I finished reading The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins a few days ago, and I've spent a lot of time deciding how I wanted to review them. I finally decided that I don't really need to review them here. Some one else, on some other blog, or maybe several other people have probably already said what I am going to say about them. My words are not going to entice some new reader to explore this series. With the amount of hype surrounding them, and the insane amounts of attention they've received, if you haven't already read them, I'm sure you have your own reasons for that, and what I have to say is unlikely to change your mind. However, I will probably write a review of them individually on Goodreads (and I will link them here once I have) for anyone who really wants to see what I think about them, and I am always available for discussion if someone is interested in talking about it with me.
So, what I've decided I will tell you briefly what I thought about them/my emotions reading each book. Then, I'm going to get to the point. I really want to talk about something I've noticed that seems to happen to widely read series of books.
I am going to say right out that I loved these books. All three of them. I read all three of them almost back to back ( I took a 3 hour break between Catching Fire and Mockingjay so that I could eat something and give my system a chance to level off because the adrenaline was too much and I was just about shaking.) I haven't been that involved in a book in a long time — where my whole body, my whole system becomes involved and invested in the story. I've gotta say, it's pretty intense! The first two were like one constant adrenaline high. I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next, I was on the edge of my seat, dying to know what was going to happen. Mockingjay was different. It was much more subtle. I can definitely see where people were disappointed in the book, although I actually think it was a brilliant ending, and although I was a little bummed by the way a few things turned out, I also thought that it was almost exactly what would have happened if any of this were real.
Reading these books, and watching what happened among the fan base at the end has brought me to a decision about hugely popular, widely read series. Especially the final book of the series. And that is, if the words "highly anticipated conclusion", "the ending you've all been waiting for" or any variant on that theme are associated with your book, there are going to be people who LOVE it and there are going to be people who HATE it. If you are lucky, there will be a few people in between, but that's rather unlikely. As an author, and as a reader of the aforementioned series, you are just going to have to accept that. You might be one of those who hate the ending, or you might be on the other side, completely flabbergasted that there are people out here who didn't love the ending. Either way, you should probably just expect that.
We saw it a little bit with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. A lot of people loved the book. But, there were also a lot of fans who were really disappointed with it, especially the epilogue. There was too much information, or not enough, Harry talked too much, it was too easy, 'You killed who?!' etc. Not everyone was happy with the way it ended. We saw it in the extreme with Breaking Dawn. I've never come across so many readers who took a book so personally in my life. I cannot believe the number of people who acted as if Stephenie Meyer killed their dog (or cat, for those who prefer them). I've read some books that I didn't much care for in my time, but I've never once thought to make the attack personal on the author. But, more people that I care to remember personally attacked Meyer for writing such a bad book. Now, personal feelings on the book completely aside, that's uncalled for people. Really, it's just a book.
Anyway, we've seen it with other huge series, and now we see it with Mockingjay and the end to The Hunger Games. I'm sad that so many people seemed so disappointed in Mockingjay, but I can't really say that I'm all that surprised.