Akiva Reads

by Suzanne Collins

I finished these books. They definitely captured my attention. (I stayed up until something like 4:30a finishing this one... sadly, not an unusual affliction in me.) The morals/big ideas were fairly well thought out and interesting (though some more than others... for instance, the origin of the name "Panem" didn't make much sense; there was no good reason for the government to have chosen it).

But I didn't enjoy reading the books at all. The second one in particular felt like a punishment. On just about every page, I asked myself why I was putting myself through it. And, you know, that's exactly how the characters feel, so maybe it was even intentional?

The epilogue, again, was philosophically interesting (how many YA books, especially SF&F ones, give their characters a realistic level of psychological pain and trauma given the things they go through? how many other YA books traumatize their characters into becoming completely different people?) but not at all fun to read. I felt sorry for the characters, but they had never developed into people I truly liked or cared about, and I was grateful I wasn't going to have to read about any more of their suffering. I was incredibly grateful to be done.

Part of the problem is that I've never been into YA romance. The luuurrrrvvvveee triangle was just a distraction to me; I was only interested in the other plot lines. I didn't particularly care who she ended up with; I didn't really think she needed to end up with either. They needed to back the fuck off and let her work through her shit.

I didn't enjoy the books, but I didn't think they were bad, either---thus the rating. They were okay. I would be lying if I said I liked them. I wouldn't discourage others from reading the series.

Also, Sam pointed out that in dystopias there's always a conspicuous absence of non-government organizations/charities. Interesting.