Well we’re back in Crosby. Safe and sound. And regretting it already. The lack of air conditioning, loss of internet and hordes of mosquitoes have not been very welcoming. However we can see the stars so that was pleasant.
I’m also looking forward to visiting the library again because I am now completely out of reading material. I went through all the Tintins at the end of June and I’ve ploughed through the Hunger Games Trilogy in the past fortnight too.
I know. The Hunger Games. It doesn’t sound like my kind of thing, does it? Vanna loves them (as does a good chunk of the population) but I’ve kept away from it. The story didn’t really appeal to me and I usually avoid anything popular. First person? Children? Eh. I’ll stick to my horrors and crime fiction thank you very much. Murder, serial killers. That’s what interests me.
But then Vanna and I made a deal. She would read Tintin if I read the Hunger Games. The plan was just to read the first book but you can’t leave it at that, can you? Obviously you have to find out what happens in all of them, otherwise there is no point, right? So while Vanna was struggling to finish the first volume of Tintin, I spent my evenings down in the cities reading the Hunger Games.
So what did I think of it? Well I really did like it. I’m not going to say love (which is what Vanna keeps saying) but it was a good surprise and I would recommend it to anybody who hasn’t read it yet. I thought the story was fantastic. The characters, though, were what really kept it going. It was their personal adventures that really sucked me in. It wasn’t a simple love story or a story where everything went happily ever after. There was tragedy, hatred and plenty of punishment. That’s my kind of thing.
All in all I was impressed. I felt inspired from reading it. Some of the ideas will be very helpful for my writing. It’s important for my development as a writer to read as many different books as possible to see what works and what doesn’t. There were things in the Hunger Games that I hadn’t even thought about. So from the perspective of trying to write my own book, reading the trilogy was a good idea. Not only did I enjoy it, I learned from it. What more could I ask for?
I did find the writing a bit suspect at times though. I don’t really critique books but it did frustrate me enough to notice it. It was a simple style yet it could get very frustrating. Some things weren’t explained or detailed properly, or they were worded in such a way that you had to read it several times to grasp what was going on. In addition to that, I felt the action scenes were a little rushed. It might have been more realistic doing it this way, but for me, it detracted from the story. The consequences to these scenes weren’t as powerful. They lost some of their impact.
For example, when a couple of the key characters died, I didn’t really feel the loss. The sequence of events was too short. If there was more detail, more emphasis or at least build up to this crucial point, I’d have been affected a lot more. The style was perfect for the book but there were times where I wanted, and needed, more.
But this could just be me. Feel free to disagree, (just do it nicely). My complaints are really only minor issues; for the most part this trilogy gets top marks. My conclusion? Read it. Even if you don’t like the writing, it’s worth it for the story. After all, that’s the most important part when it comes to a novel. You can have the best writing in the world but if your story is stupid, it just doesn’t work. Here though, you have flawed characters that you can connect to. You care about them. When they suffer, it bothers you. Like I said, for the most part, this isn’t a happy story. There is a lot of depth to the Hunger Games trilogy. So don’t write it off straight away. That’s what I learned anyway.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
So I’m feeling a bit lost now that I’ve finished reading the trilogy. At least we still have Lost to watch (something else which has helped to inspire my writing) but even that is going a bit off the rails. Hmm. Perhaps I’ll just stick to Tintin. I may have finished the books but I’ve still got the television series and the film on DVD. I’ll have to move quickly though. I’ll be going home in a month…
writingonthecitadel 