Cannonball! Book #5 and Book #6 Complete my Hungry Trilogy!

CANNONBALL READ 2011

BOOK #5: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

BOOK #6: Mockingjay BY Suzanne Collins

Now, I know that I stipulated in my rules that I must post the review for one book before starting another; however, I took a 36 hour mini-trip to visit my sister for her birthday and figured I could knock out both books during the bus ride(s). Also, since these are the final two books of the Hunger Games Trilogy, they're closely related, review-wise.

Plus: my Cannonball, my rules.

Catching Fire picks up a few months after the events of the first book, and almost immediately begins to instill a sense of dread within both the reader and our protagonist, Katniss Everdeen. The Capitol and President of her nation of Panem have it out for her and it's clear, with every shocking twist and turn of the story, that things (which were far from good in the first book) are going to get a whole hell of a lot worse in the second.

The flaws I found in The Hunger Games have apparently been fixed in this, its following novel: Collins is much more careful in where she places her adjectives--while there are still scenes that have a touch of immature detailing, she's also placed reasoning behind it. Catching Fire is more mature, as Katniss is, after the events of the first book. Also, our characters grow more and more likeable (or despised, depending on their hero/villain state) and three-dimensional. We are allowed to see more layers and begin to understand motivations much more clearly.

I finished reading the second book while sitting next to my sister, who continued to laugh at my exclamations of shock throughout the final chapters of Fire. The last third of the book is truly stunning: alliances and secret plans and violent deaths abound, and I had to (once again) cover all of the page but the section I was reading, so my eyes wouldn't betray me and jump ahead.

With Catching Fire leaving us in an "Empire Strikes Back" level of separation and despair, I had no choice but to go ahead and start Mockingjay, the third and final book of the trilogy. I read all but a few chapters on my four-hour bus ride back to the city, with Honor Him from the "Gladiator" soundtrack repeatedly playing. I'm just saying: whoa.

The dread and doom that appears throughout the second book is put on the back burner at the beginning of third, but that doesn't mean all is well for our protagonist, Katniss. I hesitate to say too much, since the books really are quite fantastic, but I will say this much: Mockingjay is almost cruel in its ability to ease you in to a state of comfort and then blast it all away. Collins manages to introduce us to and graphically destroy characters within a few pages and do it without seeming trite or immature. I haven't cried while reading a book since Book 7 of the Harry Potter series, but Collins got me three times.

I'm actually still processing the ending of her final book: not every loose end is tied up (mayhap allowing other books?), not every action and character is paid their due. Initially, this bothered me, but I feel (upon a second reading) that I could better understand my own feelings regarding Mockingjay. I will say, especially in light of what's been happening in Egypt, the final book (which deals primarily with a revolution) makes one think quite a bit about what people are willing to do and to what they shouldn't ever even give thought. What we sacrifice and what we slaughter.

All these games we play.

Cannonball! Book #1 Leaves Me Hungry For More!

Please Note: I'm not quite sure yet of how my reviews will work--it will be an evolving process. You know, don't judge a book by its cover, and whatnot.

CANNONBALL READ 2011
BOOK #1: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

If my staying up until 5:00 in the morning to finish reading The Hunger Games is any indication, it's an action-packed, nail-biting, page-turner of a book.

The first in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy, The Hunger Games introduces us to a futuristic North American police state where, once a year, 24 randomly-selected teenagers are forced to fight to the death in a live broadcast. At the center of the story is our first-person narrator, Katniss Everdeen, who finds herself competing in the Hunger Games--literally fighting for her life.

It would be easy, in a story like this, to make the protagonist completely unlikeable--after all, Katniss is both stubborn and selfless, which (if written poorly) could make her the whiniest woman in the world. But Collins has managed to produce a clever fighter of a girl, who makes me want to learn to how build a fire out of nothing and then wire-snare a squirrel.

Not really so much the squirrel thing.

But the book really does keep you on edge: I found myself exclaiming aloud, into the silence of the wee morning hours. Gasps of shock and "No! She's going to--" kept me turning page after page. I felt the tension of survival in the wilderness right along with Katniss. And while it has its occasional predictable moments and some overly detailed dresses and feasts (the first part of the book reads more young adult than the rest), the book as a whole is an action-adventure-romance with frequent head-spinning twists.

I am looking very much forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy, and a lot of that comes from not knowing exactly where Collins is going to go with the story--and I mean that in a good way. There are certain paths for the characters that you can see her laying the groundwork for, but the rest is a mystery and that's fantastic! I'm also excited, partly, because I love a book that's part of a series--if it's done well, and I'm left craving more, it's always exciting to know there actually is more.

That of course means I need to go buy the rest of the series. Better get a move on.