost everything and no longer have a reason or the mental state or the will to fight, you need someone soft and caring. Even before Katniss said her bit about needing heart not fire, I knew she was going to say it.

And finally, the words were true. So yes, I am eating my words and saying Katniss ended up with the right person. I just hate what Collins did to her to make her need it. I know Collins is capable of power. In the end, I was too numb to feel its power, to even cry, to feel anything at all.

I left a fantastic series with a major blank. View all 94 comments. Feb 21, Kiki rated it it was ok Shelves: ya , dystopian , choking-noises , lost-the-will-to-live , books-to-use-as-weapons , love-stinks , zombies. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I've seen both of the other movies for this series, and while I enjoyed them greatly, the third instalment was on another level entirely. It's one of the best movies I've seen in a very, very long time. Good job, movie people. You made a meh book into a stellar piece of cinema. Probably the best ten pages of the series.

The pages [ This just in : the movie adaptation, Mockingjay: Part 1 , was absolutely outstanding. The pages before that, however, deserve nothing. The first pages can kiss my ass. This book was a fucking slog. I kid you not.

This book tried me to the point of breaking. About halfway through, I was ready to feed the damn thing to my dog. I'm not the biggest Hunger Games fan. Y'all know that. Catching Fire was just fantastic. I really, really and truly enjoyed it. Mockingjay was a bloodbath. If you're sensitive to pointless deaths and gratuitous violence, then this is not the book for you.

Actually, I like that word. It describes this book perfectly. Everything in this book was gratuitous and over the top, from the wangst to the ridiculous romantic interludes in the middle of battle scenes, and from the candy-gore violence to the stupid, overly-disgusting deaths of several characters who did not need to die. There's also the writing, which is so overwrought - it's not even like the author took the sparseness of the first book and butchered it. It's like she took the sparseness, fed it to her dog, fed the dog to a crocodile, fed the crocodile to a Tyrannosaurus rex, cut the Tyrannosaurus rex up into steaks, sold the steaks in Soho to a cabaret dancer, A-bombed the cabaret dancer's house, collected the ashes, mixed them into fluorescent paint, and then splattered the paint all over the White House in D.

Because we, as readers who have stuck by and read the entire series through, need an entire page of Creative Writing Class explanation on what the Hanging Tree song means.

It's like in the first book, when we were constantly being told exactly what the dandelions represent. Everything, from Katniss's clothes which she's weirdly fixated with to her circular, drier-than-Egyptian-sand inner monologues were painstakingly pored over to the point of ridiculousness. Shall I repeat that again? One more time? Contrary to the masses, I love reading books where loads of lovable characters die in the final fight. I love going through that grief, feeling the torment of watching one of my beloved friends die a bloody death.

In fact, in my own work, I have a death list. I literally have a list of the most beloved characters, and I've put stars in red pen against all those who die. There are many red stars on that list. But what I do not enjoy, and what I found far too much of in Mockingjay , are pointless deaths.

Deaths that don't ensure anyone else's survival, are excessively undignified, or never grieved for. Finnick, Mesalla, Mitchell, Boggs, and Cinna all died ridiculous deaths that really did nothing to aid Katniss's bringing down the Capitol. Essentially, they were all just Mauve Shirts, and they had been all along. I mean, fine. If the author wanted to kill these characters, go ahead and do it. It's actually not the fact that the characters died that bothered me.

Yes, I was absolutely distraught over the death of Finnick he just married Annie! Annie was pregnant! What the fuck kind of sadist kills that? I'd probably kill him too. But the way in which Finnick dies is nonsensical. YA is a tricky field in which to write dystopian. True dystopian always deals with death.

It always deals with untimely death, tragic lives and terrible situations in which people are abused and scarred, in any and every way.