Wild Things: YA Grown-Up discussion

I am in love with this book. Once started, I read it nonstop. It is so powerful and I want more!

Same here, Lydia. I can't wait to get my hands on Catching Fire!

oh I am soooo ready for Catching Fire! I read Hunger Games a few months ago and the second I finished I preordered it, hehe.

I got the book from the library, but I have a feeling that there will be a purchased version in my future, probably once I return home from visiting my folks.

>>>>SPOILER<<<<

I'll try to be vague so it doesn't ruin too much if you accidentally peek...

Did Capitol's anger with Catniss ever show itself as more than an angry glare during the award presentation? I know she worried about it, and I know book 2 will deal more with the fallout, but I would have liked the threat due to her actions to have had a little more external presence.

I loved this book! I read it for the 1st Challenge and I could not put it down. I think I worried a little that it would be too dark (kids killing kids? Lord of the Flies, anyone?) but it really wasn't like that. I commend Collins for pulling it off without it getting like that, it can't have been easy.


***Response to Taejas Spoiler***

I think I felt most of the anger and Catniss' resulting apprehension from whatshis face (grrr) their drunken trainer guy. I kinda knew the Capital wasn't going to be happy with what they did, but I didn't feel the worry until he told her that they were angry.

I thought the book was brilliant. When it was finished, I felt tense, wondering what would happen to the main characters. Very suspensful and fascinating story. Can't wait for the sequel.

SPOILERRRRR DONT LOOK IF YOU DONT WANT TO BE SPOILED, I WARNED YOU DON'T LOOK!



I think there was anger over when Catniss covered Rue with the flowers. When Catniss and Peeta watched the replay, it was mentioned that the flower part was omitted, as it could be seen as an act of rebellion.

Speaking of which, I really loved Rue's character. I wish what happened to her didn't have to happen. :-(

Just picked up this audiobook from the library. I will let you guys know what I think after I get into it.

**** More spoilers!!****





April, I really liked Rue, too, though I'd forgotten about the flowers. I think that was a turning point for Catniss (if I remember correctly), because that was the first time she actively killed someone. As I was reading I remember wondering what would have happened had Catniss and Rue been the last 2. I actually think that might have been more rebelious because they would have stuck it out forever, I think.

Spoilerrr







Well, I remember there was a part where Catniss said the Captiol would kill contestants during the Hunger Games just to show they had the power to do so, so I think in the end, they would have wound up killing either Rue or Catniss.

**Response to spoiler**



Yeah, I think eventually they would have, but I think Catniss and Rue could have held out for a long time. Of course, that might not have been as fun to read!!

Jennifer - I have the same profile picture as you!

Anyways, I think The Hunger Games is the best book I've read in awhile. It is amazingly fast-paced, addictive, and interesting. I love it! And I can't wait for Catching Fire!

I ADORED this book. 5th favorite of all time.

I met Suzanne Collins at the National Council of Teachers of English conference last fall. She signed my copy of The Hunger Games, writing "May the odds always be in your favor." She wore a scarf pin like the hummingbird on the cover of THG. Nice lady. I am glad that her book has been embraced by so many readers.
I am in agony waiting for the sequel. I have not anticipated a book so much since waiting for Harry Potter #7.
Here is the trailer for Catching Fire if you have not seen it and Suzanne Collins reading an excerpt!

http://io9.com/5331148/the-girl-who-w...

I loved this book! I'm glad we did it as a group read as I think everyone should read it. The story was very entertaining and hard to put down. I can't wait to read Catching Fire.

Donalyn wrote: "I met Suzanne Collins at the National Council of Teachers of English conference last fall. She signed my copy of The Hunger Games, writing "May the odds always be in your favor." She wore a scarf p..."

That's so cool, what a great, relevant inscription! :-)

Couldn't put this or Catching Fire (ARC) down once I started. Hunger Games is probably one of my favorite reads this year.

I just reread it last night/this morning...I love it! Can't wait to get Catching Fire.

Me neither, Allison! :-)

Gosh, I feel like a broken record... But I too LOVED this book! I work in a small independent bookstore and always try to get kids and MORE ADULTS to read it. It is my mission to have this be as big as the Twilight series.

I was worried I wouldn't really like this. It sounded a little dystopic/apocalyptic/whatever, and that's not my thing. But, like everyone else, I couldn't put it down!

What do you think of Peeta and Katniss together? I really liked Peeta, he just seems a little too nice for her. I'm hoping we see more of Gale in Catching Fire.

So cool. I just bought The Hunger Games yesterday and didn't know it was a pick for August. My computer is in the shop and I'm only getting to use my son's sporadically. I will read after I finish Arthur and George.

I bought this book about 4 months ago and haven't touched it yet. Now I have a reason, and all of these comments are getting me excited to jump into it!

*Spoiler*




I really enjoyed this book. I think Catniss is the perfect balance of strong heroine and unsure/uncoordinated teenager. It will be interesting in Catching Fire to see if Catniss is more romantically involved with Gale or if she discovers she truly has romantic feelings for Peeta. I think that her relationship with Gale is more of an older brother/little sister, and that Peeta is where her heart truly lies. I think that it is also interesting that Peeta and Gale were important in her struggle to survive and keep her family alive after her father's death. Peeta, purposely dropping the bread so that it would have to be thrown out, and Gale helping her learn to gather herbs and berries and hunt.

In answer to earlier posts, I think that the whole anger with the Capital against Catniss would come in Catching Fire, when she either helps the next pledges in the games or continues to defy the capital. I think that she didn't really worry about it until they were on the train ride home. I also think that now that she and Peeta are considered celebrities, even though they are angry with her, there isn't much retaliation that they can take without exposing themselves.

Well I'm well into the book now and am really surprised that I'm liking it with the subject matter. I guess that's the sign of a well written book.

SPOILER *******************

I'm to the part where the hunger games are beginning. They are about to be let loose to start and Katniss has spied the bow and arrows and thinks she's going to try to grab them. I am very nervous for her. What a horrifying event these games are, but I keep wanting to know what is going to happen next. I feel so bad for Peeta, as I think he's really not expecting to survive. What do you all think about his feelings for Katniss? I think he truly does have feelings for her.

I think the author does a really good job of keeping you guessing about Peeta's feelings for Katniss so that you never can say for CERTAIN that he does...and then more is revealed at the end to tell you one way or another pretty definitely.

Allison wrote: "I think the author does a really good job of keeping you guessing about Peeta's feelings for Katniss so that you never can say for CERTAIN that he does...and then more is revealed at the end to tel..."

Ah, more to come on that then. I must get back to the book this afternoon.

(G)Emma wrote: "I ADORED this book. 5th favorite of all time."

The Hunger Games is most definitely in my top 5, too. Just wondering what your other 4 favs are? I'm always looking for something new that comes highly recommended.

The reason why The Hunger Games is in my top 5 is because of the authors remarkable ability to paint such vivid imagery of Panem, the Hunger Games arena, and each character without getting too wordy about it. There wasn't one point in the entire story where I felt the pace needed to be picked up a bit, or where some details could've been left out. What a great book!

I completely understand the suspense left for Catching Fire, My library just got hunger games about 3 months ago and I'd been debating picking it up or not. It was really good.
SPOILER!!!!
I kinda figured from somewhere in the beginning that Peeta and Katnis would both make it to the end of the games, but when Rue started getting involved, I really wanted her to last till the end with the other two.

Although I am not usually a fan of 'survival' books, this one really caught my attention, though that is probably primarily due to my love for futuristic/scifi stories. And I completely agree with Stacy: the author's ability to paint such a vivid picture in so few words made me want to continue to read instead of skimming over wordy, overly-descriptive paragraphs.

She wrote the Gregor the Overlander set too, if you like how she writes. I have a problem with how she ends the books so suddenly. I never did like the end of the last Gregor book!

Thank you for that! I will have to get those next time I go to the library.

I, too, loved the Hunger Games! Although when I was listening to it, I couldn't help but think about how this could be the future of all our "reality tv" we love these days! Some of our shows now aren't far off from fighting till the death. It will be the new Survivor!

Susan, just a comment on your spoiler

SPOILERRRR





I think the Capitol could stage an accident, i.e. Katniss could accidentally eat a pie with poisonious berries, she could "fall" in a hole while hunting, she could shake someone's hand with a poison ring... I think the Captiol is pretty crafty, but I kind of doubt there will be any sort of life-threatening retaliation, since aren't these books supposed to be a triology, so obviously Collins won't kill off her narrator/main character until the very end--if she does decide to kill her off.

I want to see more of Gale in catching fire.

Best book of 2008! I can't wait for Catching Fire!

Oh by the way... this has been driving me nuts Katniss is spelled with a K not a C.

spoiler stuff....


I'm wondering about the Avox....I'm in the middle of the part of the book where the games are going on. I'm wondering if the Avox issue will show up in the next book? Maybe that will have some sort of significance with the anger and Capitol issue (I haven't got through the whole thing yet, so maybe my idea will change w/the ending of the book.) I feel bad for Peeta right now, I like the way he is being characterized through his actions and words. The end of Rue caught me by suprise, I was pretty stunned by it's part in the games. I thought Rue would last longer.

I am so surprised that I loved this book. Wow! I finished it this afternoon and can't wait to pick up the sequel.

April wrote: "Susan, just a comment on your spoiler

SPOILERRRR





I think the Capitol could stage an accident, i.e. Katniss could accidentally eat a pie with poisonious berries, she could "fall" in a hole whi..."

Good point. I hope that they don't kill her off completely. However, I still see something happening to her, whether staged to look like an accident or not as something that would expose how flawed the governing system is.

RESPONSE TO SPOILER

I think that most people in the poorer districts already know a lot of the flaws of the Capitol. Even if they did stage an 'accident' there would be a lot of people who would know it wasn't an accident. Even if the capitol doesn't care if they have kill the people they don't need, I'd think they wouldn't want too because of the time and resources it would take to quell the rumors that would surround such and 'accident.'

I read this book last fall, and LOVED it. I suggested it for our 8th grade book club (I work in a middle school library) and the kids and our parent sponsor liked it too. We're all eagerly anticipating the sequel. I'm going to have to buy it from a local bookstore when it comes out rather than going through our official order process because we can't wait that long!!

cool! I'm a little older than 8th grade, but it was really good. I'd have to strangle my 8th grade siblings to get them to read it though. they don't read anything they don't have to. It's sad. *tear*

i can empathize with that- if my room was a rainforest of books, my 6th grade brother's room would be a desert. it's heartbreaking!
I wish we could have read such awesome books in 8th grade as the hunger games. we were stuck evaluating every word of every line of every page in boring old english stories that no one had ever heard of before! no adventure stories for us. >sigh<

Okay I finished it, at 3 in the morning last night!

Gush: This was an amazing book! I absolutely loved it! I began the book with extremely high hopes an expectations and I wasn't let down. Collins wrote in a way that grabbed you attention, through every detail, and didn't let you go; even hours after the book was over.

Critique: I've learned that a great novel is supposed to make us consider, and reconsider the implications of the text. While Collins did an awesome job with handling the subject, she still let us feel disturbed enough to make us think and analyze. The characters were amazing from Peeta (perfect!) to Rue and Cato, and so on. I loved the plot and subplots, and the questions that may or may not have been answered.

But now I'm rambling so I'll stop. It really was an exhilerating novel!

I absolutely LOVED this book!! I read it this past spring and the second I read the last word I leaped up and went to the computer to see if there was a sequel! I couldn't believe I had to wait for September! I have it pre-ordered on Amazon and can't wait for it, it's that good.

I guess there was a combination of factors that made it so good. Her ability to emotionally connect you with the main character I think was the most important one though. I was never disappointed or confused in the actions of her characters, especially Katniss. One thing that ruins a book for me is when the characters do things that make no sense for that characters, seemingly to just steer the plot in a certain direction.
Collins never does that! Add to that an intense and emotionally rich plot, a little romance, and you’ve got magic.
I can’t wait for Catching Fire!

Hi guys, just joined the group, and just happened to read this book last week(Actually the audiobook version).

I agree with everyone. The book was amazing.

I expected the whirlwind plot. What surprised me was that the characters had depth and were very believable. Be it Katniss, Gayle, Peeta or any of the minor characters for that matter, they all were real people to me.

I think the book could have worked even if there was only friendship between Gayle, Katniss and Peeta instead of the romance. I find the love triangle a bit forced. I feel it may be because of Twilight's success too.

One Question for discussion, like to know what you think:
Do you feel the romance angle was necessary for the plot, especially the love triangle that is evident?

I do not believe it was necessary, but keep in mind that Katniss didn't think of either of the guys like that. But think of it this way: love tends to be a very large driving force in life when it comes to who you choose to protect and what you are willing to give up in order to allow someone else to survive. Besides, the author may be setting something up for the future.

By the way-hi! you asked a pretty good question and it seems like you'll be a good part of this group. :)

Hi Veronica, I'm glad you think so! :)

Katniss didn't think of either of them like that, but we both know she will eventually, at least about one of the guys or both.

You made a valid point about Love as a motivation. If you have read Harry Potter for example, the three main characters have friendship as their motivation, and it works brilliantly. Harry Potter series could have incorporated a love triangle too, but it does not.

I agree that the author may be setting something up for the future. I hope she does not fall into the cliches of the romance genre in the sequels though. She has so far done well in the romance department.

first...I have always felt that friendship and romance both come out of degrees of love for others.
second...I feel like Collins is using the romance/forced romance situation to point out some of the issues with the system the Capitol is using. The Capitol needs to be able to manipulate and control the population (even through something like love), any independence and the Capitol loses the power base that it has. I had the cynical thought that maybe Collins was showing us how even love and humanitarian actions could be manipulated and polluted. Katniss has to continue w/ the show with Peeta to save herself, even though it will destroy anything that might have been able to develop naturally. And I feel terrible that Peeta was acting true to himself, and Katniss was working on self preservation (after the games).