# The Hunger Games Trilogy Discussion Thread (spoilers)



## Guest (Sep 9, 2010)

I loved this series, and now that I've finished it I'm psyched to get some discussion going about it. I'm going to play devil's advocate and make some controversial statements about this series. Are there any you agree with? Any inflame you enough to make you want to argue against them?

1. The worst part of this series is the title. If the government were really so obsessed with how things were presented and perceived, would they really call them The Hunger Games? That in itself would admit there's a pretty serious problem going on.

2. Thresh should've killed Katniss. After Katniss spent so much of the narrative drilling us that she shouldn't become attached to Peeta, for Thresh to do so for Rue seemed an awful stretch. On a similar note, Foxface should've killed Katniss when she was firing the arrows at the apples, and she should've killed Peeta instead of stealing his berries. She was passive to a fault.

3. Peeta should've killed himself. In Catching Fire, when they were sleeping together on the trains, for Katniss to let him into her bed even though she loved Gale was just brutal. If we had even a glimpse of the torment he must have endured being so close but completely shut out, Katniss would be the villain of this series.

4. Right before they get called back into the Quarter Quell, Catching Fire was boring. Maybe not boring, per se, but aimless. It felt like the middle sections of Harry Potter books when they know they have to do something but have no idea how to do it. Only instead of figuring out how to spark a revolt in 12, the book completely changes. Granted, I was instantly absorbed from then on, but I was having serious doubts when just nothing seemed to be happening.

5. Prim in Mockinjay was all wrong. After being almost completely absent from Catching Fire, it was so strange seeing her give advice to her older sister. I really just had no clue how her character fit in with the words she was saying. It was like she was forgotten by the story, dragged along in Katniss's mind, and so it really didn't register much impact with me when she died. Why weren't there any dying words? Rue was her sister and Prim was the tertiary character in this series.

6. The ending is intended to be a disappointment, just a band-aid on the knife wound that puts us in the position of the district residents who barely had enough to go on. You can read more about my thoughts on this and the rest of the series in my blog posts here: http://powerlessbooks.com/blog/?p=55

Ok, what do you think


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## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

Hey, there's another thread of Mockingjay/Hunger Games spoilers, maybe we can merge these two? Mod?


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## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

As for comments, here's some 

3 -- I don't think Katniss was ever in love with Gale, she considered him her best friend. She seemed an emotional virgin before she met Peeta to me. 

5 -- One of my complaints about the first two books was how the mother was treated. She was left out of most of the story and played a very passive role. Same with Prim. Except for Prim finally gets a chance to speak in Mockingjay. Poor Mom was left out entirely the whole way through.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Yeah if we could merge the threads, that might be nice. Here are some of my comments...



> 1. The worst part of this series is the title. If the government were really so obsessed with how things were presented and perceived, would they really call them The Hunger Games? That in itself would admit there's a pretty serious problem going on.


Well, the Games were a warning and a punishment to the Districts. They really weren't supposed to be enjoyed by anyone but the Capital residents, who had no chance of ever getting put into one of them. I suppose the upper districts probably enjoyed them as well, but I don't think they were perceived by anyone as some nice entertainment the government was putting on for them.



> 2. Thresh should've killed Katniss. After Katniss spent so much of the narrative drilling us that she shouldn't become attached to Peeta, for Thresh to do so for Rue seemed an awful stretch. On a similar note, Foxface should've killed Katniss when she was firing the arrows at the apples, and she should've killed Peeta instead of stealing his berries. She was passive to a fault.


All the tributes were very different people. Katniss had serious attachment issues - she didn't want to get close to anyone, except her sister. Even Gale took awhile. We never really learned much about Thresh's home life, but if Katniss was immediately attached to Rue because she looked like her sister, it's perfectly possible for Thresh to feel some emotion for her too, especially since she was from his district. As for Foxface, her strategy was simply to outlive the others. I don't think she ever showed any aggression to anyone because she was small and probably wasn't a great fighter (especially towards the end when she was starving to death).



> 3. Peeta should've killed himself. In Catching Fire, when they were sleeping together on the trains, for Katniss to let him into her bed even though she loved Gale was just brutal. If we had even a glimpse of the torment he must have endured being so close but completely shut out, Katniss would be the villain of this series.


I'm with hsuthard on this one. I don't think she really loved Gale. She adored him as a friend definitely, and she could have crossed over that friendship line at some point (and came close a few times), but her love for Peeta was different. It was forced at first, then slowly grew into something real. It wasn't until the end of Mockingjay that I think she actually felt love. Back in HG and CF, I think she just wanted human contact and affection.



> 4. Right before they get called back into the Quarter Quell, Catching Fire was boring. Maybe not boring, per se, but aimless. It felt like the middle sections of Harry Potter books when they know they have to do something but have no idea how to do it. Only instead of figuring out how to spark a revolt in 12, the book completely changes. Granted, I was instantly absorbed from then on, but I was having serious doubts when just nothing seemed to be happening.


Yeah, I agree with you on that one. The beginning of Mockingjay felt that way as well. Things were happening, but the plot wasn't really moving forward.



> 5. Prim in Mockinjay was all wrong. After being almost completely absent from Catching Fire, it was so strange seeing her give advice to her older sister. I really just had no clue how her character fit in with the words she was saying. It was like she was forgotten by the story, dragged along in Katniss's mind, and so it really didn't register much impact with me when she died. Why weren't there any dying words? Rue was her sister and Prim was the tertiary character in this series.


I didn't care much for Prim. I felt more terrible for Katniss because she was upset and she was the character I was closest to. I honestly didn't care much when she died.



> 6. The ending is intended to be a disappointment, just a band-aid on the knife wound that puts us in the position of the district residents who barely had enough to go on. You can read more about my thoughts on this and the rest of the series in my blog posts here: www.http://powerlessbooks.com/blog/


I liked the ending, mostly because I had lost hope by the end and was convinced everything was going to be miserable forever, and then a happy ending took me by surprise. I don't know if it was the right ending for the book, but it made me happy, so I liked it.


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## Guest (Sep 9, 2010)

Thanks for your responses, Jessica, and hsuthard. The mother really does get lumped into the background as well. Didn't the book say she had other stuff to do than deal with Katniss after it was all over or something? I guess she and Prim were really not as important as we were led to believe. It actually barely registered with me that Prim died at all. I knew she was around, but it was just left for us to assume that she died before Katniss fell into that strange dream state at the beginning of the next chapter. 

Maybe you both have a better eye for what she was feeling for Gale than I did. I suppose I just preferred him.


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## Varin (May 12, 2009)

I was very disappointed with Mockingjay.

Katniss and Peeta started the war, but they didn't really do anything to end it. Sure, they were just a couple of kids in the middle of the war, but.... they were bystanders for the whole last novel. When Katniss and the others were off to assassinate President Snow, I finally thought that this was what the novel was building up to...... and then nothing happens.

So sad. It really could have been something great.


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

I think the Mom was just used to illustrate why Katniss was forced to be so independent at such a young age and why she WAS an emotional virgin (love that phrase).  Then she was used to illustrate "healer" since that was such an important commodity.  Beyond that, she wasn't fleshed out because Katniss saw her as weak outside the surgery, therefore we were supposed to see her that way, too.

I hated that Prim died.


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

I did feel sorry for Peeta that Katniss didn't catch on that he really loved her and until too late in Hunger Games. It was sad for Petta.

I also think that through HG and CF Katniss wasn't really capable of loving anyone other than her sister. After her father dies and her mom shut down, she had to be the adult at a really young age, only 11. She wasn't about to let herself get close enough to another person to fall in love and get hurt all over again. Plus numerous times she mentioned that she did not want to get married and have kids, she didn't want that life for them that the districts provided, it was hard and cruel.

I agree that her feelings for Gale were always as a friend and as a companion. She had a partner in him, something she didn't have at home that helped her make it through those really hard years. But I don't think it could have ever been anything more, even if Peeta hadn't come along. He wouldn't have challenged her and showed her the things that only Peeta could.

As for saying that Katniss didn't do anything to help the districts in the end, I disagree. She assassinated President Coin, who lets face it, was turning out to be just as cold and manipulative as President Snow. I think she saved the districts and the Capital by giving them a leader that would be fair and just and who was a true soldier. 

As for Prim dying, I think that part was put in there to show that nothing could have ever happened between Gale and Katniss. I think it was just a way to put closure to that part of the story. I can't say I was really sad about her dying, I never really got the chance to become attached to her. I think I was more sad when Cinna died. 

I was more upset by what happened to Peeta in MockingJay than anything else. I think it ruined his character somewhat. I know why they did it, to show Katniss that she loved and needed him but I think it could have been better done. I didn't like to see him mean and hard like that. I hate to say it but I would have much preferred and better sappier happily ever after. The ending felt a little rushed and just empty to me.


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## Guest (Sep 15, 2010)

Varin said:


> I was very disappointed with Mockingjay.
> 
> Katniss and Peeta started the war, but they didn't really do anything to end it. Sure, they were just a couple of kids in the middle of the war, but.... they were bystanders for the whole last novel. When Katniss and the others were off to assassinate President Snow, I finally thought that this was what the novel was building up to...... and then nothing happens.
> 
> So sad. It really could have been something great.


Yeah, this is more how I felt about it. I enjoyed the book, but in my mind the characters were dragged through the story rather than participating in making it.



MLPMom said:


> I was more upset by what happened to Peeta in MockingJay than anything else. I think it ruined his character somewhat. I know why they did it, to show Katniss that she loved and needed him but I think it could have been better done. I didn't like to see him mean and hard like that. I hate to say it but I would have much preferred and better sappier happily ever after. The ending felt a little rushed and just empty to me.


I know exactly what you mean by this. Taking away a character's rationality is a tricky road for an author to go down, and I had a lot of trouble with having to guess whether what he was saying was real. Either he's under the capitol's spell or he's not, no jumping back and forth! Because of that I never felt like he was really back on the good side, to the point where after the first few lines of their happy ending I was wondering if the book would end with some kind of horrible relapse. I would've just plain preferred a longer ending with more details. It's brevity says a lot to me about how lukewarm Collins intended it. I describe it as putting a band-aid on a knife wound.


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

foreverjuly said:


> Yeah, this is more how I felt about it. I enjoyed the book, but in my mind the characters were dragged through the story rather than participating in making it.
> 
> I know exactly what you mean by this. Taking away a character's rationality is a tricky road for an author to go down, and I had a lot of trouble with having to guess whether what he was saying was real. Either he's under the capitol's spell or he's not, no jumping back and forth! Because of that I never felt like he was really back on the good side, to the point where after the first few lines of their happy ending I was wondering if the book would end with some kind of horrible relapse. I would've just plain preferred a longer ending with more details. It's brevity says a lot to me about how lukewarm Collins intended it. I describe it as putting a band-aid on a knife wound.


I completely agree! It bothered me that it mentioned that he would have to grab something still once in a while because the madness would try to get him still. I didn't like that at all.

I know they were all damaged emotionally from the games but his just seemed even more excessive and somewhat unnecessary. I don't know, the whole ending didn't really seem like a happy ever after to me. More like you are wondering what will happen next that will be tragic to them.

I just think it could have been done better. Of course, I felt that way about the ending to Harry Potter too and I LOVE that series.


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## Guest (Sep 16, 2010)

MLPMom said:


> I just think it could have been done better. Of course, I felt that way about the ending to Harry Potter too and I LOVE that series.


I loved Harry Potter too, and I was much more satisfied with that ending, even though I thought the names of the kids were a little ridiculous and I can't say I was happy Harry ended up with Ginny. I'm convinced Rowling was playing out some kind of fantasy from her school days or something. It might be impossible to ever make a perfect ending, but that one worked for me. The bad people were gone and good was restored. Everything about the ending of Mockingjay was much more iffy, which sounds good in theory but doesn't work so well in practice.


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## Cyndi (Aug 2, 2010)

I bought the Hunger Games over a week ago based on reviews from Kindle Board members.  I had never heard of the books or the author, but there were so many praising the first book that I had to see what all the fuss was about. So, I'm blaming you guys for my total obsession with this series!!! 
That was the best trilogy I've read in a long time.  The last book, MockingJay, was almost too intense toward the end.  I stayed up late to finish it and then couldn't get to sleep because I kept playing out various scenes in my head.  Kudos to Suzzanne Collins.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm glad you liked it!  I was one of those people who obsessed over the last book for a year before it came out. I probably never would have heard of the series, except I was working in a high school last year and one of the teachers was reading it aloud to the students and didn't manage to finish the last chapter or two before the semester ended! So I had to find out what happened next and then I was hooked. One of my favorite trilogies I've ever read and the first time I really got excited over a book release.


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2010)

This is the book I'll be reading aloud to my unborn children.


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## eldereno (Dec 27, 2009)

I have the trilogy on my Kindle.  NOW I MUST READ THEM!!!!!!


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Well, I finally got through *Mockingjay* and for me, it was a slog. I enjoyed HG, really enjoyed CF, and was very disappointed in Mockingjay. Oh well, I was disappointed in the 7th book of Harry Potter, too.

I don't think Collins knows how to write a war. There was too much stuff, too many people and that made the narrative both confusing and boring. In the HG and CF, once they were in the games (the equivalent of the war) she had, at most, 24 characters to deal with and since a bunch of the tributes got killed right off the bat, she was really only writing about 12 people (more or less). I think she does much better with character development when it is controlled. In MJ, there was too much stuff and too many people and many of them became very two-dimensional. There were also characters who appeared to serve a purpose (Tigris) then when that purpose was done, disappeared. Who was the new president? A new name that had never been mentioned before--or if it had been mentioned, I forgot in the morass of all the other names. Just throw in a new character at the end of the book? I kind of expected that Gale would become the president. That would have been a twist.

I felt that the writing was clumsy and awkward. Maybe it was the same in the other two books but I didn't notice because I was more absorbed in the stories.

L


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2010)

Leslie said:


> Well, I finally got through *Mockingjay* and for me, it was a slog. I enjoyed HG, really enjoyed CF, and was very disappointed in Mockingjay. Oh well, I was disappointed in the 7th book of Harry Potter, too.
> 
> I don't think Collins knows how to write a war. There was too much stuff, too many people and that made the narrative both confusing and boring. In the HG and CF, once they were in the games (the equivalent of the war) she had, at most, 24 characters to deal with and since a bunch of the tributes got killed right off the bat, she was really only writing about 12 people (more or less). I think she does much better with character development when it is controlled. In MJ, there was too much stuff and too many people and many of them became very two-dimensional. There were also characters who appeared to serve a purpose (Tigris) then when that purpose was done, disappeared. Who was the new president? A new name that had never been mentioned before--or if it had been mentioned, I forgot in the morass of all the other names. Just throw in a new character at the end of the book? I kind of expected that Gale would become the president. That would have been a twist.
> 
> ...


I felt exactly the same way you did, Leslie. About the war parts being tough to get through, not much connection to any of the characters, and a huge amount of trouble with what happened at the end. I agree that the new president, Paylor, who was a rebel leader from District 8 or something, is a complete mystery to us. Most troubling to me is that after 3 books of lies and cover-ups, they still had to lie for Katniss in her trial after killing Coin. Not even at the very end could they recognize she was as much a danger, and that means the truth was never given its place.

My full review of the ending can be found here: http://powerlessbooks.com/blog/?p=55


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## Aravis60 (Feb 18, 2009)

While I liked the book overall, I would agree with Leslie about the war part, too. I thought that the beginning of the book was pretty slow and difficult to get through at the beginning. I didn't really get into it until the part where Peta gets changed. The part where they were in the Capital was tough. I just wanted to get on with it.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

That's an excellent review, Jason. Thanks for the link.

L


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2010)

Leslie said:


> That's an excellent review, Jason. Thanks for the link.
> 
> L


Thanks for reading! I hope you found it illuminating. 



Aravis60 said:


> The part where they were in the Capital was tough. I just wanted to get on with it.


Yes, this too. I just know Collins thought she was doing something clever when she compared invading the capital to another round of the games, but I can't say that excited me at all. On the other hand, in Catching Fire, when Katniss discovered she was going back in and had her drunken freak-out, that just seemed brilliant to me. It's like night and day.


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## div (Aug 25, 2010)

My sister told me about the series which I bought for my K2 and read all three in two weeks. _Hunger Games _ was great!! Read in less than two days. The others were, sad to say, painfully slow. I grew irritated with the wishy-washy Katniss and her inability to make a decision on just about anything. I was also questioning the technology.....the hovercraft would appear out of nowhere with weapons and other devices yet the main transport from one sector to another was a train that had to stop for diesel fuel? Overall I did enjoy them but was happy to have finally been done.


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## Thayerphotos (Dec 19, 2010)

I haven't read any of the previous posts so as to avoid spoilers but still wanted to add my 2 cents, once I've finished Mockingjay ill come back and add a bit more.

I love Hunger Games and couldn't put it down.

I read mostof Catching Fire yesterday, and I'm a pretty slow reader who is easily distracted so for me to get through an entire book in one day requires a truly amazing story and great writing.  

I'm expecting to have Mockingjay finished by tomorrow evening.

Great books, highly recommended to anyone who likes a great story.


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## PG4003 (Patricia) (Jan 30, 2010)

I loved these books too.  I actually liked Catching Fire the best.  I usually don't read series books like this until I can get them all at once, so I was lucky in that aspect.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I've been reading The Hunger Games out loud to my boyfriend for the past week. I kept trying to get him to read them, but he finally agreed when someone else recommended them as well. He happened to be really sick that day with a bad headache, so I started reading it to him and we've kept it up since then. I love re-reading these books.


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## KatieKlein (Dec 19, 2010)

I _love_ this series. I do think, though, that by the Mockingjay release everyone was warring over Team Peeta vs Team Gale. It was never _really_ about the love story, but it seems that was pushed hard for the final book, which left a lot of people disappointed.

I think the entire purpose of the series was to show how little control we have. Collins did a great job portraying what war is really like, imo, and while I'm a fan of the neatly tied in a bow "happily ever after," that's not how life works.

The books are eye-opening, and I think Katniss did the best she could with what she had.

Collins succeeded, at any rate: we're still talking about her books!


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## Thayerphotos (Dec 19, 2010)

Just finished Catching Fire and am about 30 pages into Mockingjay, seriously hoping this doesnt become a Team Peeta (Stupid name by the way) Vs. Team Gale, for me the romantic triangle is the least interersting part of the book.


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## Guest (Jan 13, 2011)

Thayerphotos said:


> Just finished Catching Fire and am about 30 pages into Mockingjay, seriously hoping this doesnt become a Team Peeta (Stupid name by the way) Vs. Team Gale, for me the romantic triangle is the least interersting part of the book.


Don't read this until you've finished



Spoiler



Then I don't think you're going to be happy at all. And to reply to Katie, I think such a bleak ending ruins any sense of resolution for the book. We have no reason to believe things are better for anyone because we're basically right back to where we are at the beginning, Katniss fending for herself and her family. Paylor is just a big question mark, and the new government is predicated on more lies. Collins's bigest trick in the series is to make us think the political half of the story is important before it whithers to dust and leaves us with love triangle resolved by largely arbitrary means.


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## Erick Flaig (Oct 25, 2010)

The first two books were engaging, once you looked past the American Idol approach to gladiatorial combat. It's fiction, after all. *Mockingjay* felt like it had been written by another author entirely. Katniss spent most of her time sedated or huddling in some blankets, and I found the rebel "use" of her as a television star for the war to be ludicrous. The characters were used and disposed of for the author's convenience, which, I hasten to add, is her perfect right. Still, as a reader, I didn't appreciate it. Grades: A, A, D+

Overall, the worst end to a series since Gormenghast. At least Mervyn Peake was dead before his editor pushed out *Titus Alone*.

But back to The Hunger Games. Why the use of the present tense throughout the trilogy? Was this a 'device' or just a stylistic quirk?


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## catherinedurkinrobinson (Sep 3, 2010)

This is good to read. I just started Hunger Games and it's not my type of book at all: bleak, YA, almost alien in terms of names, characteristics, situations, setting...But I've heard so many good things about this series that I feel the need to give it a chance.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

Erick Flaig said:


> The first two books were engaging, once you looked past the American Idol approach to gladiatorial combat. It's fiction, after all. *Catching Fire* felt like it had been written by another author entirely. Katniss spent most of her time sedated or huddling in some blankets, and I found the rebel "use" of her as a television star for the war to be ludicrous. The characters were used and disposed of for the author's convenience, which, I hasten to add, is her perfect right. Still, as a reader, I didn't appreciate it. Grades: A, A, D+
> 
> Overall, the worst end to a series since Gormenghast. At least Mervyn Peake was dead before his editor pushed out *Titus Alone*.
> 
> But back to The Hunger Games. Why the use of the present tense throughout the trilogy? Was this a 'device' or just a stylistic quirk?


Did you mean MockingJay? I enjoyed CatchingFire but was really disappointed in MockingJay


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

foreverjuly said:


> Don't read this until you've finished
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think that is the best way to put it actually. So many unresolved issues and such a bleak ending when with the past two books being fantastic and having so much potential, a real let down.


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2011)

MLPMom said:


> I think that is the best way to put it actually. So many unresolved issues and such a bleak ending when with the past two books being fantastic and having so much potential, a real let down.


Thank you. I've actually spoke with someone who had read her other series too, and apparently she employs the same kind of ending. What kind of person needs to get the message out that "life sucks" like this over and over? She probably won't get the message that this isn't what people want until they film the ending to Mockingjay and there are riots in the theaters from irate viewers.

Sidenote: I've started reading The Windup Girl, another Dystopia, and so far I'm enjoying it. Lots of interesting aspects of Asian cultures coming into contact with each other. I just met the title character and I'm holding my breath. Hopefully Paulo pulls it off.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> Sidenote: I've started reading The Windup Girl, another Dystopia, and so far I'm enjoying it. Lots of interesting aspects of Asian cultures coming into contact with each other. I just met the title character and I'm holding my breath. Hopefully Paulo pulls it off.


Hmm, I may have to look into that! I really enjoy dystopia books.


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## Erick Flaig (Oct 25, 2010)

bordercollielady said:


> Did you mean MockingJay? I enjoyed CatchingFire but was really disappointed in MockingJay


Yes, I did. I lost my mind there for a moment. Again.


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