Jen - Nook

One of the benefits of reading a book after watching a movie is that you have a much clearer picture of what the characters look like that you're reading about. Now, this could be a bad thing but I find it usually less frustrating than the on-screen characters not living up to the ideal you created in your head from reading the books first. In this case, I liked seeing the characters as those presented in the movies.
As to the actual books in this trilogy volume... I have to say that much like the movies the first book is the best by far. Reading it, you can see how well and easily it could translate to film and how exciting it could be. The characters are rich and Katniss is well defined in both mannerism and drive. If I were breaking reviews per book I could go as far as rate Hunger Games as 4 stars.
However, the other books don't live up to it. Book 2 works as intended in being the bridge to gap the opening from the big battle for Panem. It has its moments but is mainly to get you to book 3.
The final book, sadly, falls as flat as the movie(s). As painful as the last two movies were that comprised the single last book, the story itself didn't have anywhere to go. Katniss was. Itching more than a pawn being moved from place to place and situation to situation. It may have started strong with her finding her reason beyond her family for fighting the Capital but after that she didn't bring anything to the book. She literally read as though she were a background character in her own story. This book would be a 2 star rating because of how flat and unfulfilling he ending actually is. The "big bad guy" is defeated, the districts are reunited... But never does it feel like a celebration or a victory.
If you want to enjoy this series, I suggest you just stick with the first book and movie. ( )

Hmm...I had mixed feelings about this. Read it over the holidays when I was sick, so it was a nice distraction. Some "candy" reading, page turner, fun stuff. If I were a parent, I would never allow my children to read this until they were at least in high school and even then I would hesitate to allow it. And to a certain extent I was disgusted with myself for being so entertained by such a brutally violent plot. I enjoyed it for the escape it gave me, but regretted it for what it says about our society that this could become a popular young adult series. After the first book it became predictable and the only part that interested me was the new death traps the gamers would create. As a libertarian I took a much different message from this very heavy handed allegory than the typical reader probably would. ( )

Hmm...I had mixed feelings about this. Read it over the holidays when I was sick, so it was a nice distraction. Some "candy" reading, page turner, fun stuff. If I were a parent, I would never allow my children to read this until they were at least in high school and even then I would hesitate to allow it. And to a certain extent I was disgusted with myself for being so entertained by such a brutally violent plot. I enjoyed it for the escape it gave me, but regretted it for what it says about our society that this could become a popular young adult series. After the first book it became predictable and the only part that interested me was the new death traps the gamers would create. As a libertarian I took a much different message from this very heavy handed allegory than the typical reader probably would. ( )

These are such a great series of books and I enjoyed all of them from start to finish. I would recommend these for anybody wanting to start in the Dystopian genre, these would be a great start. ( )