Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Hunger Games Trilogy

When a book is really good, I lose myself in it completely. A no sleep, do nothing until it is finished kind of lose. This is how I was with The Hunger Games trilogy. I was inspired to start the book by some friends of mine on Twitter and they just happened to be on the Kindle my dad got for Christmas. So even though I hate the Kindle... I dove in. Three days later I had all the books read. It's going up there on my list of favorite book series.

Here are my reviews of each book. To avoid any spoilers, I did some sections of the review in white. Just highlight over that area to read the review.
© Goodreads.com


Well, where to start. This book, it was a little "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, a little of TV's Survivor, a little Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and a whole lot of amazing. Suzanne Collins is a great writer. She really knows how to write an engaging, albeit disturbing, story. Her characters are interesting, the story is fairly unique, and the parallels to today's society are interesting, whether she meant to make a statement or not. Overall I throughly enjoyed the book once I looked past the main purpose of the games.






Overall Review: ★★★★★


© Goodreads.com


Catching Fire was a great book, though not as great as the first one. I found it to be a tad repetitive and not as quick paced. But it was good filler and a great set up for the final book. Collins still knows how to tell a great story and I'm glad to see some of the secondary characters fleshed out some more.


Spoilers - Please do not read if you plan to read the series:
I will say the game arena in the Quarter Quall was very creative and found the clock setup and an excellent why to distinguish it from the first games.




Overall Review: ★★★★★


© Goodreads.com
I have to say, I was a bit disappointed in Mockingjay, the final book of this series. The book felt rushed, the characters very undimensional, and it was very violent. I just wasn't satisfied with how a lot of the plot lines were wrapped up. There is more I want to say about this, but I want to avoid spoilers, so I wrote those parts below.


Spoilers - Please do not read if you plan to read the series:
Initially I was upset about Prim. I though it was cruel and senseless to kill her off, but the more I think about it the more it was called for. It's what drove Katniss the rest of the book and gave her a reason to no longer love Gale. Speaking of Gale, here is some of what angered me about this book... Gale. Where was the closure? I mean he didn't even try to fight for her in the end. Just took a job in District 2 and that was it. No visiting her in the hospital, no talk about why she killed Coin. Nothing. I want some closure! I wanted to see Katniss forced to choose between her two loves. Which leads me to another sour note... Peeta. She just settled. Where is the no marriage/no children Katniss? She gave in to having kids? What is that? She went from strong and independent to someone who just needed a guy around.  Though maybe part of it was from her being damaged by the events, but still... Or maybe I'm just bitter because for most of the story I was team Gale. Besides those two points my biggest issue with this book, like I mentioned, was the overall feeling that the ending was rushed. Till the end everything was well thought out and had great timing. But the last couple of chapters were hurry up and get it over with. I mean for a girl like Katniss who had a speech for every injustice, to just shoot and be done. Where is the speech? Where is the Mockingjay speaking out for the cause. Surely there needed to be some explanation to the people. And then to not even read about the trial, just the highlights. Really that could have been a whole chapter with Katniss being aloud to defend her actions. Instead they played the crazy card? The whole ending, it just seem that is wasn't thought out very well.


Overall Review: ★★★★

Have you read The Hunger Games trilogy? What did you think of it?

2012 Reading Challenge

2012 Reading Challenge
April has read 4 books toward her goal of 10 books.
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Saturday, January 7, 2012

A Tale Dark and Grimm

I have signed up to do the Goodread's 2012 Reading Challenge and so far I've gotten one book read. Not bad for the first week of 2012! As I finish a book, I plan to do a review of it here. My first book:


A Tale Dark & Grimm

by Adam Gidwitz

I had high hopes for this book when I first added it to my must read list, mostly because I love stories of twisted fairy tales. And for the most part the story lived up to my expectations. So much if I was to rate on just the fairy tale it gets 4 stars, however, and this is a big however, during the book the author interrupts the story to either warn you about what is coming or to explain something. I found this very annoying and unnecessary. Okay, we get it, the story is not one to read to little or sensitive kids. But you don't need to keep repeating it, even if  you are doing it in a playful manner. So on commentary alone the book gets only 2 stars. Combining the two I give this book an overall review of 3 stars. 

Overall Review: ★★★

2012 Reading Challenge

2012 Reading Challenge
April has read 1 book toward her goal of 10 books.
hide

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Team Vampires

I've been feeling a bit achy lately, so I've taken to bed with a book I've been trying to read for at least a year but haven't found the time.
Image © Amazon.com

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is the story of President Lincoln from youth to presidency with a focus on his secret job of hunting vampires. Amazon classifies this book as a work of fantasy, but oh, how I wish this book was a work of non-fiction. I so want it to be 100% real! Without giving anything away, let's just say I love the concept, the characters, and the story. And I'm learning more about Abe Lincoln then I ever have during my years of school! If you like vampires, history, or twisted books, this one is for you!