So I feel like I should let you guys know that I am officially a huge Hunger Games nerd. This week I read Catching Fire and then Mockingjay in literally a day and a half. I mean, finally there's a young person trend I can get with! Something that involves archery and political dystopian sci-fi instead of vampires! And a heroine who has a personality and is interesting and complicated and deals with actual scary problems instead of just a mopey sullen generic blob with too many boyfriends.
Seriously though, the books are well-written, gripping, and, unlike some other YA trilogies I could mention (cough His Dark Materials cough), the series ends on an entirely satisfactory and well-earned note. For those of you who, like me, are feeling the Harry Potter void now that the last part of the last movie of the last book is finally out, you should start reading The Hunger Games RIGHT NOW because OMG you will instantly feel much less empty and your nerdy sadness will start to dissipate. Weirdly, I don't know anyone else who has read the books (or at least anybody who's mentioned them to me), and my friends are, aside from 14-year-olds, definitely the key demographic here (politically-disillusioned twentysomethings trying to evade the grasp of real adulthood for as long as possible). So for starters, that's my recommendation. Go read the books! I already want to read them again but will have to get back into the MASSIVE hold lines at the library.
Secondly, and I know I am RATHER late to the game but whatever, I am poor and get books from the library and that entitles me to belated opinion posts, but the casting for the movie looks great, y/y? I have never seen Jennifer Lawrence in anything but she is hot and bad-ass and looks the part in the pictures I've seen. Josh Hutchinson is great, adorable, and very Peeta. Thor (with the muscles toned down so as to account for a starvation-based economy) as Gale, yes, great. Donald Sutherland as President Snow, of course, obviously. At first I was like, Woody Harrelson? But then realized he looked exactly like the Haymitch in my head, albeit a little taller. Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, yes, yes, yes. The only name that really made me go HUH? was Lenny Kravitz. I mean, I know he's coming off his breathtaking turn as The Only Attractive And Nice Man in Precious, but I feel like Cinna is a key role that has a lot of unspoken feeling and nuance to it and I hope the pretty boy is up to the challenge. Lenny Kravitz. Ha.
Regardless of The Master Of The Unlaced Boot and his acting abilities, I think The Hunger Games movies are gonna be pretty effing great. If I had cable I might have even have suffered through the VMAs in order to see the preview (instead I have something called "The Internet" on which I will find the preview tomorrow) and considering that Twitter tells me they had Bruno Mars (BARF) covering the dear departed (and one-of-a-kind vocalist) Amy Winehouse, that's saying something. But I want my generation to get excited about it! Because you should! Good books, easy to read but with rich, meaningful content and sexy, realistic romantic entanglements...soon-to-be movies starring cute teenagers that aren't actually teenagers so they are fair ogling game...c'mon, Generation Me (do we have an official appellation? The Millenials? I like my name better.), you guys should LOVE THIS.
So read the books and then we can all go to the movies in March and maybe someone will buy me a bow and arrows like I have wanted since I was a kid and Father Christmas gave them to Susan and oh man that Narnia reference got me thinking of The Magicians which (a) IS SO GOOD you should all read The Magicians as soon as you're done with The Hunger Games and (b) is that becoming a movie yet? Or, like, six movies because so much happens? Because that will be awesome. Anyway my point is that let's all read The Hunger Games and then dress up and go to the movies at midnight in March because NERDS. We can cover ourselves in fake blood and speculate as to who they're going to get to play Finnick (it's got to be Ryan Gosling, right? If it can't be Joel McHale ten years ago, it's got to be Ryan Gosling.).
And if I haven't convinced you by now to go read the books, I'll close with this: food porn. SUCH GOOD FOOD PORN. Like, yeah, I get what Suzanne Collins is trying to say about gluttony and greed and wealth discrepancies and yes those are all very bad and yes, the ipecac shots at The Capitol banquets are grrosssss, but the descriptions of food in these books are so amazing so if you are a fan of mouth-wateringly detailed descriptions of food in YA lit, then you should turn off The Internet and go read The Hunger Games all three books right now because yowza. Just writing this makes me hungry for lamb stew with wild rice and dried plums, and I don't even LIKE plums.
THE END VAMPIRES LOSE. Team "The Hunger Games" FTW forever and ever.
Image via SuzanneCollinsBooks
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