Okay so I just finished off the first book and I enjoyed it enough to actually want to read the next one too, so that's a good thing. I did enjoy it, although it took me a while to get into it and it wasn't until the actual "games" started that I really enjoyed it.
The beginning is really boring. Katniss and I got off to a bad start sice she put her boots on before her pants and that really annoyed me. And thorughout the book Katniss has done nothing to make me like her. She's a dick. A really bloody stupid one at that.
I don't like Primm. I don't like that the author just told me that everyone loves Primm rather than showing me why everyone is so fond of her. There must be loads of little girls running around District 12, what makes Primm so special other than she's the little sister of the main character?
Speaking of things that I'm told and not shown, the conditions in District 12. I understood before I started reading that the main character grew up in a shitty area, but that was never explored. Katniss just occasionally told us that people starved there. That's nice. How about the author invests a little time into that and shows us exacty how shitty District 12 is? Thst would have made a much larger impact.
I also, and going backto Katniss here, didn't like that she can apparently get up in the morning, walk twenty metres into the woods and shoot a couple pf wild turkeys, gather fruit and then skip back hoe and go to school. Seriously? Animals wouoldn't stay anywhere near the fences. They'd roam miles and miles away. SHe'd have to go stalking for days at a time. That's how hunting works, especially good old fashioned hunting with a bow and arrow. I just laughed when it was revealed that she shot squirrils in the eye.
Haymitch is cool. I like Haymitch. I liked how Katniss and Peeta dismissed him as a drunk without putting in the slightest thought (until later) that he won his years Hunger Games, which means that he killed a bunch of other children. Haymitch better be in the next one. I also liked Effie, just because she's such an airhead and so enthusiastic. Also because I like the name.
The other contestents were mostly faceless numbers and I didn't care about them in the slightest. Rue and Peeta (for obvious reasons) were the only iones who were fleshed out and actually existed as characters. The rest were just words on a page. I didn't care when they died.
- Spoiler:
I didn't care when Rue died either since it was obvious that it was going to happen.
Peeta was awesome. He was the most real character in the entire book and the only one I was rooting for the whole way through. It's just unfortunate for him that he's lumbered with the stupidity that is Katniss.
Oh well, onto the second book.