Book Review: The Hunger Games. Duh.

Caution: Spoiler alert. But not too bad.

From the time I found out I was pregnant with Audrey, back in September of 2010, up until the week before she was born, I read all things baby. I read the pregnancy books. I read the baby gear books. I read the working mother and breastfeeding books. I read the baby sleep books and the happy baby books. I read the 411 books and the 911 books. And that was all I read.

Even after Audrey was born, the only reading I did was of the baby books. The ones about diaper rashes and distinguishing between coughs and what to do when your baby rolls off the bed onto the hardwood floor. I also read the blogs. All the baby mommy motherhood blogs on the Internet. I read them. And that' was all I read.

But at Christmas time this year, I somehow found myself with some time to read and no questions about my baby, boobs, sleeping, feeding, diaper rashes, or head trauma. And holy goodness I remembered how much I LOVE to read. In short order, I finished a book by the Dog Whisperer and the second book (Stones into Schools) by the Three Cups of Tea guy (Greg Mortensen, who I've heard made it all up...), re-read my favorite of the Harry Potter Series (number 4), and flew through a murder mystery about an attorney with a depressed son who is suspected of killing another kid at his psychiatric hospital. I read the Girl who Played with Fire and liked it okay, better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but they both suffer from the same issues. I will not review either for you. Ever.

And then. It happened. I jumped on a bandwagon the same way I did when the Twilight books got popular... I saw previews for The Hunger Games, the movie, at the beginning of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and I immediately went to Target (literally, right from the movie theater next door) and bought the book. I read it in 2.5 days and it only took me that long because I have a baby who requires me to function. So, on the eve of the opening day of the movie, probably just hours before the most die-hard fans will stream into theaters for a midnight showing dressed in leather hunting gear and toting a bow-and-arrow and fresh mockingjay tats, I give you -

A Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is entertaining. (so is this serious blog). This is what I say about movies, books, stories, and other art and "art" that I thoroughly enjoy, but that is not necessarily a fine piece of, in this case, literature. The story is well-conceived from the beginning, though it has its moments of strain. Like the giant dog wolf things that seem to have human eyes and the ease with which the citizens of the Capitol worship The Games and ignore the horror of kids murdering kids.

The love story is also frustrating. But so is love in real life, so it works. One just wishes that Peeta could understand Katniss's struggle to figure out what she wants in a man at the exact same time she's trying to save his life and not get hacked to death by a beast name Cato. You kind of want to shake him. But he's going to be cute in the movie, so maybe it won't bug you so much.

Much tougher than Kristin Stewart.

The end - prepare to be spoiled - is an absolute failure. I think it is anyways. A cop-out cliffhanger with no purpose but to leave you, the reader, pissed-off and angsty all over again. Just like you were when Rue died. Sorry. I wanted to be a spoiler of something.

Anyways, I enjoyed it. I can't wait to see the movie tomorrow. I actually don't know that I've been this excited to see a movie ever before. Not even Harry Pottery 4 or Twilight. It had better deliver.

May the odds... be ever in your favor,
Kate