I recently read all three. They certainly engaged my interest, partly because I found the concept of the games so horrific. To me, the books conveyed an anti-collectivist, anti-statist political viewpoint. I liked that, and I'm certainly not in any way TBM, but I think many TBMs would appreciate that viewpoint as well. Actually, religious practice was never mentioned and TBMs may be inclined to attribute the heartless cruelty of the tyrannical rulers to that lack of any religious belief,
Whatever one believes the source of evil to be, it's certainly on full display in these books.
I just read all three of them. I couldn't put them down, though I'm not sure why. My 13 year old says his teacher has them in their classroom, and I'm not sure if they are supposed to read or not, but he gave up at home.
They were very evil in nature. Vaguely related to the book "The Giver" which is also a big deal in the elementary schools around here and it was a best seller or gold something?
Anyway, they were interesting to me for whatever reason. But very creepy.
...by well known author Lois Lowry, won the prestigious Newbery Medal for children's literature. It was considered to be shocking and revolutionary at the time it was written (...like many good, and lasting books.) "The Giver" was banned by many school districts and libraries. It started the trend for dark, dystopian, yet thoughtful novels written for young people. It's the kind of book that helps kids to think about deep concepts and the world they live in.
The eighth graders at my school just finished reading it. It's now considered to be a classic of children's literature.
DW and I read through them very quickly. Great books, but we were both kind of disturbed by how the last one ended. PTSD is a serious topic to end on, but I guess it's a realistic ending.
I would probably never have picked up young-adult fiction of my own accord, but someone in our book club, whose suggestions I always love, assured us we'd like it. And I always try to read the monthly pick because I'm more often than not glad that I did.
But I honestly don't know when I've been sucked into a book as fast as I was to Hunger Games. Not even sure why.
I was disappointed with the end of the series, as well. But I did enjoy the read up until then. The main character is very chaste, so I think TBM's would eat it up.
My sister and all my LDS SAHM friends were as obsessed with these books as they were with Twilight. My sister really enjoyed them and whenever the last one came out, she basically read it all straight through in one sitting. She thought they were "smarter" than the Twilight books.
I generally don't read young-adult novels, so I don't have a personal opinion. I will admit that I'm immediately biased against them just because the only people I know who have read them are LDS.
I feel sorry for Molly-Mormons who have to read books written for a teenage audience for fear that they might be unduly exposed to content that doesn't meet their ever-so-high standards of morality.I count reading truly great literature without such fears as one of the greatest joys of leaving Mormonism.
I found them some of the best dystopic fiction I've read in a long time. I couldn't stop thinking about them and have recommended them to a number of people.
they are about a post-apocolyptic US where the govt of PANEM has divided the country into 13 districts - one of which was annihilated after a rebellion, the others are enslaved (and in most, starving). In order to emphasize the completeness of the control and to keep the demoralization strongest, the govt forces a lottery each year wherein 2 children, ages 12-18 are chosen and force into the most amazing arena where they have to fight to the death.
The story follows two from district 12, told in first person by the girl-hero.
it is tragic, compelling, emotionally disturbing and fascinating, like being unable to turn away from an awful car-accident
It seems like half of them love the series and the other half are filled with self-righteous horror that a mo would read these books or, worse, let their kids read them. I read the first one and thought the ending was a massive setup to get you to read the second one. As a free-lance editor, I didn't like being played like that...it was just so obvious. Not subtle like a good writer would be. So I got fed up and quit reading. But it was for technical reasons. The story itself, up to the last 100 pages, was hard to put down.
but the transitions between books is usually smoother, IMO. Of course, everyone who writes a trilogy tries to lead their readers onto the next book. Just some writers are better at it than others. They have a more natural transition. Hunger Games felt like the story ended then "Oh, we better tack some crap on the end that doesn't really blend well with the story but will make the reader buy the next book that we suddenly decided to write."
In fact, I had to fight my children and wife for them.
Very engaging and I still find myself thinking about them from time to time.
What I liked:
Things weren't sugar coated, hunger, death, corruption, oppression, they were all examined and dealt with. Human nature was keenly observed in the creation of many of the characters.
Just like in life, the happy ending isn't guaranteed. When you quit fighting you start dying. I thought it was kind of heavy stuff compared to other young adult books. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - quite the opposite. I particularly liked the hero's final shot with her bow. This lead to an interesting discussion with my 12 y.o. daughter.
I just hope they don't make them into movies. I think that would ruin the story for me.
I can't recall who wrote it, but I read a short story years ago about how children were used to fight wars, many of them were killed. The survivors had their minds wiped of how horrible their childhoods were. But one adult's childhood memories returned and he rebelled.
It was done in order to keep the spending on military hardware up.
I have read all 3 and liked them - my TBM wife and two of my teen daughters have read them and liked them as well. I don't recall anything that would offend a TBM other than the fact that the heroine never once considers religion or appeals to God for help in the books and the books contains mild violence. Still, they are popular books with the TBM friends of my family members.