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kilroyPrint date: 2008 (20s: 1, 50s: 2, 60s: 4, 70s: 9, 80s: 7, 90s: 7, 00s: 20, 10s: 1)
I've seen this story before: Lord of the Flies, The Lottery, Battle Royale. It's a credit to the author that I didn't care. This story is good enough on its own merits that I can enjoy it even if I've seen most of the elements before.
The prose style is carefully and appropriately blunt. I can only imagine Collins going back over her work and stripping it down again and again, looking for ways to make the narrative leaner. It works; the main character is a no-nonsense kind of girl to begin with, and that comes out in every line of the narration. The author also doesn't over-sell the dramatic moments; she hews to a realistic minimalism that keeps things sharp and focused. There's symbolism but not poetry, emotion but not melodrama. In a lot of ways it's the perfect young adult book-- all high-quality material but almost no candy.
Of course "perfect" here involves children murdering each other, so your mileage may very much vary. (As a side note, I really need to get a few books in that aren't quite so challenging. This is getting depressing.) I will say that the issues are dealt with responsibly and that the author makes it clear that you're not supposed to approve of this. It's a book that explores basically one issue, so it manages to go to some depth and breadth within that context. I also imagine that some of the broader cultural problems are going to get dealt with in the next few books-- I'm getting that whiff of revolution that seems to come with any vaguely scifi trilogy.
I like the characters both in the sense that I enjoy them and empathize with them. I particularly appreciate that Katniss doesn't quite understand herself and that her feelings about things are complex and ambiguous-- it's good to see in any story, but in a young adult book it's positively invaluable. I was surprised by the love story just because it seemed so out of place, but the cameras added a nice twist to things and Collins manages to carry it off.
There's no question that I'll be buying the remaining books; I don't have a towering passion for it, but I genuinely want to find out where this goes. It's good and I enjoyed it, and that's more than enough for me.
Verdict: Keep. (32.5/85)
Page count: 384 (17537 total)
Completed: 51 (23 female authors, 26 male authors, 2 anthology)
Rejected: 34 (20 male authors, 14 female authors)
Next book due: Wednesday, June 1st
I've seen this story before: Lord of the Flies, The Lottery, Battle Royale. It's a credit to the author that I didn't care. This story is good enough on its own merits that I can enjoy it even if I've seen most of the elements before.
The prose style is carefully and appropriately blunt. I can only imagine Collins going back over her work and stripping it down again and again, looking for ways to make the narrative leaner. It works; the main character is a no-nonsense kind of girl to begin with, and that comes out in every line of the narration. The author also doesn't over-sell the dramatic moments; she hews to a realistic minimalism that keeps things sharp and focused. There's symbolism but not poetry, emotion but not melodrama. In a lot of ways it's the perfect young adult book-- all high-quality material but almost no candy.
Of course "perfect" here involves children murdering each other, so your mileage may very much vary. (As a side note, I really need to get a few books in that aren't quite so challenging. This is getting depressing.) I will say that the issues are dealt with responsibly and that the author makes it clear that you're not supposed to approve of this. It's a book that explores basically one issue, so it manages to go to some depth and breadth within that context. I also imagine that some of the broader cultural problems are going to get dealt with in the next few books-- I'm getting that whiff of revolution that seems to come with any vaguely scifi trilogy.
I like the characters both in the sense that I enjoy them and empathize with them. I particularly appreciate that Katniss doesn't quite understand herself and that her feelings about things are complex and ambiguous-- it's good to see in any story, but in a young adult book it's positively invaluable. I was surprised by the love story just because it seemed so out of place, but the cameras added a nice twist to things and Collins manages to carry it off.
There's no question that I'll be buying the remaining books; I don't have a towering passion for it, but I genuinely want to find out where this goes. It's good and I enjoyed it, and that's more than enough for me.
Verdict: Keep. (32.5/85)
Page count: 384 (17537 total)
Completed: 51 (23 female authors, 26 male authors, 2 anthology)
Rejected: 34 (20 male authors, 14 female authors)
Next book due: Wednesday, June 1st