The one where I talk about Hunger Games.

I know this is my day to do Thursday 13. BUT. I have some more important things to discuss.

The Hunger Games.

If you haven't read the books, don't read on. I'm giving you a clear warning - spoiler alert!

Okay. Hardly any of my friends have read the series, so I'm DYING to discuss it with someone. I want to hear your thoughts too! Please don't judge me for being so completely invested in fiction books written for 14 year olds.

Some things I loved:

• The characters. I felt like I knew them. I was completely invested in their fictional lives.


• The story line. I know it's really weird and kind of gruesome. But it was original, and I liked it.


• Peeta. I am team Peeta. He kind of made my heart melt.


• That Katniss wasn't perfect. She was screwed up and indecisive and normal. I like characters like that.


• All three books. Even though the series didn't end exactly like I wanted it to, I still thought all three books were great, and I couldn't put them down.


• The fact that I was so completely invested in the story. I may have cried at a couple moments. It's true.


• All the weird names. Katniss. Peeta. Prim. Boggs. Cinna. Haymitch. They're so weird and wonderful.


• That you could relate to the characters. Even though the situations were weird and nothing like my life, I could still understand the emotions of all the characters.

Some things I didn't like:

• The very end. I was just so disappointed that the ending wasn't very happy. Yes, she ended up with Peeta and they got to have a life together. But I don't feel like she ever got to be happy. Even in the epilogue, she's still having nightmares 20 years later and just seemed so tortured. It made me sad.


• All the killing. As an adult, I really liked the story line and its originality. But as a teacher, I'm not sure I would want kids reading that much violence. I guess there are a lot of good points that can be made from it. But I'm just not sure I like it.


• The author's shortcuts. One thing that really frustrated me was how a couple different times, Katniss blacked out and woke up to a completely different world. Like in the very end. She's in the battle, and all the sudden she wakes up to find that her sister is dead, the Capitol is overthrown, Snow isn't president, and on and on. I felt almost like the author got stuck and was just like "Okay, let's have her black out and I'll explain this all away." And again at the end of the 3rd book, when she's stuck in her room during the trial and after when she's wandering around in a stupor. We didn't know anything, and then it just lays it on and explains in one paragraph that all of these major things happened. I felt like that at the end of the 2nd book as well. After they snatched her from The Hunger Games, and then explained away the whole book and told all about the secret plots that had been happening. I know we're reading it from Katniss' perspective, so technically we wouldn't know about any of it. But I still felt like I was cheated out of reading a bunch of good stuff. Does that make sense? Did you guys feel like that?


• Prim's death. I didn't like that she died. But I especially didn't like how the author handled it. I felt like they should have spent a lot more time talking about it. But instead, when Katniss woke up, it was kind of like "Oh by the way, your sister is dead. Okay. Let's move on." The entire ending felt a little rushed.


• Both boys' endings. Even though I wasn't rooting for Gale, I still loved him and wanted him to be happy. But we got no closure. He just drifted off to another district, all sad and lonely and never got to talk to Katniss again. And I didn't really like Peeta's ending either. Yes, I'm glad he and Katniss ended up together and in the epilogue we found out he got to have a relitively happy life. But I feel like we never got to see him being "normal Petta" again. After we were disconnected from him through the whole 3rd book, I thought we'd get to see a little more of him at the end. Instead, the last real memory of him we have is all the way back in the 2nd book.

So PLEASE tell me. What did you think?