Tag: The Hunger Games Series

The Hunger Games Movie Trailer.

Posted November 17, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments

I absolutely LOVED the books from this series and even though I’ve been anxious about the release of the movie, I’m also a bit scared that it won’t turn out the way that I hope it does but I can’t seem to remember my reservations about the movie after seeing this trailer.

This trailer is full of awesome and from what I remember (I have a crap memory sometimes) it follows the book pretty nicely so woo hoo! I’m so going to the midnight showing of this book…who’s with me?

March 23, 2012 couldn’t get here fast enough to suit me…seriously!

Squeee, how hottie looking is Gale? I can’t seem to remember why I was Team Peeta but I’m sure when I watch the movie, I’ll remember…=)

..and that’s your scoop!

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Tagged: Books to Movies, Reviews, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games Movie, The Hunger Games Series

Hunger Games- The Cast.

Posted April 6, 2011 by Rowena in | 6 Comments

The casting of the three main characters from The Hunger Games movie are final and complete. I’ve seen lots of griping about the casting around blogland and I honestly don’t see why. I heard that Suzanne Collins had a hand in picking the actors for the parts and if this is who she had in mind for the roles then I’m all for it.

Check out the castings…

Here’s Katniss:

My Thoughts on Katniss: I’ve never heard of this actress before so I was a bit bummed by this casting because it would have been nice to have seen something that this actress has been in. She’s also not how I pictured Katniss to be but I’m not too bummed about giving her a fair shot at the role. After reading her IMDB profile, she’s been in a few things and has some more stuff on her plate so I’m sure after all the movie magic is said and done, I think she’ll look the part and I hope she’ll act the part as well.

Here’s Peeta:

My Thoughts on Peeta: He’s a cutie patootie and though he doesn’t have the blonde hair that Peeta has, he does have the build and look that I can see Peeta having. After watching Beastly, I stopped thinking that Alex Pettyfer would make a good Peeta because he’s so young manly man and Peeta is more of a beta hero. Alex Pettyfer would have made a pretty decent Gale, though.

I like Hutcherson and look forward to seeing what he brings to the character that is Peeta. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Here’s Gale:

My Thoughts on Gale: They cast Liam Hemsworth as Gale and I can’t say that I’m disappointed at all. I’ve seen a lot of griping on this particular casting because of his ties to Miley Cyrus. I think that’s silly, Miley may not be everyone’s cup of tea (she’s not really mine either though I do still dance and sing along to Party in the USA) but it’s silly to hate on a guy for dating her. I just saw The Last Song over the weekend and thought that Liam did a decent job of bringing Will’s character to life. I’m pretty stoked to see him bring Gale’s character to life. He’s not what I had in mind for Gale but he’s not a bad choice, I don’t think. He’s cuter than Edward Cullen, haha.

All in all, I’m not overly pissed nor am I overly thrilled about the casting but hey, I’m sure after they do their movie magic, all will be well.

At least that’s what I’m hoping…either way, I’m still thrilled to actually be getting a Hunger Games movie.

Thoughts? Do you guys love or hate the casting choices for Katniss, Peeta and Gale?

..and that’s your scoop!

6 Comments

Tagged: The Hunger Games Movie, The Hunger Games Series

Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

Posted September 15, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Main Characters: Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Gale Hawthorne

Series: The Hunger Games series, Book 3

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

This is it.

This is the final book in The Hunger Games series and I’m still not so sure I loved it as much as everyone else did. I liked it well enough but did I love it? Not really. I knew that the revolution was going to take over Katniss’ life and I knew in my heart of hearts who she was going to choose and even with all of that, I somehow felt let down.

I’m not saying that it was a bad book, I’m actually not even sure what I’m trying to say. All I know is that when I put the book down, I didn’t have that satisfied feeling in the pit of my stomach that I usually have when I enjoy a book so much that I want to shout my love for the book from the rooftops. That was missing.

I’m going to take a page out of Mollie’s book and hide my review as I’m just not going to be able to review this book without spoiling it for everyone that hasn’t read it yet so if you’re not scared of spoilers or if you’re feeling brave, go ahead and highlight my review and read it for yourself. If you don’t want spoilers then come back when you’ve read it and read my review. Maybe we can discuss, whatever you want. =)

***

I guess the crux of my problem with this book is that even though I wanted Katniss to end up with Peeta, the way that her relationship with Gale stopped left a bad taste in my mouth. The whole thing with Gale’s bomb being the bomb that killed Prim pissed me off (even if it wasn’t the bomb that he personally worked on, it was still his bomb). Why did that have to be the way that Katniss and Gale ended? It was like a cop out. She didn’t have to make a decision between Gale and Peeta because she holds Gale responsible for killing her sister. Easy peasy, the big decision was taken away from Katniss because how could she possibly be with Gale after Prim died? It kind of diminished her love for Peeta to me. It made what Haymitch said about her never being good enough for Peeta that much more true. Peeta deserved so much more than a bomb deciding his fate with Katniss. I know it was much deeper but no matter how you paint it, I wasn’t completely convinced that she chose Peeta.

There was so much crammed into this book that it was hard not to get caught up in it. I don’t feel like anything in the book was rushed as it felt like it was a long time coming. From Katniss agreeing to be the Mockingjay to Peeta’s torture and then finding out about how District 13 was run. Some other things that I didn’t understand about Gale was his belief that living in District 13 was going to be so much better than in District 12 under the rule of the Capitol. Right from the jump, I didn’t care for Coin and as the book wore on, it became more clear. She’s not good. She’s no better than President Snow. Yeah, there weren’t any Hunger Games but she ruled with an iron fist and if you didn’t fall in line with her vision then you were punished.

When we came across Katniss’ prep team from the Capitol and how Coin treated them, it made me realize that it was only a matter of time before Coin turned District 13 into her little playground and I was glad that Katniss picked up on that (if her cool facade whenever she was around was any indication) and even though Katniss wasn’t the one that killed President Snow, I was glad for the way that he did die. He died at the hands of everyone who’s life he ruined and I thought it was fitting. I’m also glad that Katniss was the one that ended Coin. That seemed fitting too since Coin’s plan was to off Katniss first chance she got. I cheered for Katniss because I was so happy!

Katniss was a totally different Katniss in this book but I understood why. She was stressed and rightly so because so many people were depending on her to lead this revolution and it was a lot to lay at the door of a 17 year old girl. There’s much to admire about Katniss Everdeen. When the rough got going, she stuck and she never strayed from doing what she thought was right. It was not hard to understand why Peeta was so in love with her.

If anyone was going to die, I wish it would have been Katniss’ Mom and not Finnick and Prim. I loved the both of them and was sad to see them go. Finnick had finally found the happiness he was seeking with Annie and I was glad for the both of them and Prim was so young, so young and a great sister to Katniss. I enjoyed the talks that both Prim and Katniss shared in this book. It showed just how much Prim had changed and grown since Katniss’ first trip to the Hunger Games. She was so wise beyond her years and I hated Snow for robbing her youth from her. It sucked when she died.

In the end, things ended the way that they were supposed to and Katniss ended up with who she was supposed to end up but it still seemed off because well, because of Gale. But as disappointed as I was in this book, I still enjoyed it and I’m glad that I read it.

Would I recommend it? Of course, you have to read how this series end. You’ll fall in love with these characters a little more and you’ll rejoice, cry and your heart will hurt but in the end, you’ll close the book and be glad that you know what happened.

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|The Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com/

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Tagged: 3.0 Reviews, Dystopian, Reviews, Rowena's Reviews, Scholastic Press, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games Series, Young Adult

Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

Posted September 8, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Main Characters: Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark
Series: The Hunger Games series, Book 2

Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with Peeta Mellark. But it had been a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion.Where do I start with this book? I read this book and I kept right on reading until I was completely finished with it. I ate this book up! It was like riding on an emotional roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain. My emotions were up, down and went round and round. I knew that the drama was going to keep right on coming and Collins sure didn’t disappoint.

In this book, Katniss and Peeta are living their new lives as winners of the Hunger Games. They both live in Victor Village where their only neighbor is …Haymitch. They have everything they could ever want and they’re not afraid to share the wealth around. Katniss still hunts for game to help Gale and his family out since Gale now has to work in the mines, six days a week. She also makes it a point to spend money in town so that she can do her little part in sharing the wealth she acquired from winning The Hunger Games.

Just when things are starting to settle into a pattern that works for Katniss, she gets a surprise visit from none other than President Snow and that visit sets off the rest of the adventure in this story.

It is in this book that I totally became a Katniss fan. I mean, I liked her well enough in The Hunger Games but it wasn’t until this book that I became an actual fan. In The Hunger Games, I felt her pain at being such a young girl and having to take on the caring of your entire family. She’s only 16 in that book and yet she’s got a lot of burdens to shoulder all by herself so that her younger sister, Prim can have what she needs to have to live. This isn’t easy when you don’t have a family bakery always supplying the food in your belly or any other kind of family business. It’s easy to get good and pissed off at a government that would allow this to happen. While they’re living their lavish lifestyles in the Capitol, getting everything they need from the other districts..you’re sitting at home, trying to ration your food to last you the entire week because the only way that you can keep food in your bellies without having a job is by taking a tesserae but if you do that then your name goes into the lottery for The Hunger Games more times. Meaning, you have more chances of going into the Hunger Games by doing this.

It really sucks to be Katniss, right?

In this book, Katniss is thrown right back into a big ol’ pot of SUCKNESS. Things can’t just be easy for Katniss, she just has to keep playing the puppet to those bastards up at the Capitol and it’s no wonder she hates the Capitol so much. Things are made even murkier because she’s got all of this other stuff going on back at home. Like her and Gale’s complicated relationship. This is where the love triangle really takes place because in the first book, Gale isn’t in the book as much and even though he’s not in a huge chunk of this, his presence is felt.

It was in this book that my love for Peeta was sorely tested because I loved Gale too. I loved Gale and I also though that Gale and Katniss made sense. There’s history there and there’s a mutual love that they have for one another. Nobody knows Katniss the way that Gale does, nobody gets her the way that Gale does …until Peeta comes back into the picture. With Katniss and Peeta back in action together, it’s hard not to fall in love with the two of them.

Usually when the heroine of a book says things like this,

“Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable.”

…I get annoyed but in this case, I didn’t. In this book, I got a little worried for Peeta because I kept thinking, “Dammit Peeta, how the hell are you going to compete with this?” I wasn’t sure that he could and I’m kind of mad at Collins for making me doubt my love for Peeta. Just kidding (not really). LOL!

There’s no doubt about it, this is my favorite book in the series. I loved watching the story unfold some more in this one. I loved getting to know Gale more, I loved getting to know Peeta and Katniss more and I adored getting to know Finnick. I was such a skank because for part of the book I was Team Peeta, other parts of the book I was Team Gale and then a huge chunk of it, I was Team Finnick. Finnick was the bomb!

Especially in scenes like this:

Really, the combination of the scabs and the ointment looks hideous. I can’t help enjoying his distress.

“Poor Finnick. Is this the first time in your life you haven’t looked pretty?” I say.

“It must be. The sensation’s completely new. How have you managed it all these years?” he asks.

“Just avoid mirrors. You’ll forget about it,” I say.

“Not if I keep looking at you,” he says.”

Finnick was the bomb. I loved getting to know him, I loved all of the excitement he brought to the story. I kept wondering, can we trust this fool or what? I’m glad that we could because I would have hated to have been deceived by him.

This book brings more adventure and more action and I ate it all up. I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed the first book and in the end, my love for one boy was signed, sealed and delivered because among so many things, he said this speech that moved me to tears.

“…I don’t want you forgetting how different our circumstaces are. If you die, and I live, there’s no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You’re my whole life.” Peeta says. “I would never be happy again. It’s different for you. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be hard. But there are other people who’d make your life worth living.”

“No one really needs me,” he says, and there’s no selfpity in his voice. It’s true his family doesn’t need him. They will mourn him, as will a handfull of friends. But they will get on…. I realise only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.

“I do,” I say. “I need you.”

*sigh*

Oh Peeta. How can you not love this guy?

If you haven’t read this book then you must fix that soon because this book is great entertainment. Suzanne Collins has penned a series that is well written, exciting and will pull at your heart strings. You won’t want to miss out on this series and this book is just another great adventure with a cast of charming characters that you’ll want to hold close to your heart.

Pick it up, you won’t be sorry.

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