My daughter is reading The Hunger Games. I've only read the first few pages -- on a treadmill! She pointed out to me today that Stephen King he a quip on the back.
King wrote that it is "A violent, jarring, speed-rap novel that generates nearly constant suspense. . . I couldn't stop reading." -- Stephen King.
King's full review is HERE. He gives the novel a B, noting that it is a trilogy, and he plans to return.
The fact that Hunger Games will remind many of us of certain other novels -- by Mr. Bachman -- isn't lost on King. King writes, "Also, readers of Battle Royale (by Koushun Takami), The Running Man, or The Long Walk (those latter two by some guy named Bachman) will quickly realize they have visited these TV badlands before."
I liked Kings short discussion of "Young Adult Novel" as a category. It does seem to downplay (or downgrade) the book as something other than a real novel.
Interestingly -- Stephenie Meyer also liked the book and has a quote on the back of the Scholastic paperback edition. Strange to see the two on the same page with no darts being exchanged!
I listened to these books last summer. They are quite entertaining. She paints with broad strokes in a lot of places but I think she really had some cool ideas. There really are large chunks in these books that teenage girl fare "He loves me, I don't love him! I'm mad at him, meh!" but there are some great sci-fi moments mixed in. If you were to read them you would rip through them.
ReplyDeleteThe second book is kind of a cheat or it's boring compared to the other 2.
Though audio was very very good though.
-mike
I agree with Mr. King on "The Hunger Games" being a brilliant novel. The first novel, that is, because "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" did NOT live up to the first in the series. All this novel needed was about 100-150 pages discussing the after contest conflict and that would be all she wrote.
ReplyDeleteHere's my review of the first novel...
http://caponomics.blogspot.com/2012/01/excellent-reads-suzanne-collins-hunger.html