I must be missing something. I predicted the main plot twist less than a quarter of the way in and the fact that Katniss is telling the story limits the possible outcomes , but the suspense was broken when it was made explicit way before the end.

There are some other twists between then and the final page, but by then I was rather annoyed with the whole thing. I suppose they had become inured to it, but on the other hand, that meant they knew the horror of it. I just didn’t believe there was as little fear in them as there appeared to be – given that they are children. It can only be a tiny part of the USA because each district specialises in only one thing coal mining, agriculture etc and has just one town square that can accommodate everyone 8, people in District 12 and yet it’s a day’s train journey from District 12 to the Capitol.

It doesn’t seem like a very plausible settlement pattern in a post-disaster world, even given the totalitarian regime concentrating people in a few centres makes it easier to observe and perhaps control them, but it also creates more opportunities for opposition movements to develop. It is even possible that they could all survive. The second point is what makes LotF a better book, in my opinion.

Of course, there are other, more obvious, parallels with extreme “reality” shows such as “Survivor” and “I’m a Celebrity, get me out of here”, but the fundamental differences are not just that contestants in those shows do not fear for their lives, but that they are adults who have chosen to enter.

Any fans who read this will now hate me. I wanted to enjoy this book, and I read it all the way through, making notes as usual, but to no avail. Shelves: classic-young-adult , girls-rule , young-adult , utopia-dystopia , reviewed , chosen-girls. It is beautiful for the unflinching way it shows you, as a reader, your own willingness to disregard people who are different from you – how you are the Capitol audience.

But, it is important as a story about girls. I had not initially thought about articulating that point because it seemed so obvious to me, and I am bad at recognizing my own assumptions. Lately, though, I have seen so many people, both men and women, acting as though this remarkable book is a piece of fluff that I realized maybe what I love most about The Hunger Games is not as obvious as it seems. To me, this series is important because it is a landmark departure from the traditional story about girls.

Too often, stories objectify women. When I say stories objectify girls, I mean they talk about girls as though they are fleshlights that sometimes have handy dandy extra gadgets such as an all-purpose cleaning mechanism and food dispensing function. Sidebar: if you are inclined to now google the word “fleshlight,” I encourage you to consult the urban dictionary definition here before doing that, as the google results will probably be NSFW and also NSF those of you whose parents might check your browsing history.

Do parents know how to do that? Sorry for the sidebar, I am just intending to make an explicit point, and now I am feeling uncomfortable about what that explicit point might mean to the target audience of this book. Girls, you are probably badass like Katniss, and you are definitely not a fleshlight.

Back to my rant about typical objectification in storytelling: often the girls fleshlights have fancy outer designs because it makes the fleshlights happy to be fancy. Sometimes they have skeeeeeery castration functions , and other times they work as helpful databases for music or video games or whatever UR into.

A lot of times, I will hear people refer to this type of objectification as treating women like they are just a vagina, or a pair of boobs, but I think there is something to the stories that is less human and more sexbot machine than that complaint covers.

So, in all of those links, I have tried to include books written by men and by women because I think that women think of ourselves this way almost as often as men think of us this way. The link from The Ugly Truth , for example, shows both a man and a woman treating women like fleshlights.

I have also included both books I love and books I hate because, ultimately, I do think girls adopt this story about themselves, and I also think we can pretty easily identify with a male protagonist and disregard female characters who look nothing like humans.

For example, The Sun Also Rises is one of my favorite books in the whole world, even though it does not contain any women who resonate with my experience of humans. And I don’t think it’s necessarily bad that I can enjoy stories where women are only fleshlights, as long as I can still be whoever I want to be without a positive role model.

I think it’s good to enjoy stories and take what we can get from them, and so I don’t regret that I love The Sun Also Rises. In seeing some male reactions to The Hunger Games , I am reminded that most men do not identify with female protagonists the way women have been trained to identify with male protagonists.

This seems like a huge disadvantage for men to be in, to me, and if you are a man reading this review, I would ask you to check out your bookshelves.

How many female authors are on your shelves? How many of the books those authors wrote have no central male character? If you have a minute after that, check the shelves of a woman you are friends with and see how many of her books were written by men or have no central female character.

Odds are the results will be pretty different. Katniss is strong and broken, and powerful in her brokenness. Masculinity does not have to mean emotional cowardice.

Hopefully, we never think of our primary purpose in life, in the way so many stories think of it, as making penises erect. Hopefully, we never think of ourselves as gadgets that are super fun for other people. Yes, it is also a poignant critique of reality TV and Western callousness about the catastrophes caused by industrialization in the developing world, but that, too, resonates with me in many ways because of its remarkably feminine voice.

It absolutely makes sense to me that this book is not for everyone because of its violence, but I still think that it is objectively important because it shows a perspective that seems authentically feminine to me — that talks like a girl, not like a sexy, fancy gadget.

The Hunger Games is one that does, and it does so in way that is beautiful and important. I want to die as myself. I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not. I keep wishing I could think of a way to That I’m more than just a piece in their Games. You’re the one who wasn’t paying attention. Of course, I loved Peeta! How can “I don’t know how to say it exactly. How can I not?

He is perfect! But Katniss? She is so strong and bad-ass but she always misunderstands Peeta! It’s so obvious that he loves her but she is in denial! She is so stupid!! And when she realizes his feelings, she just hurt him!

Let’s start from the beginning! What is Hunger Games? Every year, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 were selected from each of the twelve districts as tributes, who train for a week and then are sent into an arena to fight to the death.

Only one tribute can win the games. This competition is showed to television to be seen by all citizens. So, Katniss’ little sister, Prim, is selected for the games, but Katniss took her place to save her. I volunteer as tribute! He protected her but I will admit she protected him as well! She risked her life to get the medicine needed to heal his leg. But how can she not see that he is madly in love with her?

I loved it when he told her about her singing for the music class, that’s when Peeta realized he was in love with her when he saw that the birds were listening like they did for her father.

And right when your song ended, I knew – just like your mother – I was a goner,” Peeta says. Very deep. He is her best friend! At the beginning, she said that she never saw him that way and now what? She is confusing me. Please, not love triangle again!! I liked Gale but no! He won the Hunger Games of his time. He is also Katniss’ and Peeta’s mentor. It seems at first that he doesn’t like Katniss very much but at the Hunger Games he helped her more than he helped Peeta.

He always supported her in his way. She was the year-old female tribute from District I really liked that Katniss allied with Rue. They were amazing together. But Rue died. I understand only one can win our case two but I felt so sad when she died. Not only her though. A lot innocent kids die because of the Capitol. It’s not fair. So katniss and Peeta can be allies. But when all the other tributes died it was announced that the rule they said early has been canceled.

I was so angry! They did it on purpose. She is so stupid. He didn’t want to fight her and she thought that he could kill her. But it was a trick. Peeta discovers that Katniss was mostly acting during the games about the feelings. He was so heartbroken! My baby!

I haven’t seen the movie yet! View all 48 comments. Dec 24, Emily May rated it really liked it Shelves: young-adult , dystopia-utopia , It seems weird that I never reviewed The Hunger Games. I don’t know why I didn’t when it was a series that completely took over my life for a short while. But recently I’ve been thinking about posting something in this review space and after just watching the second film which I think was amazing and better than the first , now seems like as good a time as any to talk about why I love Katniss and nearly everything about this series.

I gave this book four stars back in and I’m going to leave that rating as it is because it’s an indicator of my thoughts at the time though they slightly differ now – thoughts which were influenced by having just finished the fantastic, horrifying, brutal and unforgettable Battle Royale manga series.

I don’t think it was the best time for myself and Katniss to find one another when I had so much beautiful insanity to compare the book to, but it still managed to have such an effect on me that I instantly told every friend and family member to read it. Coming back to this now after having spent the last couple of years being bombarded with dystopian YA, I appreciate what Collins has achieved a whole lot more. I appreciate the strength of Katniss as a heroine who commands our attention and holds our love whilst still being what some would consider unlikable; I appreciate the balance of beauty and horror that Collins delivers on every page, treating us constantly to both the darkest despair and rays of hope; and I also – amazingly – appreciate the love triangle.

Love triangles seem to have chased me and hunted me down with every YA read I picked up over the last two or three years – my dislike for romance instantly becoming doubled by the introduction of yet another boy with beautiful eyes. But Katniss, Peeta and Gale worked for me. They convinced me, held my interest and made me cry. The love triangle worked because it’s outcome wasn’t obvious, because we all wondered and hoped and worried. Because, either way, I was always going to be half happy and half sad.

Katniss still remains for me everything that a female protagonist should be. Or a female hero, at least. She fights for the ones she loves, she’s brave and doesn’t need to be saved. But neither is she a one-dimensional smiling poster-version of a heroine. She falls, she fails, people get hurt because of her and she has to live with that.

We love her and yet she’s antisocial, awkward and moody. She loves other people with all her heart but she’s not much of a team player. In short: she’s a complex portrait of a young woman that doesn’t fall into any neatly defined boxes or categories.

Now, perhaps, authors have since tried to recreate her. But she’s still one of the first and best. I know another review of this book isn’t needed. I know you’ve all probably read it anyway. Or never will. But this isn’t really for anyone else; it’s a reminder to myself of why this book deserves its hype and why I need to remember to come back to it again and again between the new and hopefully amazing YA books I’ll be reading in the future.

View all 29 comments. I’ve said to a few people that if I wasn’t married, I’d have to marry this book. I feel pretty safe in saying that if this isn’t still my favorite book of the year when next January rolls around, that I’ll eat a hat.

As soon as I finished reading it, I turned around and read it a 2nd time, which I’ve never done before in my life. It’s got some very meaty issues to chew on, not the least of which is reality TV taken to extremes. I will miss Katniss until I can read about her again. What more could you possibly ask for out of a book? It doesn’t actually come out until October , but if you can get your hands on an ARC, definitely do!

I think that the violence in this will be easier for kids to take, since they probably won’t see it quite as clearly as an adult will. None of it is particularly graphic, but it is definitely brutal. This is on the edge of too dark for me, which is my favorite kind of book. There aren’t many writers who can push it right to the edge for me without going over Zusak comes to mind immediately , but Collins is definitely one of them.

OK, I’ll stop gushing. I may have to re-write this review when I get some perspective. Still my definite favorite book of the year, but all the typos in the finished book were pretty disappointing. I’ve had 2 teenaged boys at my library read this on my recommendation, and both of them came back asking me for more books like it really there isn’t anything.

May-June I’m reading this for the 4th time, with my younger son, who’s finishing up 5th grade. Still as good as ever!! Can’t wait for the movie!!

I’ve seen the movie twice so far, and definitely liked it better the 2nd time, when it didn’t have to try to be my favorite book. STILL as good as ever, and the odds will forever be in its favor. View all 75 comments. Jul 18, Colleen Venable rated it really liked it Shelves: ya-fiction , books-that-made-me-cry. Fantastically Written? Ooooh yeah! Super Quick Read? Most definitely! Man, I wish someone on my friends list here has also read Battle Royale and this book! I ate it up, shouting into other rooms and offices that I was going to be shoving the book i Fantastically Written?

I ate it up, shouting into other rooms and offices that I was going to be shoving the book into their hands as soon as I was done, but as it went on desha vu was a little too common for me. I know there are major story types out there, ones that are repeated over and over again. Shakespeare retold different ways. The bible reinterpreted to 2,, varieties of tales FEED felt utterly original.

If it’s going to be about “the future” we don’t know about, make it original. In my mind dystopia novels survive on “idea” more than “excecution” and while the execution of this was beautiful, the idea was hardly new.

In Battle Royal short explanation of BR plot: 40 students put on island forced to kill each other and winner is set for life and put on TV etc There are so many other similarities, from the ways the gamemakers manipulate, to the ways the media encourages, to one character having a fever and the other taking care of them with soup. There are even “career” battle royal players. In BR you see the emotions before and after someone is killed, their last thoughts, the feeling of the person who killed.

It’s actually really beautiful the way it is done, and so believable that put in an arena teens WOULD turn into savages. In The Hunger Games, yes the main characters were fantastic, and many of the lesser as well, but Foxface is only Foxface, and the Careers are never more than random 1-dimensional bad guys.

I am not saying it wasn’t a GREAT read, I’m just saying it shouldn’t shake the publishing earth the way I am pretty sure it is going to. I anticipate this is the next Twilight series people are going to gush over. In a few years we’ll all be hosting Hunger Games final book parties. I’ll be amongst the attendees I’m sure. Also in terms of female main characters, Katiniss may surpass Bella in me wanting to shake sense into a character.

Talk about a smart girl being utterly clueless! Yes, it was great, but eh, maybe I’m just bitter because I think BR is the better book of the two and while Hunger Games will get tons of praise and likely a rather deserved award or two, BR will continue to be banned in many libraries.

Amazing what subtracting guns can do to a story. Suddenly it doesn’t feel as violent, but rather is more reminiscent of stories we heard growing up. The number of swords and arrow deaths in traditional fairytales is nothing to freak out about, but if bullets are flying, it will give “too many ideas” to teens and therefore must be dubbed an adult book.

I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t read BR just a few months back this exeedingly long review would have been just as long only instead of a rant it would have just been one long squeeeeeal of delight over how much I loved the book. Original Comment: Peer pressure, peer pressure, peer pressure.

Geez guys! Alright, alright I’ll read it! Clearly Gregor was merely the prelude. As an author we were accustomed to your fun adventures involving a boy, his sister, and a world beneath our world. But reading it gave me a horribly familiar feeling. There is a certain strain of book that can hypnotize you into believing that you are in another time and place roughly 2.

And The Hunger Games? Well as I walked down the street I was under the disctinc impression that there were hidden cameras everywhere, charting my progress home. Collins has written a book that is exciting, poignant, thoughtful, and breathtaking by turns. It ascends to the highest forms of the science fiction genre and will create all new fans for the writer. One of the best books of the year. Ever since her father died the girl has spent her time saving her mother and little sister Prim from starvation by hunting on forbidden land.

But worst of all is reaping day. Once a year the government chooses two children from each of the twelve districts to compete against one another in a live and televised reality show. Twenty-four kids and teens enter, and only one survives.

Why not make it as if Peeta and Katniss were in love with one another? But in a game where only one person can live, Katniss will have to use all her brains, wits, and instincts to determine who to trust and how to outwit the game’s creators. So sure, there are parts of this plot that have been done before. You could say it’s The Game meets Spartacus with some Survivor thrown in for spice. Some of the greatest works of literature out there, regardless of the readerships’ age, comes about when an author takes overdone or familiar themes and then makes them entirely new through the brilliance of their own writing.

Similarly, Collins takes ideas that have certainly seen the light of day before and concocts an amazingly addictive text. Your story often rests on the shoulders of the protagonist. Is this a believable character? Do you root for him or her? Katniss, on the other hand, is so good in so many ways. She sacrifices herself for her sister.

She tries to save people in the game. Most remarkable to me was the fact that Katniss could walk around, oblivious to romance, and not bug me. You just want to bonk the ladies upside the head with a brick or something. The different here is maybe the fact that since Katniss knows that Peeta has to play a part, she uses that excuse however unconsciously to justify his seeming affection for her. Thems smart writing. And did I mention the dialogue at all?

The humor? The words pop off the page. No faux slang here, or casual references to extinct dolphins. People love to characterize books by gender. It stars a boy? Boy book. A girl? Girl book. Now take a long lengthy look at the first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. It stars a girl This is not a book that quietly slots into our preconceived stereotypes. And you know what happens to books that span genders? They sell very well indeed. That is, if you can get both boys and girls to read them. The age range?

Well, for most of this story I would have said ten and up. There are definite horror elements to it as well, so with that in mind I am upping my recommendation to 12 and up. You’ll see why. It occurs to me that there has never been a quintessential futuristic gladiator book for kids. That is undoubtedly the roughest term you can give this book. Yet as I was taking a train to Long Island I found myself tearing up over significant parts of this story. You think of futuristic arena tales and your mind instantly sinks to the lowest common denominator.

What Collins has done here is set up a series that will sink its teeth into readers. The future of this book will go one of two ways. Either it will remain an unappreciated cult classic for years to come or it will be fully appreciated right from the start and lauded.

My money lies with the latter. A contender in its own right. Ages 12 and up. View all 32 comments. Jun 12, jessica rated it it was amazing Shelves: favourites. Aug 27, NickReads rated it really liked it. The book that got me into reading. Nov 13, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: fiction , 21th-century , united-states , young-adult , science , literature , fantasy.

It is written in the voice of year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the future, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games is an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12—18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death.

Oct 01, Elle ellexamines rated it it was amazing Shelves: authors-of-color , x-series , elle-recs-list , zreads , favorite-characters , zfavs , zfaves , 5-star , sff-scifi-dystopias. The love triangle being pointless is quite literally the point ; Gale and Peeta are meant to represent the opposite sides of war something a certain plot point in book three really drives home.

Katniss is frankly never romantically interested in either for almost all of books one and two; she grows to care about Peeta in the general sense, not just the romantic sense. The eventual romance works for Katniss because it is safe for her. I more think this series is interesting in how it talks about the nature of power and the nature of uprising.

The uprising, as a whole, is an upswelling of the people, a realization that there is strength in numbers. Even during war, the individual lives of characters like Joanna and Haymitch and Finnick matter.

They matter to the narrative, and thus they matter to us too. Her journey is not in becoming a Nice Person but in self-actualization. That is not a journey female characters are ever ever ever allowed to take and is arguably still something new.

I almost want to case study this. It’s crazy that the first big ya dystopia is the best ya dystopia and one of the best series of all time, but this one is truly a classic and remains so incredible. Thank you to Katniss Everdeen for being one of the most interesting characters ever written and to this book for having such a dynamic story.

It’s relevant to our world. The parallels to our own society are so amazingly drawn, and the worldbuilding so good, that I’m not surprised this book was the one that broke through. Dramatic tension. Tell me you weren’t on the edge of your seat every moment of this book.

You’re lying. Katniss’ struggle to survive on her own is compelling and twisty. Every moment is filled with fear and tension. The characters are amazing. Katniss Everdeen is one of the best developed, most intriguing protagonists ever written. She’s badass and she’s selfish and she takes no shit. In the end, I think that’s what made this series so fantastic and popular. View all 21 comments. Jul 15, Will Byrnes rated it really liked it Shelves: fiction , young-adult , fantasy.

What was once North America has been reduced, by what we are not told. A decadent Capitol rules over 12 subservient, worker districts.

Katliss is a year-old who lives with her depression-incapacitated mother and her year-old sister, Prim, whom she loves more than anything. She lives in the coal-producing District 12, a sooty place in the former Appala What was once North America has been reduced, by what we are not told. She lives in the coal-producing District 12, a sooty place in the former Appalachia where life expectancy is as bleak as the food ration is small.

Suzanne Collins – from fictiondb. Contestants, or tributes, in the very Rome-centric nomenclature of the book, are selected by lottery, but one can get food for increasing the number of entries one is willing to submit.

This is not necessarily a lottery you would want to win, as the Hunger Games contest is a gladiatorial battle to the death. Joining an ancient form of barbarity with a more modern version, the contest is seen by the nation on television, gussied up with all the pomp and circumstance of the World Cup, Superbowl and World Series combined, with the degrading intrusiveness of reality television.

Primrose Everdeen gets the bad news – from Jabberjays. They are transported to the Capitol, dressed up, interviewed on TV, offered training in several forms of combat and sent out there to do or die. The rest is their ordeal, which includes having to succeed not only with physical skills such as strength and agility. In addition to the need for cunning in figuring out how to best their competitors, they have to figure out how to please the television audience, among which are sponsors who might send them much needed goods during the game.

Katliss is caught not only in a brutal contest with the other tributes, but in a confusing battle with her own adolescent emotions. What are her feelings, really, for her male counterpart from District 12, Peeta, and for her hunky bff Gale back home team Gale vs team Peeta anyone? How can she express her rage at the operators of this horror for their inhumanity? I quite enjoyed reading the book, hated putting it down.

Collins offers characters one can root for, with enough inner conflict and complexity to matter, well some of them, without it being overbearing, or slowing down the story. Ok, I liked the book. But I had a niggling concern early on.

When I began reading, I wondered if there might be a political agenda at play. However, given the political climate of the twenty-teens, in which cynical forces of the right seek at every opportunity to portray government of any sort as the personification of evil, one must wonder if the author subscribed to the notion.

I confess to not having read her prior work, so lack a basis there, and the interviews with Collins I read offer no insight. So, I am not saying that this is so, just that the portrayal made me wonder.

I posted a review of Catching Fire in , and while I did read Mockingjay I never got around to reviewing it. While I no longer feel a concern that Collins was consciously attempting to impart a stealth right-wing perspective, I still had a feeling that there was something else going on here.

Thankfully, GR friend Kyra offered a link to an article in The Guardian that articulated very clearly what my innards were only able to communicate with vague visceral discomfort. Here is the link. I suggest you check it out for yourselves. I go into this a bit in my review of Catching Fire. Nov 13, Morgan F rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: everyone.

Shelves: preston-public-library , own , medium-sized , young-adult , s , adrenaline , completed-series , read , favorites , its-a-girl. View all 40 comments. Mar 26, Nilesh Kashyap rated it it was ok Shelves: dystopian.

This is how it went: I started it and was immediately sucked into the book but then around midway I started losing interest. I fell asleep and had horrible dream credit to graphic violence. Next morning I finished it owning to its fast pace. This book is special: This is my first dystopian novel. I was very much excited about it since it was my introduction to a new genre.

I would like to thank this book for such amazing description of dystopian world. The book: This is a kind of book which probably everyone has read including their dogs, cats and birds too! The world building part is brilliant. It is fast paced with simplistic writing.

These are all good things. The best part kids are starting to read the books. Suzanne Collins created the opportunity golden ones and one by one she destroyed it. But still most of the people are enthralled by the book as it eventually came out.

Using the first person perspective and thus losing the chance to give depth to any character This story has been told through the eyes of Katniss Everdeen, she just doesn’t give a damn about anyone else except her family so naturally the other characters are too shallow and one dimensional.

All I knew about Peeta was that he liked Katniss from age of five, saved her twice and is now in love with Katniss, rest is mystery. About Katniss , she does a lot of thing infact she does everything in the book but never has a second thought about them, never reflect over what she has done, eventually no attachment with the character.

People tend to like Rue, Peeta, Cinna because these are few characters that spent time with Katniss, but again no character has depth. One more outcome that I feel from other reviews is that Katniss is definitely heroine of the story but why make other 10 kids villain.

While Cato and Clove make their kill they become monster but when Katniss makes her kill, it has to be justified as revenge for killing Rue and pity killing of Cato. Missed opportunities This could have been much more interesting novel. Where did it all go wrong? Killing other human has effect on the killer, until and unless killer is sociopath, moreover here the killers are kids.

Instead of giving insight to their mind the story flatly moves ahead with killing and ending the games. No further thoughts beyond that. I will read it someday, probably before second installment of the movie. As I watched the movie it seemed that novel was written with movie in mind. Few minor changes, like in the end President Snow shown thinking representing its start of story unlike novel which ends. Some scenes are breath taking, too much violence. Acting by Jennifer Lawrence is good she turned out better than Katniss in the book.

The kind of reviews and comments I have seen makes me think this book is being followed like religion and my review will sound like blasphemy to them. View all 73 comments. Aug 30, Lyndsey rated it it was amazing Shelves: reviewedstars , favorites , reviewed , i-recommend. Oh no. You’ve awakened the beast. It’s Jackniss!! So maybe Matthew Fox from Lost isn’t exactly the person you had in mind when you thought about who they might cast as Katniss in The Hunger Games, but I was inspired to create that after I saw this site called Jackimals.

You might want to wait to visit it, though, because it can suck you in like an unexplained time warp flash. I was also inspired to create the Jackniss after I read a discussion that deeply disturbed me. Somewhere, possibly on Oh no. Somewhere, possibly on Goodreads, I read that someone thought the Lost writers should get involved in writing the Hunger Games script.

Forget the genius Suzanne Collins, let’s give it to the guys who left the greatest mystery in all of TV history completely unexplained. Don’t get me wrong. I love Lost and appreciate it greatly, but they really explained nothing in terms of the plot. But don’t even get me started on that – Circuits overloading. It cannot do without. That’s obviously not going to happen since Suzanne has already written the script, but just play along for a second.

Here’s how I think it would go Katniss is being chased by one of the mutts who suddenly turns into the smoke monster, which gobbles her up in flashes of lightning and the sound of mechanical teeth grinding while playing a flashback of her life in the District.

It quickly chokes her back up realizing she’s a candidate to replace Jacob but she’s in such shock from the experience that she lays down and dies, with a stunning close-up of her eye closing. Roll credits. Now, if you haven’t read The Hunger Games yet , I won’t even try to justify why you should.

You just should. And seriously, WHY haven’t you read it yet? This is the kind of book that is so awesome in a completely thrilling and demented and emotional and shocking way that it makes you want to bang your head against the wall while throwing fairy dust in joy.

Two things that I have done in the past, but never before at the same time. That’s how powerful this book is. After that, it makes you want to cry. Cry like a little baby. Like a little baby in it’s crib. Then scream. Scream like a frikkin banshee with a frikkin laser beam on it’s forehead. Before I read this, I had a friend who told me that this book was times better than Twilight.

I’d say that it’s actually more like a gorgonzolazillion times better and don’t ask me the exact amount that represents. Let’s just call it “To infinity and beyond. I was like “Hah! But I concur. Maybe even Oscar worthy. I certainly hope so, anyway. I know that I said I wouldn’t try and talk you into reading this book but I honestly can’t help it.

I’m not sure that I’m doing a great job at it, though. Let’s try a little visual aid. Here is an artist’s rendering of our heroine, Katniss Everdeen: And here’s the gorgeous young lady who has been cast. Jennifer Lawrence. She may not seem like the spitting image of the girl from the book, but there is such a thing as hair dye and dirt.

And and there is Photoshop, of course. So here is a pic that someone made and posted online of Jennifer as Katniss. It may change your mind. And this side by side. All right, besides the oversized cartoon eye, she is pretty damn close. Well, I’m convinced. How bout you? As if that wasn’t enough, you can see some examples of what Jennifer would look like in the many outfits of Katniss : HERE Also, here’s the artists version of Peeta, our hero.

I know that a lot of people would disagree but, to me, this guy is Peeta. And just so everyone knows – The Hunger Games is currently on sale for just 5 dollars on Kindle. Download it HERE. I’m not sure how long the sale will last, though. I already own the book but I am seriously considering buying the Kindle edition just for the hell of it. This is absolutely one of my all time favorite books!! Nov 30, Cait Caitsbooks rated it it was amazing Shelves: young-adult , favorites , scifi-and-dystopian.

View 1 comment. Jan 10, Buggy rated it it was amazing Shelves: shelf , romance , war , ya , end-of-days. Luther Crackenthorpe is a semi-invalid widower who lives at Rutherford Hall with his daughter Emma. Luther’s father, not liking his son, wrote a will which left his property for his eldest grandson.

Luther receives the income for life. After Luther’s death, the capital is to be divided equally among Luther’s surviving children, not unlike a tontine pension.

The share of cash due to the living children rises as each sibling dies before their father. Edmund, the firstborn son, died during World War II. Youngest daughter Edith “Edie” , died four years before the novel begins, leaving a son, Alexander. The remaining children are Cedric, an Ibiza -based bohemian painter; Harold, a married businessman in the City of London; Alfred, who engages in shady business dealings; and Emma.

Another character is local physician Dr Quimper, who looks after Luther and is in love with Emma. Lucy uses golf practice as a cover for searching the grounds. She discovers fur from a woman’s coat caught on a bush.

Then she finds a cheap compact. Lucy takes these to Miss Marple, who believes the murderer knew all about Rutherford Hall, and had removed the body from the embankment where it had fallen away from the railway, driven a car outside the grounds at night and hidden the body. Lucy finds the woman’s body hidden in a sarcophagus in the old stables containing Luther’s collection of dubious antiques. Who was she? The police, led by Inspector Craddock, identify the victim’s clothing as purchased in Paris.

Emma tells the police of two letters, one from her brother Edmund written shortly before his death in the retreat to Dunkirk , and another received a few weeks before the woman’s body is found. Her brother said that he would marry a woman named Martine.

The recent letter seemed to be from Martine, wanting to connect with the family of her son’s father. There was no second letter, nor a meeting with Martine. The police conclude that the body in the sarcophagus is that of Martine until Lady Stoddart-West, mother of James, reveals her identity. She confirms that Edmund’s letter spoke of her, but he died before they could marry. She spoke up only because her son told her of the letter supposedly from Martine.

The whole family, apart from the absent Bryan and Alexander, take ill suddenly, and before long, Alfred is found dead at his residence. Later, the curry made by Lucy on the fateful day is found to contain arsenic.

Some days later, Harold, after returning home to London, receives a delivery of tablets from Dr Quimper, who had told him not to take more, yet sends him more. Harold takes them; they are poisoned with aconitine , and he dies whilst being watched taking the tablets by Lady Alice, his wife. Miss Marple instructs Mrs McGillicuddy to ask to use the lavatory as soon as they arrive.

Miss Marple is eating a fish-paste sandwich when she begins to choke on a fish bone. Dr Quimper moves to assist her. Mrs McGillicuddy enters the room at that moment, sees the doctor’s hands at Miss Marple’s throat, and cries out, “But that’s him — that’s the man on the train! Miss Marple realised that her friend would recognise the real murderer if she saw him again in a similar pose.

The dead woman was Quimper’s wife, who would not divorce him, so he killed her to be free to marry Emma. After the Quimpers separated, she had joined a ballet troupe as Anna Stravinska.

Quimper’s scheme grew to killing Emma’s brothers Alfred and Harold, so that the inheritance need not be shared. He poisoned the cocktail jug, not the dinner, and added arsenic to the sample of curry he took before he gave it in for testing. He added a second dose of arsenic to Alfred’s tea. He sent the poisoned tablets to Harold, explaining their deaths. Miss Marple then tells Mrs McGillicuddy and Inspector Craddock that Luther Crackenthorpe may die soon, that Emma will get over the doctor, and that there will be wedding bells for Lucy — though she refuses to be drawn on the identity of the groom it turns out to be Cedric, as mentioned in ‘Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks’.

The UK title 4. In British style, the time is written as 4. Oddly, Mrs. McGillicuddy was on the train and the murder took place on the There is no reference in the book to a train departing Paddington at Philip John Stead ‘s review in The Times Literary Supplement 29 November concluded that “Miss Christie never harrows her readers, being content to intrigue and amuse them. The novel was reviewed in The Times edition of 5 December , stating, “Mrs Christie’s latest is a model detective story; one keeps turning back to verify clues, and not one is irrelevant or unfair.

Fellow crime writer Anthony Berkeley Cox , writing under the pen name of Francis Iles, reviewed the novel in the 6 December issue of The Guardian , in which he confessed to being disappointed with the work: “I have only pity for those poor souls who cannot enjoy the sprightly stories of Agatha Christie; but though sprightliness is not the least of this remarkable writer’s qualities, there is another that we look for in her, and that is detection: genuine, steady, logical detection, taking us step by step nearer to the heart of the mystery.

Unfortunately it is that quality that is missing in 4. The police never seem to find out a single thing, and even Miss Marples sic lies low and says nuffin’ to the point until the final dramatic exposure. There is the usual small gallery of interesting and perfectly credible characters and nothing could be easier to read. But please, Mrs Christie, a little more of that incomparable detection next time. Robert Barnard said of this novel that it was “Another locomotive one — murder seen as two trains pass each other in the same direction.

Later settles down into a good old family murder. Contains one of Christie’s few sympathetic independent women. Miss Marple apparently solves the crime by divine guidance, for there is very little in the way of clues or logical deduction. In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull in five abridged instalments from 5 October volume number to 2 November volume number with illustrations by K. The UK version was to be titled 4. This change was not communicated to Dodd Mead until after the book was being printed, so the text references to the time show rather than An abridged version of the novel was also published in the 28 December issue of the Star Weekly Complete Novel , a Toronto newspaper supplement, under the title Eye Witness to Death with a cover illustration by Maxine McCaffrey.

The book was made into a film starring Margaret Rutherford in the first of her four appearances as Miss Marple. This was the first Miss Marple film made.

 
 

 

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During those eleven days, did she have time to write a play? Archie was definitely a book collector mystery series free influence on me. Verified purchase: Yes Condition: pre-owned Sold by: betterworldbooks. Ice Cream Shop Mysteries. Things are not always as they should be. Related Groups. I tried not to sniffle and feel sorry for myself.

 
 

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Conversely, no one knew where Vera got her drab moth-eaten sweaters. Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. So that was good. During those eleven days, did she have time to write a play?