The Hunger Games-- One Last Comment from Everyone

Dande:
I really liked it. Like any book, it was good at some things and bad at others, and the stuff that I think it was really good at was that it really threw me in there, and while I was reading it I couldn't put it down. And it seemed definitely realistic, I really could believe I was there.

Newhope:
It made me hungry.

Walle:
I liked this book a lot, mostly because it was completely different than what I expected. It sort of opened up my mind.

Windex:
I thought this book was really good, because of all the action and stuff, but I felt like the romance just kept going on and on and on and on...

Smiley:
I really liked this book too, but I don't know, I thought the romance wasn't that bad. But the romance made me so sad because I knew that Peeta really did like her, I just could tell, and I knew that she didn't. It was just so sad at the end.

O'Juice:
Yeah, I kind of agree with Smiley. The instant that they were interviewing the people and he said, "Oh, and I brought that girl with me who I've always liked." I knew that was real.

Dande:
When he did that, and then they had the chapter break to the next section, I was thinking, "Oh, no she didn't!"

Laughs

O'Juice:
Okay, so I think this book might end up being one of my favorite series, and it's really awesome. The romance... it was good, but it would probably be better if it was actually real. She was faking it, so there was nothing there. It was just, "I'll give you a kiss, and now I'm going to get food."

Chair:
Personally, I think it was almost violent enough for me to forgive that scene where he takes off all his clothes, when she's pulling him out of the riverbank.

Laughs

Smiley:
Not all...

Jolly:
I really liked it, there was enough romance where I can deal with it, but it wasn't Twilight. There was enough action to keep me in the book.

O'Juice:
It wasn't like love at first sight or something. I hate those kinds.

Jolly:
Yes, thank you. Love at first sight is shallow.

Newhope:
This story actually had a progression to it. I liked it a lot, it had highs and lows, it had peaks where it was really exciting, and then downtime to build up to being even more exciting. Except for the ending, it ended without that peak.

The Hunger Games-- The Ending

[Editor's Note* The first part of this is from the very beginning of the meeting, and this was the first thing everyone had on their minds.]

Dande:
So welcome to the Morris Young Adult Book Club... so what did you guys think about the book?

Chair:
Jolly, go right ahead-

Jolly:
It had no ending...

O'Juice:
I hated the ending.

Chorus of agreement.

Windex:
Is this a series?

Newhope:
Well the book says end of book one...

Dande:
There are two more books.

O'Juice:
But is it like all about the same person?

Newhope:
It better be...

Jolly:
The next one comes out September 1st.

Dande:
I get that you have to set up for the series, but that kind of thing gets me mad. You have to have some sort of conclusion.

Newhope:
Closure.

Dande:
I'm still going to get the next book, because I want to know what happens, but... * frowns*

Jolly:
There's no ending, okay? They're holding hands, and they're about to step off the train. That's it.
End of Book 1. That's not an ending.

Walle:
I think they should have at least shown how the crowd reacted, just for a second. A brief flash of Gales face-

O'Juice:
Then if they ended with the sentence, "And then I saw Gale," that would kinda be a little bit-

Smiley:
That'd be really worse!

Jolly:
They should have just ended it after Peeta got mad at Katniss. It should have been, she's just standing there, and he's storming back to the train.

Dande:
I don't know what the author could have done... you guys are saying to just add a couple sentences, but I think it's just the way that the story is made. The story is made for there to be a whole bunch of stuff that happens latter but she didn't want to have a book this thick- *pantomimes thick book*

Jolly:
She should've.

Dande:
-so she had to chop it off right in the middle. And I guess, probably, she likes it because people will be like, "Oh, what's going to happen?" and buy the next one, but it's annoying.

O'Juice:
I want to smack her.

Laughs

Dande:
I think that because she had to cut it off in a horrible place, I think it almost would have been better if she just cut it off after they start going home, after the interview drama thing, and not even introduced the Peeta thing.

O'Juice:
I feel like she just took a knife and chopped it wherever she felt like it.

Chair:
It would have been good if they go on the hovercraft and it ended there. If they didn't even go into all the preparation: her ear's fixed, he's got a new leg.

Dande:
But they have to have that extra drama, about: oh my god are they going to attack them for the berry rebellion thing?

O'Juice:
I've never read another book with an ending that makes me want to read the next book so bad.

Dande:
I have.

Smiley:
It's called a cliffhanger...

Dande:
No, cliffhangers are good for the ends of chapters, not the ends of books. When authors do it at the end of books, it's just mean.

The Hunger Games-- First Impressions & Prose

Dande:
Overall, good book?

Chorus of agreement

Walle:
It was better than I expected.

Dande:
Oh, you don't like my book-choosing abilities?

Laughs

Newhope:
It doesn't help, the title, at all. You have to really read the inside cover.

Dande:
I'm guessing that they count more on word-of-mouth than people picking it up for the cover.

Newhope:
It's definitely engineered towards that.

O'Juice:
Actually, you know what I first heard about when I heard the title? I thought it would be some girl on the streets of New York or something like that.

Walle:
I thought it would be something about a person who's struggling to live, not a futuristic society.

Dande:
You thought I picked a memoir?

Walle:
Yeah...

Laughs

Dande:
What did you guys think the actual way the book was told, the prose, the writing style? It was present tense.

Windex:
Better than Dickens...

Laughs [Editor's Note* Many Members of MYABC recently read Dickens in English Class]

O'Juice:
I liked how it wasn't an all knowing author. It was from her perspective. It wasn't one second she's talking about this, another second she's talking about something else, and it's like, how do you know that? I want to follow it from what she knows.

Walle:
I also liked the fact that in the beginning, it wasn't a description of her whole life, and then the Hunger Games start. I like the way they incorporated her past into the present.

Jolly:
I like how they tell you about her life during the Games.

Newhope:
They didn't tell you about that girl she found, with the cut off tongue, until she actually met her.

Dande:
Actually, if you noticed the Hunger Games actually started halfway through the book, but it doesn't feel like that. It feels like it goes by so quick.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Dande here, and welcome to the Morris YA Book Club Blog!

This month we read The Hunger Games, and overall, everyone enjoyed it. I don't want to spoil too from our discussions, but I think it's important to note that the conversation kept revolving around a few key things: the Katniss/Peeta/Gale dynamic, the cliffhanger ending, and speculation on the next book. So be on the look out for those interesting posts!

The schedule for Hunger Games posts is as follows:

• April 20th, 2009-- First Impressions & Prose
• April 21st, 2009-- Names
• April 23rd, 2009-- Food & Sponsors
• April 24th, 2009-- Cinna & Killing
• April 27th, 2009-- Career Tributes
• April 28th, 2009-- Tracker Jackers, Forest, & the Pin
• April 30th, 2009-- Foxface, Rue, & Tresh
• May 1st, 2009-- Cornucopia, Wolves, & Injury
• May 4th, 2009-- The Capitol & Berries (Part 1)
• May 5th, 2009-- Berries (Part 2)
• May 6th, 2009-- The Ending
• May 7th, 2009-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 1)
• May 8th, 2009-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 2)
• May 12th, 2009-- The Next Book
• May 14th, 2009-- Bloopers: Athens & A Japanese Game Show
• May 15th, 2009-- One Last Comment from Everyone

At this meeting: Dande, Newhope, Jolly, Chair, O'Juice, Smiley, Windex, Walle