book thoughts

Thursday night, I received the inevitable 'You have a package waiting for you' email that comes a few days after ordering books on Amazon. Somehow, I didn't manage to pick it up until Saturday night, at which point I ripped open the cardboard box and ran my hands lovingly over my two newest additions to my modest library, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Susan Collins. There's only so much loving hand-running to be done over books you've never read before, however, so I immediately set in to reading The Hunger Games, keeping in mind that, for whatever reason, the main character Katniss apparently reminded my younger sisters of myself. My first impressions - fierce, loving, self-important and unforgiving of perceived stupidity - of Katniss allowed me to understand, briefly, before I was so sucked into the plot that by 4 in the morning I only stopped reading because my iPod, which I'd been using as a light source, died. When I woke up about four hours later, I immediately finished the book, lay it down, and went about my day for all of two hours before I picked up Catching Fire, which I finished by about 7 (last night).

Of course, immediately after that last line (what an evil, evil last line), I wanted to pick up Mockingjay, the third book of the series, a title I caught while ordering the first two. Most unfortunately, it won't be released until September. Having less than twenty-four hours between myself and that last line, I haven't put too much thought into the books as a whole. However, my immediate reactions are almost all positive. In fact, I only have three complaints (aside from the obvious one of not being able to finish the storyline until SEPTEMBER):

The first complaint is about how easily and how taken for granted it is that Gale and Peeta (the two male main characters) fall in love with Katniss. This complaint may or may not derive from the whole Twilight fiasco, which has made me hyper aware of bullshit romance lines in modern story-telling (it's not helped by the plethora of romance movies in which the only quality a girl needs to have to be desired is an adherence to cultural norms of 'pretty' and, for the sake of feminist critics, the ability to hold her own in a conversation. The attitude of "Look how kickass my female protagonist is, all of my male protagonists are in love with her!" irritates the hell out of me. Go ahead and write it, you know, but I'm not going to be a devoted reader if you do. However, Collins off-sets this by showing in MANY other ways how kickass Katniss is, not as a female protagonist, but as a PROTAGONIST, period. That's all it takes to make me forgive the majority of what might otherwise be cringe-worthy scenes between Katniss and Gale or Katniss and Peeta. That I remember, there is only ONE moment when Peeta says something along the lines of, "You just don't understand the effect you have on people!" That line always irritates me to no end. Katniss knows EXACTLY how awesome she is. She also knows exactly how not-awesome she is, and doesn't wallow in self-absorption when it comes to these guys and their love for her.

My second complaint is the abrupt ending to Catching Fire. It's not the cliff-hanger that gets me, but rather the rushed way in which all of the 'Ah, so that's why this happened!' and 'So that's why he was acting like that!' moments were just laid out in the period of about three pages. I sort of get why it had to be that way - it was chaotic, and that's how Katniss found OUT, in that rushed sort of way that leads us into the Mockingjay storyline... but it was sort of disappointing. I mean, a lot of the revelations were lead up to in a satisfactory 'I think this might be the case but I'm not entirely sure' sort of way, but there were at least two subplots that just felt like they came out of nowhere - especially Beetee's.

My third complaint has to do with the realism of Katniss's reaction to the events in The Hunger Games. While the nightmares are realistic, and I guess she gets A LITTLE more paranoid come Catching Fire, the effects of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) are otherwise paid very little attention. What Katniss has gone through is absolutely horrendous, and the effects it would have had on her, mentally and physically, are only hinted at. I get that, while self-absorbed, Katniss allows herself very little self-pity (I adore that she is self-absorbed and yet hardly ever whines), however, extreme paranoia, distrustfulness, et cetera that would be part and parcel of PTSD (especially after everything she's gone through) would not require Katniss to be whiny at all. They would simply make her less likeable and more thoroughly jumpy - but I still would have liked to see it addressed. I think it's also important to note that, while Katniss and Gale have been friends for years, Katniss and Peeta have been through SO MUCH together that they are permanently bound. Gale will never fully understand that bond (the same way Peeta will never fully understand the bond between Gale and Katniss)... I do like how subtly it's all addressed, however, due to the subtlety of how it is (both the PTSD and the relationship Katniss has with each boy) makes me unsure as to whether Collins knows what she's doing or I'm just reading into it because of my research/understanding of how human beings react to extreme situations.

Overall, however, I love this series and I'm so very glad I've finally gotten to it. I want to read the next book NOW and can hardly wait till September to read about the full-out rebellion. The strongest image I have from these books is Katniss swirling into her wedding dress and "becoming" a mockingjay. That is the moment the rebellion TRULY lets itself show, that is the moment that the Capital, I believe, TRULY starts to panic. I want to see artwork of Katniss wearing all of Cinna's outfits, because they are described so clearly and so beautifully that I can't wait to see readers' renditions.

OK, well, now I've had my mandatory 16oz of coffee and I have class in a half hour. <3