Nyssa's Reading Life

Does not live up to the hype. Collins does not know how to write a taut narrative. There is little to no foregrounding in this story--different facts come into play right when they're needed, or at most 30 pages before they need to make their appearance. Katniss was an insufferably stupid character (it can't be THAT hard to believe that Peeta has a crush on you), and I really did not like the first-person present perspective of the novel. There wasn't enough description of things I was actually interested in (what the Capitol actually looks like) and way too much of things I really don't care about (food, showers, outfits). The entire book feels like it's rushing too quickly toward a climax too feeble to carry the supposed weight of the story.In brief, I see a lot of reviews on this page praising how quickly they had to finish the book, but I maintain that the time it takes you to finish a book is not a sign of its quality. I finished the book in a 24-hour period because the narrative was paper-thin, the story simplistic. The book told me what I was supposed to be thinking all the time, so of course that sped things along, but I hated every supposed revelation from Katniss. It all felt so formulaic. Just as a bad song can be catchy, a bad book can be a page-turner.The movie was a far better and more exciting take on this story, mostly because I didn't have to listen to Katniss's internal monologuing. I am going to be reading forward, however, because I want to find out what Mockingjay is all about and why so many people get upset about it. I'm hoping that if people generally love the first two books and hate the third one, I'll find something worthwhile to get out of the last installment in the trilogy. We'll see.