http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2010/08/18/the-long-awaited-hunger-games-drinking-game/
Yesterday the final book in my newest favorite trilogy (The Hunger Games) arrived in the mail. I sat down, opened it up, and didn’t put it back down until it was over.
http://thehappyfreelancer.com/2010/09/08/book-review-the-hunger-games-trilogy-no-spoilers/
But what you SHOULD do is run to the nearest bookstore, buy all three and then call in sick to work so you can read them RIGHT NOW.
What makes a good book? For me, it is simple. I want to read it again. Bonus points for making me cry, but it is not essential. Books are like old friends, to be visited over and over again.
It’s not (necessarily) about having an original story. There’s nothing original about wizards or vampires, or love triangles (TEAM PEETA!), or even the idea of real people being forced to fight for their lives for public entertainment.
What it is about is writing a story that your audience can’t help but become attached to, and to write it with intelligence, style, finesse and heart.
Twilight is popular because it achieves the first but not the second. Here’s why: 95% of pre-teen and teenage girls aren’t born with oodles of confidence. They feel awkward and weird and desperately want someone to tell them they are beautiful, special. My personal theory is that Stephenie Meyer was unpopular growing up, and Twilight is her way to live vicariously through Bella, who, despite being CONSTANTLY described as ordinary, clumsy, and awkward, somehow gets the perfect, god-like, most-gorgeous-creature-alive-or-undead Edward to fall for her. But you know what? Who wouldn’t want that? The very core of the story is what every teenage girl who has ever felt bad about themselves dreams of. Too bad that story is papered over with layers of self-dislike, sexual abuse, and the ideas that stalkers are romantic and that a woman literally should not want to live without a man to make her existence worthwhile. Vomit.
And then there’s the writing. I’m not going to get into the (third-grade level) writing.
Thank god that for every few Stephenie Meyers, there is a Philip Pullman, a Katherine Neville, a J.K. Rowling and now, a Suzanne Collins.
Great writers like this write with an intellect that challenges the reader to grow, yet also with an effortlessness that keeps the pages turning, one after another.
Most importantly, they aren’t afraid to write something that’s hard.
Every single character that the reader cares about in Twilight gets a happy ending. The entire Cullen family survives multiple battles with nary a scratch, allowing Bella and Edward to sparkle and scamper around in their woodland home; Bella turns out to be a naturally perfect veg vampire, Jacob (creepily) falls in love with Bella’s infant daughter – therefore getting to stay friends without continuing to endanger the Bella/Edward perfect perfection, even Bella’s dad gets a lady friend AND gets to stick around to hang out with his vamp daughter. This is the mark of a bad writer.
Not so with the other writers mentioned. Characters die (RIP Dumbledore/Hedwig/Fred/etc RIP wayyyy too many to name in the Hunger Games). True love doesn’t always conquer all (I still cry every time I finish His Dark Materials). War is scary and it forces impossible, terrible decisions (Hunger Games). These things are hard. They are hard to write and even harder to read. But they are moving and satisfying and beautiful.
I’ve read His Dark Materials once a year since the sixth grade. I’ve read each one of the seven Harry Potter books between two and eight times. The Eight, three times. And I can’t wait to re-read the Hunger Games sometime in the future. PEOPLE: PUT DOWN TWILIGHT AND READ THESE BOOKS.
