2/3 of a Trilogy

A few weeks back I finally picked up the first book in The Hunger Games series.  People had been raving about it, and I expected it to be a good book, but I was surprised at how quickly it drew me in.  It's a short book, which is too bad, considering how quickly I inhaled it, and that is my one main complaint about the series so far.  I realize that it is intended as young adult fiction, but J.K. Rowling has proven that a 400-page book isn't daunting to teenagers if the story is good enough.

The first book did a great job of introducing the main character, Katniss, a young woman who is both fiercely independent, and fiercely protective of those who she claims as her own.  In a dystopic future, she becomes the breadwinner of her family, learning to hunt, gather, trade and sell to supplement her family's meager income, which is still better than many of the families around her.  She has a rebellious streak, which causes problems when she is chosen to take part in the annual Hunger Games, a festival designed to celebrate the triumph of the Capital over the Districts after a rebellion 74 years in the past, while simultaneously impressing upon those districts just how much power the Capitol holds.  In a battle where teenagers are forced to fight to the death, she manages to maintain her moral integrity and survives (otherwise we'd have no books 2 and 3, right?).

I finished the book thinking that it was a cross between Ender's Game and Twilight, but in a good way.  Ender's Game is one of my favorite books, and Ender is a similar character to Katniss -- a child forced into vicious surroundings, whose intelligence and basic human decency allows him to defy the game and write his own rules.  The Twilight aspect comes from just a few similarities between Katniss and Bella -- most obviously, the fact that she is torn between two men who both love her desperately.  I can easily see why comparisons were made between the two franchises when the Hunger Games movie came out.  However, unlike Bella, Katniss is fully aware of her own talents and abilities, she is engaged with and in control of her destiny at all times, and she has a strong sense of self-esteem.  When she takes action, it is to protect both herself and her loved ones, unlike Bella, who sees absolutely no value in herself and is always itching to become the sacraficial lamb.  Katniss's biggest flaw is perhaps her inability to let her guard down enough to recognize and accept the love of the people who surround her. 

I also wish that the first book didn't end as a cliffhanger.  Call me old fashioned, but even if you are planning a series, I expect you, as the author, to give me a complete story in each book.  Again, J.K. Rowling managed to pull it off 7 times.  I expected the second book to pick up exactly where the first left off, but fortunately there was a gap -- I say fortunately, because that gap was somewhat artfully filled in to start the next book.

And the second book, Catching Fire, was just as absorbing as the first.  But it was also too short.  Katniss has to deal with life back in the village as the Capitol begins to crack down, and she continues to battle with her conflicting feelings about the two men she has been involved with.  However, in this book, I definitely saw the parallels between her character and the goddess Diana/Artemis -- a beautiful virgin who is at home in the woods, who is freakishly good with a bow, and who resists romantic entanglements.  She finds herself a pawn in the Capitol's game while the other districts begin to rise up in rebellion, but as always she struggles to protect those she can, and to maintain her integrity in the face of forced brutality.

My main problem with this book was that so much of the action was simply glossed over, particularly the explanation at the end that sets us up for book 3 in the series.  These are slim novels, and taking the time to actually walk through the pentultimate conversation as it unfolded would have been much more satisfying than the "here's what he said," two-sentence summary of that conversation.  The same can be said for some of the action of the book itself -- near the beginning of the novel, when Katniss heads out for a 12-district tour, we only experience one or two stops, and the rest is explained away in a few short paragraphs.  I thought it was being sped past to get to a juicier main act, but sections of that part of the story seemed rushed as well.  And, again, it ends on a cliffhanger, but I have come to accept that from this series.

All that said, I am definitely looking forward to getting my hands on book 3 of the series.  I hope that the pace doesn't continue to increase, because if it does, I'm afraid I'll be done with the final book in a matter of hours.  I'm just hoping that the author was so excited to get into the meat of the final story, she rushed a little in part 2.  I hope there's more to savor in the final act.