The Hunger Games

I finished The Hunger Games Trilogy. Actually- I finished the entire thing in less than 24 hours.  Because I get like that sometimes.  It's not real, but I think I read so quickly so that I don't prolong the pain of the characters.

I originally resisted the urge to read these books because of the hype.  I did the same thing with Harry Potter.  I continue to do this with Twilight, but because I actually picked up a book once and read 3 sentences in it...and couldn't handle the mental torture of truly terrible writing.  I digress.

I resisted reading the books because they didn't sound like "my thing."  I like Fantasy.  Dragons, elves, magic- not post-apocalyptic worlds.   However, because Tim got a Kindle Fire, we have a free month of Amazon Prime.  With Prime comes the Kindle Lending Library and Hunger Games were some of the books I could borrow.  I have been out of new books to read for a while now, so I thought what the heck- we'll give it a shot.

I sometimes delve too deeply in to books.  I get too caught up in the books, I identify too much with one particular character.  I found one of those characters in The Hunger Games- so I became sucked into a dark trilogy full of pain and death.  Not too many fun moments, but I did find myself giggling out loud once or twice.  These moments were rare.

I am always a little at a loss after I finish a novel or series that I've become deeply involved in.  I find myself running over parts in my mind, analyzing motives, delving for more meaning.  It's hard to break out of the world.  In a dark book, it can sometimes be problematic.   Another symptom of my tendency towards seasonal depression, I guess.  Perhaps I should save the dark books for the summer months?  Going to see a movie helps throw me out of that post-book depression. After all, I don't lose myself in movies the way I do books.

The books are worth the hype they've received.  The writing style is a little odd- it occasionally throws me off, but the story is captivating.  I much preferred the first book to the other two, though I've heard others prefer the second or third.

Has anyone else read The Hunger Games?  What did you think?