The Hunger Games Trilogy

[Lucille]

I just finished the 3rd book this morning. Read 2 and 3 just in the last week and read 1 over a period of a few months (it took a lot of discipline!)

While I realized there was a lot of trauma inflicted in books 1 and 2, it didn't really hit me until 3 that the connection I felt to Katiniss was deeply rooted in PTSD. I always feel a connection to the strong girl who doesn't take crap from any body, the huntress, and the girl who can survive against all odds - even when she herself doesn't believe she'll be able to. I am exactly like that so I thought that was what was my connection with Katniss.

In book 3, I started to get this heartsick feeling... watching how broken Katniss is. A lot of the way she describes how she feels, how difficult it is to think straight, the nightmares, the way she gets lost in a memory... it is exactly how someone who doesn't know they have PTSD would describe what they are experiencing.

The heartsick feeling I think was actually rooted in worry that she wouldn't survive, that she wouldn't be able to find peace... because if Katniss couldn't do it, then it means I can't either.

I'm probably going to have to read them all again to figure out what I think about all of the PTSD undertones, and what my reaction to them says about me

 

[Lucille]

When I mentioned to my mother that I relate to Katniss because of my PTSD, it took her by complete surprise. She didn't notice any of that in the books and said "I don't read books to be sad." I don't either, but I couldn't avoid it. To me, her reaction is indicative of extreme denial about what her daughter is experiencing. The more I think about it, the more PTSD is EVERYWHERE in the Hunger Games series, particularly undeniable in book 3

 

[ClairBear226]

I hope they either fill that in within the next movie... I think missing it will lose so much from the movies potential. It was ok, but having read the book it filled in so much that was missing from the movie.

I saw "Catching Fire" Thursday night. I liked it much better than the first movie, though it's been awhile since I've read the book, so that could have something to do with it. They did briefly touch on the communication between Hamitch and Katniss during the first games, if I remember correctly.

In general, they stayed pretty close to an abbreviated version of the plot, and I liked it. Pet peeves: They really needed a better looking guy to play Finnick. Good looking? Yes. Capitol boy toy material? No. They also show a grand whopping total of ONE flashback of Katniss' in the very beginning, and not a lot about her and Peeta's nightmares. Part of what I liked about the books was that they demonstrated the progression of how PTSD develops. They had an opportunity to put that into the movie more, and didn't. I guess there's only so much you can cram into a movie, given the limitation of a short time frame as compared to a book. And there was an awful lot of plot to tackle. But still.

My understanding is, Mockingjay will be divided into two movies, rather than one, but I haven't heard a release date yet.

 

[HëllaBubz]

It is a damned good set of books, and I'm looking forward to seeing the latest movie, but probably when it comes out on DVD. I'm not in the headspace to sit through a movie in a cinema again, I did it with Thor and enjoyed it, but I need to take it slowly.

The first movie wasn't so bad, although I thought the part when Katniss sings the song over the other contestant (forgotten the name) was completely undermined, as apparently she's (Katniss) is supposed to have a voice that made birds stop singing to listen to her, like her father.

Interested to see how this second movie plays out, I hope it doesn't butcher the story as badly as the movie City of Bones did of Cassandra Claire's book set.

 

[ClairBear226]

I rewatched the first Hunger Games movie before going to the 2nd. So here's a question: when Thresh spares Katniss' life at the cornucopia, how did he know what she'd done for Rue?

 

[CraftyCath]

I can't remember that ClairBair as I haven't seen the film for ages and it is a long while now since I read the books, I hope someone has the answer for you.

I'm looking forward to the next film and hope it lives up to the book (at least close to the book).

 

[anthony]

when Thresh spares Katniss' life at the cornucopia, how did he know what she'd done for Rue?

At a rough guess, I would say it was because the girl trying to kill Katniss was saying aloud how she protected Rue and such, yet she got to her and killed her anyway. At a rough guess... I would say he heard and worked out she is a friend.

 

[Hashi]

when Thresh spares Katniss' life at the cornucopia, how did he know what she'd done for Rue?

Yes, as anthony says, it's because the girl trying to kill her talks about it, and Thresh then asks Katniss if it's true. I'm trying to remember how it is in the film. In the book it's very clear. I thought it was the same in the movie, but maybe it isn't obvious in the movie that Thresh has heard what was said?

 

[Hashi]

I loved all three books. I waited before reading the third one, because I'd heard negative things about it, but I wish I hadn't paid any attention. I thought it was really good.

It has taken me a while to think what people mean when they talk about characters being killed off. I think I've remembered now, but I don't see that as something that takes away from the books. I think it adds something. Not giving us the happy ending we might want. Some particular things about it made me think of things I've read about the first world war. Having an insight into people's lives and aspirations, seeing them and other people investing in their talents and ambitions, then finding them suddenly, even randomly, killed.

Why should those characters have lived? Why should they have more than one line about their death, when so many were dying in a war? I think it made it all the more realistic. Not about how things should be, but about how things are.

 

[Orglethorp]

I wasn't so much concerned about the characters that were killed off with a sentence or less. What bothered me was the characters that survived, yet only got one sentence. Maybe two. I understand that Collins was trying to capture the emotionally numb state these characters end up in, but for a couple of characters in particular, it didn't quite work for me. Some of the tying up of loose ends was too short and sweet.

 

[maddog]

Orglethorp's last post exactly sums up how I felt about the ultimate ending, including the acknowledgement that I know the emotional emptiness and, in a sense, shared loss, of it all was presumably being conveyed through this brevity. Excellent concept and theory... didn't quite work for me in practice, and left me feeling cheated and empty. Hang on, maybe I just got it afterall...

Gosh, with this thread having recently been reignited, it's made me realise that since I read both this trilogy and the Dragon Tattoo trilogy all within a really short space of time (God, sorry, mind blank on the name of the latter) I haven't read a book that holds a candle to any of them. Possibly the best 6 books, as a group, that I've read in forever.

Maddog

 

[ClairBear226]

It wasn't clear in the movie, and it might be in the book, but it's been awhile since I've read it.