I
bought and downloaded Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games, from
Audible last night. If you knew me, you would be shocked. I am a slow shopper.
I was the last person in America to buy a VCR. I was the next to last person to
get a CD player, because I researched and compared for years. I still wouldn’t
have an iPod had Kelly not given me her old one.
It took six months for me to decide to buy The Hunger Games, despite my daughter Grace telling me over and over that I would enjoy
it. And sure enough, I liked it, and I mean a lot. It is a wonderful and compelling
story, well told. I listened to it twice, in fact, and it is better the second
time.
That doesn’t mean, however,
that I rushed right out and bought Catching Fire, the second book in the
trilogy. It took me 182 days to convince myself to do it, because it so often
happens that sequels, those sloppy seconds, are inferior to the original. Grace
assured me that was not the case, but still I waited. I didn’t see how the
story could continue any other way than the obvious one, so I didn’t want to
waste a credit on it.
Man, I’m sorry I waited. Catching Fire is fantastic,
simply wonderful in every way. The progression from the first book is perfectly
logical, once you see it, but totally unexpected. The character development
continues, and we know them well enough to know what to expect, but also enough
to accept the unexpected as believable. And once the big shock came, I was well
and truly shocked, and stayed shocked right to the end. I still can’t believe
it on one hand, but on the other hand I
say “of course, of course.” But, you know… wow! Kudos to author Suzanne Collins.
Once started, I had a hard time not listening to book
two. I had the headphones on everywhere, all the time, even when I should have
been sleeping. Catching Fire is completely satisfying. Except for the
cliffhanger ending that demands that you rush out and buy Mockingjay.
Which I did yesterday. But
you already knew that, didn’t you.
It took me forever to decide to check out The Hunger Games, too. My 12-year old convinced me. I borrowed it from the Kindle lending library, which lets you borrow one available title per month. I thought it would take me the whole month to get through it. I was finished in two days. I have no idea how I did that with finals, but I did. Luckily, I had a vacation planned to Las Vegas to distract me part of the time I had to wait to borrow Catching Fire. I borrowed that one the second week of June and finished it in a few days (I swear, I tried to drag it out), and had to wait until July 1st to borrow Mockingjay. Torture!
ReplyDeleteSometimes those kids have good suggestions. :)