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/lit/ - Literature

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2493587 No.2493587 [Reply] [Original]

Ugh.

My girlfriend asked me to read this wanting to know what I thought of it since she loved it and knows that I like to read a lot.

The Good:
- About 80% of the book was well paced for the type of story it was trying to tell.

The Bad
- When the pacing was wrong, it was REALLY wrong. It felt like the author was speeding between rural towns and forgot to slow down in the school zones. The book largely skipped over any and all of what I think was supposed to be character development.
- The characters. Hated them all. Completely forgettable. Not that they were generic or anything like that, but that they had no personality because of the stunted character development. I didn't care about any of them and if the main character had died I would have probably yawned.
- The FUCKING LOVE TRIANGLE. Seriously. What? The main character is torn between two dudes, one whom you only see in one scene and it is established that she thinks there's nothing romantic between them. Suddenly toward the end of the book she's like "Oh, wait on a minute I'm totally in love with him too, what ever shall I do." Total fucking shit. To make it worse there's no chemistry between her and the other dude in the triangle either, it's just like some bitch who decides to be in the middle of two guys so she goes and does it.
- The writing. I know this is YA fiction, but this must even be entry level for that. There is no sense of organisation about how each chapter is written and scenes are mushed together violently and I feel like I have whiplash from the lack of separation. It was something that once I noticed it, it really became distracting.
- Occasional bad grammar.

Over all I'm pretty sure this may be one of those rare times where the movie is better than the book. I'm just sad because I know there won't be any nudity in the film like there is in the book because
>dat jennifer lawrence

>> No.2493592

your gf sounds cool get her to post

>> No.2493607

I haven't actually read these books but seeing that that the fanbase is primarily made up of teenage girls it can't be good.

You may say this is really prejudice of me, and it is, but teenage girls aren't really the type of group I trust about books and I've heard nothing but terrible things about the books from everyone else.

>> No.2493611

>>2493602
If you go to any great film's IMDB.com website, you can look at the ratings for it, broken up into different demographics.

I've done this a few times, and it's the females ages 15-25 who give it one star.

>> No.2493613
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2493613

>my face if the girlfriend I will never have told me she wants me to read her chicklit YA fiction horseshit

>> No.2493623

>>2493611
My sister also read these, she in fact bought me the trilogy for christmas a year ago and I read half of the first page and said something to the effect of "I really hate these already".

Well she later devoured all three in about two weeks, which is huge because she doesn't read much and when she does it's at the pace of that jock in your high school class who was all cool up until the point where the teacher asked to read aloud and he would trip over every word that had more than four letters in it.

Also, about the book
>written in first person present tense
... I'm not sure who started that trend but I wish it would fuck off.

>> No.2493628

>>2493587
>my girlfriend's obsession with John Green novels

I know where you're at, OP.

>> No.2493630

>combine two original plots that were used about 10-30 years ago into a banal young adult novel but make it just different enough so that most people don't notice how derivative it is

we best selling authors now

>> No.2493633

the reason these things are successful is because they're understandable, entertaining, and have really good exposition so people never get confused

let's not make a federal case out of it

>> No.2493634

>>2493623
Woops, the point of mentioning my sister was because she's 22 and still loved the books.

>>2493613
Keep tellin' yourself that pal.

>> No.2493641

>>2493630
What plots? I know one is Battle Royale, but what's the other one?

>> No.2494297

>>2493641
The Running Man comes to mind

>> No.2494303
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2494303

Unorganized rant.

I had a real problem with Katshit being needlessly ignorant. I don't even think it's supposed to be part of her character, but rather served as Collins' way of trying to remind the reader that they need to care about a certain plot point:

WHAT? WHY WOULD PEETA BE SO DETAILED ABOUT HIS LOVE CONFESSION? MAYBE HIS LOVE FOR ME ISN'T ACTUALLY AN ACT? OMG

BUT WHY WOULD X DO Y? IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!!

etc

I also raged really hard when apparently the connection between Rue and Prim wasn't obvious enough, so Katniss cleverly says "...and then Prim, I mean Rue, ..."

>There is no sense of organisation about how each chapter is written and scenes are mushed together violently and I feel like I have whiplash from the lack of separation.

Definitely this. There are several largely "anticipated" scenes that begin in the same paragraph of a previous, nearly unrelated thought.

>> No.2494305

>>2493623
>written in first person present tense
>I'm not sure who started that trend but I wish it would fuck off.

I have a habit of doing this with my own writing. I always end up changing it because I know how much people hate it. But can someone explain why present tense pisses people off so much?

>> No.2494312

It was okay. I read it because my room mate wouldn't shut up about it and the movie is coming out.

My girlfriend loves twilight and I told her that I'd read the books if she lent them to me. She never lent them to me and I've told her that I'll never read them now. I'm probably going to have to see the next movie with her though.

>> No.2494356

>>2494305
someone told me that they thought it was weird for the sake of weird, and that that annoyed her.

I like it so *shrug*

>> No.2494359

>>2494305
Oh, also, it makes it seem more like a movie script.

Can't comment on that though.

>> No.2494643

>>2494305
First person in the present tense is fuckawful. It reads like a diary and gives you no room for narrative traction.
>opinions

>> No.2494674

I am glad my wife never asks me to read things unless she thinks I'll actually enjoy them.

>> No.2494748

Battle... Royale...

>> No.2494784

I thought it was a pretty decent YA adventure story. It didn't do anything amazingly well, but it didn't do anything terribly either IMO, and it's certainly a better story for young girls than all those sexy vampire novels out there.

>> No.2494789

Hunger Games is the biography of Lady Gaga. You see, she had a hard life before she became a pop star. She had to fight other kids to the death for food.

>> No.2494796

>>2494674
You let you wife read things? Dude, they start forming ideas if you allow them too much information. Nothing worse than an informed and opinionated woman.

My wife is pleasantly illiterate

>> No.2494809

I've seen a handful of HG threads on /lit/, always full of bashing, but why does no one mention the fucking "muttations"? I just read the last 80 or so pages of the novel this morning, and I was cruising along at a pleasant pace, but when it got to the fucking werewolf-things I had to stop reading. It felt like such a forced deus-ex machina because Collins couldn't figure out how to conclude the competition.

>> No.2494816

>>2494809
>werewolf-things

You see, people say this isn't like Twilight.

>> No.2494843

>>2494816
I've never read Twilight, so I can't comment.

>> No.2494874

>>2494843
Everyone keeps defending that Hunger Games is not a piece of Fantasy Literature. By the way everyone is going on about it, you'd think it were a William Gibson dystrophy piece but they have shit like werewolf creatures and mockingjays.

>> No.2494876

>>2494874
>dystrophy

Dystopia.

>> No.2494889

>>2494874
it's a lazy attempt to combine overused dystopian and fantasy tropes. The issue is that the majority of people who eat this shit up don't know any better. Suzanne Collins' only talent is exploiting people.

>> No.2495003

>Start reading The Hunger Games.
>3 pages in
>Oh god this is boring and and lacks sentence structure variety.
>Maybe it will get better.
>Finally an action sequence!
>That wasn't bad...I guess.
>Oh look is this action sequence again.
>And again.
>Oh look more boring dialogue that reads like a 6th grader wrote it.
>Finish the book, feel like I wasted my time completely.

>> No.2495028

i'm reading it and none of you can stop me.

>> No.2496481

>>2495028
It wasn't that bad, just not great.

>> No.2496496

IF YOU ENJOY THIS BOOK, YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE.

>> No.2496499

I started reading it not too long ago. The sentence structure was just awful, it felt like I was reading a book written by a twelve year old. The action scenes were lacking in every way.
I never finished the first book.

>> No.2496625

>>2496496
This board is only for circle jerking over DFW, Joyce, And Rand.

>> No.2496631

>>2496625
Wtf man, reported. You don't speak of it here

>> No.2496655

I just finished it tonight. Bitches read the hunger games.
>mfw I pick up bitches at the movie
>"I know, Katniss nursing Peeta back to health is sooo romantic now suck my dick."

>> No.2496657

So does this book mean we won't have to hear about Twilight anymore