Twist2005: Snapper Carr: Based on the description, sounds like a westernized bastardized and probably bowdlerized version of Battle Royale.

It is influenced by Battle Royale, but there is a lot more to it than that.

Yes, the only similarity is that a bunch of schoolchildren are forced into an arena to fight to the death. Really, that's the only connection between Battle Royale & Hunger Games. The games themselves are really only the focus of the first book and 1/2 of the second. The characters are EXTREMELY well-done and the writing is amazing. You just can't put the books down.

/Bought Mockingjay when it came out on the 24th
//Finished it the next day.

Pyro Messiah: Awesome. They're taking "The Running Man" and stretching it out to three movies. Sounds great!

No, Hunger Games has more in common with "The Long Walk".

Kublai Khan: Twist2005: zez: What is it with grown women reading books for teenagers?

Because the two books available to me at the time were Hunger Games and some horrendous romance novels. Hunger Games proved to be an interesting read.

The real question is why do some people love children's books so much.

1. Have you SEEN the garbage dominating the Best Seller's Lists? Everything is either a re-tread mystery story or freakin' chick-lit.

2. YA fiction isn't children's books. It's not even the YA fiction we grew up with, like Judy Blume, "Are you there, God?", or even the Chronicles of Narnia. Stuff like Hunger Games & the Harry Potter books are much, much more. And it's not even that they're more violent or darker--they're deeper. They're also extremely well-written and you can't help but be drawn in.

If they cast any of the asshats from Twilight, I'm going to park the world's biggest Ryder truck outside the studio offices and hope that said actors are inside.

/Loved the books.
//Hated Twilight.

I still think there should be a Wheel of Time series of movies. Yes, I realize the books and the series itself is long, but that's more due to the description of what everyone is wearing and what the locations look like.

underxenith: brigid_fitch: Pyro Messiah: Awesome. They're taking "The Running Man" and stretching it out to three movies. Sounds great!

No, Hunger Games has more in common with "The Long Walk".

I have to echo this sentiment. I read The Long Walk shortly after finishing Catching Fire (2nd book in the Hunger Games series) and was definitely reminded of the series. I have not read The Running Man so I can't say how that book compares (and only vaguely remember the movie). When I described The Hunger Games to some co-workers and mentioned how much I enjoyed the book, one of them even suggested The Long Walk (it was already on my to-read list).

Running Man is much like the movie's premise. In the book, the main character is out of money so "sells" himself into the Games. If he lives, he gets a boatload of cash for the rest of his life. He gets 2 days head start & $5K in cash before the hunters are released. He can go anywhere in the world he wants, as long as he sends 2 daily videos back to Games Central. Not really the same as Hunger Games, where, if you don't want your District fire-bombed by the ruling totalitarian government, you force 2 of your kids to enter an arena & fight to the death.

Kublai Khan: Doran: Kublai Khan: I read the first Harry Potter book. It was alright, for a kid's book. I was not drawn in, nor did I find it particularly well-written.

Have you ever read Lolita? That's my go-to example of well-written. Harry Potter isn't in the same league.

You have to get past the first Harry Potter book before the story gets good. HP and the Philosopher/Sorcerer's Stone is a straight kid's book, nothing more. The book goes to the steps of a pool by the second, walks into the shallow end by the third, then goes fully underwater by the fourth and doesn't come back up till the end.

HP needs to be given more of a chance than just the first book, if you're serious about it.

Given that you've basically just said the first 3 books aren't any good, and yet you presumably liked them enough to keep reading until you got to the fourth book, I'm not sure how much stock I should place in your opinion.

I'd rather read something that's worthwhile from the first page. It's not like there's a lack of such books; in fact there's probably more of them than anyone can read in one life. Here's my recommendation for you: read The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal. I'm reading it right now, it's great. A very, very sarcastic book. His book The Red and The Black is also amazing.

The first 2 Harry Potter books are definitely YA fiction but very well-written YA fiction. Rowlings didn't dumb anything down, just wrote for an audience within the 9-12-yo range. But the world she creates is quite stunning and it DOES draw you in. Poor little orphaned Harry, abused & forced to live in a closet under the stairs, discovers that not only is he a wizard, he's the most famous boy ever to have walked in the wizarding world. What kid wouldn't get behind that story? It's like The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe. Wait a minute--those 4 kids accidentally find an entire new universe & get to be RULERS of it??

The difference w/Harry Potter is that every book is a new year for Harry & he and his friends grow up accordingly. As does Rowling's audience. So every single book is adjusted to fit that original audience and she does it seamlessly. THAT'S why it's a popular series and why it's unfair to call the entire series YA fiction.

Since Hunger Games is only 3 books & spans just 2 years, you don't have that same grandiose sense. It's also told in 1st-person, so you have to experience what poor Katniss has to endure when she's just 16-17. It's dumbed-down somewhat (obviously so that Collins could reach a broader audience) but you can overlook that since nobody in the story has ever had any formal education. They're from a dirt-poor, coal-mining district and school is abandoned in favor of just trying to keep people fed & clothed. But unlike HP & Narnia, there's no happily ever after--there can't be since this isn't a fantasy world but a dystopic, totalitarian one. Quite a heavy theme for your basic 10-16-yo.

Kublai Khan: You want to read YA books, you go right ahead,

Wow, who pissed in your corn-flakes this morning? YA fiction and fiction that appeals to 10-18-yo's has quite a crossover. Is The Red Pony "literature" or "YA fiction"? Depends on how it's presented. Is Scout "dumbing-down" what's going on around her or is she just reporting what she's seeing from her point of view? YA fiction is a jungle. Did Lee "dumb down" racism in order to appeal to a broader audience? Hell, yes. And with good reason.

All I'm saying is that YA fiction crosses a LOT of boundaries and, especially recently, shouldn't be put into a box. Give it a chance. There are some great writers out there who can sing to a specific audience. Is it better to ignore them because they write for a certain genre, or dip into their pool to see what they have to offer?

You weren't drawn in to Rowling's universe--fine (BTW, book criticism is ENTIRELY subjective. There has never been an objective criteria that novels must hit in order to be successful). But even the most reserved critic has to recognize that she struck a chord. Otherwise, the series would have died within 3 books.

And as for YA fiction, there is no age range. Where do adolescents break out from "young adult"? Is it at age 13? 15? 17? Depends on the kid. Would you consider The Red Pony to be YA fiction? I could easily argue for it but it's firmly established itself into Literature. What about To Kill A Mockingbird? The main character is a 9-yo but it's considered one of the greatest works of fiction. My point: You can't pigeon-hole YA fiction.

Lighten up. You didn't like Harry Potter--okay, we get it. But that's no reason to diss all of YA fiction. Yeah, you can keep feeding your ego & read more "classic" literature, telling us how Oliver Twist is far superior, but you'd be missing the point.

Literature has grown. Mass media, a term Dumas only barely understood, now dominates. But only the superior writers are successful. Rowlings & Collins understand the ever-changing tastes of this generation. Meyer lucked out but has no staying power. Now that Mockingjay has hit, there's a vacuum. It'll be interesting to see who fills it with what mythology.

Note: No one can fill this gap without a mythology. Mark my words: the next "Big Thing" will be rooted in some sort of legend. It has to be.