may the odds be ever in your favor;

[longerthanwedo]

So I just read The Hunger Games. Start to finish in almost one sitting. And to be honest, I was really unimpressed. Like, ugh, okay, I know that purposeful social commentary and satire is usually not subtle. Obviously. And I know that this was meant as a YA novel and an easy read, a page-turner. I get it. I just feel like it could have been so much bettter with a more subtle style and some integrated world-building and discussion of cause and effect rather than the blunt action-action-brief introspection-action format that it was written in. There's a Stephen King quote that says something to the effect of "a character should never start a conversation by saying, 'hello, ex-wife!', instead they should imply background and marital status through more natural dialogue", I'm paraphrasing, but I felt like the majority of this book was just saying "hello, ex-wife!" over and over again and describing past events and relationships in the most blunt way possible, which, while the bluntness might work for some of the more obvious commentary, it really doesn't work towards building rapport between characters or identification with the reader. Also I felt like the book could have been so much more artfully paced. Each chapter picks up exactly where the last left off, there's no expansion or contraction of time, and I suppose this makes it flow together, but it doesn't really flow in the way that it probably should. There are so many moments that could have been expanded into symbols and really important scenes that aren't, while scenes that are irrelevant or repetitive are emphasized the same amount. Other than that, I just thought that the writing itself was, well, not good. There are so many short sentences. Like this. And she hardly uses commas. And when she does. They're in, weird places. I think the 1st person POV is also really limiting and forces the writing to follow sort of a thought pattern, like the prose is trying to mimic the path of Katniss's thoughts, but that just comes across as awkward most of the time; at the least, it's inconsistent and not very effective.

GOD, I FEEL MEAN. I really do like the concept, and I love Katniss, and I will read the other two if only because I really, really want more Gale and Katniss/Gale. I NEED TO STOP BEING SUCH A SNOB SHUT UP I CAN'T HELP IT. This book could have been so much more, sob sob.