The BookCat

Review Rewritten Due to Excessive Use of Exclamation Points and Caps Lock. And General Horrible Bad Reviewness.
Seriously, I wrote this over a year ago and it SUCKED.

It still does.

1.5 Stars



The Concept: A lot of people don't like the book because of the concept of kids killing each other in a big arena. When I first heard of the book, I actually thought this was a pretty cool dystopian idea. (Not in real life, but in a dystopic world) A few months after I had read the book, I heard of this new thing; Battle Royale. It's a Japanese book that was published WAY before The Hunger Games and basically has the exact same concept. So, obviously, many people are blaming Suzanne Collins for copying BR. I for one, haven't seen the movie or read the book, but maybe once I've read it, I can make a better assumption.

The Characters: Truthfully, I felt the characters were pretty bland. I didn't like Katniss (mainly because she hated the cat Prim had. I get it; you didn't want an extra mouth to feed...but did you have to go and try to drown it?! Your NAME is 'Kat'. Dude.)

The Fighting: Tons. But the actual Hunger Games don't start until halfway through the book! Bloody, gory, some falling off hands here, spears plunged into stomachs, boys reduced to a 'bloody hunk of meat', all that glorious chiz. I really don't mind bloody stuff, but it was the...other stuff that I hated with the book.

The Romance: When someone recommended or mentioned this book to me, they usually used the word 'romance' or 'dystopic-romance'. So, you know, I was expecting some romance.
I got nothing.
Usually, I hate when romance interrupts a book and it irritates the crap out of me when there is unnecessary romance in a book. In this case, I was glad there wasn't much, but throughout the novel, I was so utterly confused.
The constant question was always in my mind; "Were they in love, or are they just acting for the audience? Gah! Make up your mind!"
The whole 'romance' crap felt extremely forced and awkward.

The Writing and How it Made you Want to Read More: The writing itself wasn't actually that good. It was very simple and any seventh grader could write it. Maybe that's why it's so popular.
It was extremely addicting. I couldn't put it down even though sometimes I wanted to. Like in the middle of the night, when I really needed to go to bed, I couldn't stop reading and then....my favorite character died.



Um, how exactly am I supposed to go to sleep now?

The Ending: Creepiest. Ending. Ever. The mutt/werewolves/mutants things were SO FREAKING SCARY. And the creepiest thing was that each one had a collar around its neck with either a 1,2,3,4,5, etc. as the 12 districts. And they resembled the tributes, as in a russet werewolf was a red-headed girl, a black wolf with green eyes was a black-haired boy with green eyes, etc. They're genetically mutated werewolves that were made to look like the contestants and they may or not have the contenders DNA in them....

*gag*


Not to mention that they tortured this one boy until he was reduced to a 'bloody chunk of meat in a pool of blood' Yeah, that was actually the author's wording! I was literally sick to my stomach after I finished the book.


The thing is, I was really enjoying the book...for about halfway through. When they got to the 'wasps' and Katniss started hallucinating, that's when the novel started going downhill for me. That downhill became very, very steep, until my opinion of it was flying down like a sled on slick, icy snow. By the very end, it hit the bottom with a disgusted, angry splat.

So if you like any of the following: Lots of blood, fake/'I don't know if I like him or like like him or not' romance, intense violence, and genetically mutated werewolves, this book is for you!


















I watched the movie and guess what? I really liked it. I couldn't believe it at first either.
I loved the Capital, the characters, the arena, everything! Even the Muttations were okay in the end.

And you know what? MY MOM LIKED IT TOO. And my dad, but that's besides the point. My mother was dreading this movie. When we got it, she said; "Aw, do we have to watch that? You said you hated the book!"
Me: "Yeah, but I wanted to see if the movie is better."
She didn't get that. But she watched it anyway and she really enjoyed it.

Damn.

I even thought the romance was cute.

OH MY GOD, WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH KAT.

Read more of my reviews on Goodreads by clicking the link below!