2.5/5 (physical book)

So, I first read this series when I was in middle school, shortly after it was completed. It was one of the first dystopian novels I had picked up, and I was flying through the series. Unfortunately, I only made it through 2.5 books (I know, I was so close), and I never finished the series. I wanted to try and complete it now that I am a bit older and also have more free time. I was pretty excited going into this novel because I remembered how I had cruised through it the first time, but after the first couple chapters, I wasn't as blown away by it as I was a few years ago.

I think the main, overarching issue that I had and could not look past was the writing style. As I was reading, I couldn't help but become distracted with all of the sentence fragments and comma splices and never-ending adjectives. I feel like these things really slowed down paragraphs for me and made the story not as enjoyable or easy to read. I found myself constantly having to reread sections due to fragmented ideas. I enjoy the concept of this novel, don't get me wrong, but I became too distracted to enjoy the execution of it. I do not think that Suzanne Collins is a bad writer by any means, but I do think the writing style was a bit amateur for me.

The other thing that slowed me down was the seemingly lack of character development. Though I do like the strong independentness of Katniss, I felt like her character could have been so much more complex, especially through her emotions. Obviously, we got the fake love story line early on, and, unfortunately, it seemed to drag on with not much growth because, as a reader, I felt like I was not getting many emotional cues from Katniss. I think if she was developed a bit more in this plot development, I would have enjoyed it much more.

There was one scene, however, that Katniss' emotions choked me up, and that was the scene of Rue's death. I became attached to Rue, and I think it was because she is the small underdog of the Games that no one seems to really notice, similar reasons for Katniss choosing to become allies with her, I suppose. The emotion written out in this scene was pretty captivating, and I was close to tears. I am not 100% sure if this was due to the writing of the scene or if it was due to the fact that I knew it was coming and have seen the movie version of it played out. Either way, I think it was a smart decision on Collins part to have this scene in the middle of the Games to really draw at the reader's emotions and remind them what is at stake.

I still plan to continue with the series in hopes of finishing it this time around, but I hope I am more satisfied with the last two installments.