Let me preface this by saying, if you knew me, you’d know that I almost never read. It’s just that I rarely find a story immersive enough to combat the countless thoughts that are running through my mind at any one moment or another.
Most of my friends read The Hunger Games prior to when the movie being released, and they weren’t too thrilled about seeing it. As in most adaptations they felt like the big screen version could not live up to their imagination. Nevertheless, I was excited to see it. It’s exactly the type of story I adore: the reluctant heroes quest. The heroine, a teenager, so motivated by emotion and love for her family choose to face head on the odds of eminent death and murder. And I, having not been biased from ever reading the story, was pretty sure the movie was going to be something I enjoyed. But yet I waited, mostly because almost everyone I knew saw it in the theater, so when it came out on iTunes it was time to get my movie on.
And love it, I did. I adored The Hunger Games movie. It was completely moving, captivating and I never questioned any of it, even if it didn’t entirely make sense. I was entertained, but there was something missing. It’s one of those movies where days later, I’m still thinking about it. I wanted to know more, I wanted to know how the story ended and more details about what happened in the first book.
Took me a week to decide to commit and borrow the books from Yvo. When I finally did, all I wanted to do that weekend was read. Imagine if you will, me, walking around with an iPad covering where my face when I was at Disneyland and while we were supposed to be shopping at the mall, I just plopped myself down in the comfy chairs of the shoe section and waved away folks trying to help me. Completely disinterested in the world around me, while I had these books in my possession. Some may call this OCD, but I fell in love with Peeta and Katniss. Adored Peeta’s earnestness and emotional intelligence, and Katniss not for her ferocity, but I love what she says about feeling you owe people something when they have done something meaningful for you, even if they didn’t think of it as something significant. Personally, that made Katniss very relatable.
While the ending of the books left me a little puzzled, and actually most of the 3rd book seemed rushed and unapologetic, I’m hoping the 3rd movie will help to resolve the story a bit more more. But I loved it. It’s about 3 weeks later and I’m still thoughtfully reminiscing about the book and re-reading *gasp* yes, re-reading, something completely unheard of for me. Thanks Suzanne Collins for sparking my interest in other worlds again, and reintroducing me to imagination again.