Final Opinion: Loved it! 9/10
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov is an absolutely amazing book. I read it because I heard that it was the best one of Asimov's novels, and I wasn't disappointed. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973. The author himself was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, so this book frequently draws on his extensive scientific knowledge by going in-depth into technical details and scientific theory. I was pretty proud of myself that I was able to follow most of the reasoning, but the author explains them so well and illustrates his points with such wonderful examples that I think most people without a background in science would be able to keep up as well.
Anyhow... This book begins with how some aliens in a parallel universe initiate an exchange of matter with our universe. Due to the different physical laws of our universe and theirs, this action results in limitless energy for both universes. Some arrogant prick of a scientist named Hallum stumbles upon this, and manages to develop the Electron Pump (with a lot of alien help), thus providing the earth with cheap, clean, and abundant energy. As a result, he becomes rich and powerful. A young physicist, Lamont, realizes that the side effect of the Electron Pump is that the sun will eventually blow up, but no one will back him up due to Hallum's influence in politics and the scientific community. The book also covers the struggles of an alien from the parallel world, Dua, who realizes the eventual fate of our universe and tries to put a stop to the pump as well. Eventually, the matter is resolved by another scientist, Denison, who proposes tapping into a third parallel universe that would balance out the effects of the first parallel universe.
The novel is separated into three parts. Part 2 was my absolute favorite part of the whole book. It is a phenomenal piece of writing, and Asimov's talent and creativity really shine through in this piece. It gives a little more background on the pump from the aliens' point of view, and covers their social structure and life cycle which is exceptionally fascinating. I am totally in awe of the author for even being able to imagine this, and I can't help but gush about his ingenuity. The aliens are fantastic creatures and not your typical run-of-the-mill humanoids like in most scifi. To illustrate, the aliens consist of the Soft Ones and the Hard Ones. The Soft Ones have weird, gas-like forms and are divided into three groups: Rationals, Emotionals, and Parentals which correspond to left, middle, and right. Each alien family consists of a Rational, an Emotional, and a Parental with very defined roles. The Rational's purpose is to learn, the Parental's purpose is to bear and care for offspring, and the Emotional's purpose is to serve as the middleman to allow the transfer of seed from the Rational to the Parental during mating (or melting, according to the aliens). Once each alien trio finishes having one or two sets of three offspring, they melt together and form a single much denser and much more solid form called a Hard One. Asimov goes into a lot more detail than my description. My mind was simply blown when I read this section. Even Asimov himself stated that Part 2 was his "biggest and most effective over-my-head writing ever produced."
What I felt I could relate to the most in this novel was its depiction of scientific discovery and the human ego. Both are very much intertwined, as I think one of the main conflicts in this novel is the struggle between the human ego and scientific advancement. I feel that this theme is very relevant to the scientific community of today. In today's society, politics play a huge role in science, and great ideas are frequently crushed or ignored if they conflict with large corporations or political interests. More often than not, scientific discoveries are guided by popular opinion and pre-existing biases as well. Usually, it is also the more sensational scientific discoveries that get pushed to publication, despite questionable evidence and shoddy experimental technique, which shows that scientific research is very much a political game. Furthermore, the peer review system for scientific papers is not exactly fool proof, as there is no way for peers to verify the experimental methods themselves, and results that are not reproducible in other labs are often attributed to experimental error. Second-rate papers are also frequently pushed to publication due to pressure from employers or sponsors. As a result, bullshit papers are published on a regular basis.
In addition, scientists can be so petty, which brings me to one of the main points of this book. Scientists, though often depicted as apostles of pure logic and reason, are still susceptible to human vices such as pettiness and selfishness. As shown by Hallum in the novel, scientists who have made ground-breaking discoveries (more often than not due to serendipity) are hailed as noble and wise human beings, when in reality, some of them are arrogant, full-of-shit assholes. Unfortunately, due to their influences, promising careers are ruined as well as the reputations of entire institutions. Ugly fights also erupt over the assignment of due credit. And sadly enough, scientists often put their egos before the welfare of humanity. They lose sight of the idea that scientific discovery is not about fame and glory, but the advancement of mankind for a better future. This is illustrated by Hallum, who not only refuses to acknowledge that the aliens were the real brains behind the electron pump, but also that the electron pump may eventually lead to the destruction of humanity. The main reason for this is his monstrous ego, which also leads him to destroy Lamont's career after the tiniest of affronts. It is also worthwhile to note that this whole book would not have happened if Hallum had not been motivated by his desire to get back at Denison for a snide remark. However, Lamont and Denison also display this quality to some extent as well. At the end of Part 1, when Lamont is frustrated by the lack of support for his warnings of imminent doom, he is more upset by the possibility that he will never be proven right than the fact that mankind will be destroyed. In Part 3, Denison also admits that he would find the look on Hallum's face much more satisfying than any fame and glory. All in all, I found this depiction of scientists as people who are mainly motivated by the desire to stick it to each other very amusing. It also made me wonder if Asimov was channeling his own frustrations with the scientific community into this novel as well. I'm sure universities have their fair share of rivalries between faculty members.
Overall, I thought it was a great book. It had a lot of great commentary about hubris, scientific research, and maybe even racism (this is how I interpreted the part about "Lunarites" and "Earthies"). The plot was also really engaging because Asimov is very good at piquing your curiosity. Even though nothing in terms of action or suspense really happens, this novel is still highly intriguing. The scientific babble made it all the better for me, because not only did it add on an extra degree of credibility to the story, it also correlated a lot with what I've been learning in my thermodynamics class. Though Asimov was a biochemist, he seems to have a good grasp of physics. This novel gave me a lot of food for thought and really got me thinking about all the possibilities that science holds. Asimov expertly stretches the bounds of imagination, and I believe this is a novel that scientists and English majors alike would love. I think I will definitely check out his other books in the future.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Book Review: Mind Prey, by John Sandford
Final Opinion: Meh. 5/10
I don't have much to say about Mind Prey, by John Sandford, other than that it's your generic crime fiction. It has cops, witty banter, a maverick detective, a bad guy, and kidnapping victims. Nothing particularly special about it. The only reason I picked it up was because I was getting bored waiting at the JFK airport, and I wandered into a random kiosk to see if I could find something good to read. I found The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, which I have been dying to read for quite a while, but I had to put it down when I saw the hefty price tag of $28. It was one of the saddest moments in my life when I had to put the book down in favor of the $10 Mind Prey due to my meager college student budget.
Anyway, the protagonist of this book is a investigator/software programmer named Lucas Davenport. The antagonist is a psychopath and pyromaniac named John Mail, who kidnaps his psychiatrist from his teenage years, Andi Manette, as well as her two young daughters. He repeatedly beats and rapes her, attempts to murder her youngest daughter, murders two other people, and leaves cryptic clues for the police for his own sick amusement. Lucas Davenport eventually outsmarts him and corners him in a pipe, and ultimately rescues the kidnappees in the nick of time as well.
Overall, this book did not leave much of an impression on me. I felt that it could have been heavily condensed, as it was frequently slow at times. Judging by the title, the blurb on the back cover and the introduction by the author, I was expecting this book to be more of an examination of the criminal mind, especially since psychiatrists are involved and the author himself has had before a "good look a the mind of an intelligent, yet seriously deranged sex criminal," due to his experience as a newspaper reporter. It would have been a lot more fascinating if it had been like that, at least to me, since I take a sort of morbid curiosity in reading about what makes psychopaths tick. The book was also fairly predictable, so much so that it took away much of the suspense as well, and the person pulling the strings behind John Mail is, as it often is, the person with the least amount of "screen time," so I wasn't too surprised. This book lacked a good twist and failed to hook me. I read through it with a sort of vague indifference since I wasn't too emotionally invested in any of the characters. Mind Prey really could have benefited from being a lot shorter.
I kind of wish I had spent the $10 on food instead. This book is sitting on my nightstand, where it'll probably stay for the rest of the school year until I move out of my apartment and toss it in with the rest of the books on my shelf back home. I doubt I'll ever read it again, and I'll probably end up giving it away, donating it, or selling it for a penny in a garage sale. All in all, I would say Mind Prey is more of a book suitable for reading on a plane, in a waiting room, or on the toilet. It's not bad, but it's not original or enthralling enough to warrant a second glance. I don't think I'll read the rest of the books in the Lucas Davenport series either. I love a good mystery, but crime fiction really isn't my thing. I get enough of that from watching Castle, Bones, The Mentalist, and Psyche.
Book Review: Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer
Final Opinion: Didn't bother finishing. That speaks for itself. 4/10. (2 points for grammar, and 2 points because sadly enough, this still isn't worse than the other angsty teenage crap that I've ever had the misfortune of reading.)
I wasn't going to do a post on Twilight because that has already been done a hundred times over. But then, I realized that this blog needs more posts. Also, who doesn't love having a bit of fun at Twilight's expense?
Anyhow, I first noticed this book with the delicious-looking apple on its cover popping up in bookstores many years ago. Without bothering to check what it was about, I naively decided that it must be a phenomenal book because it is so darn popular. What I failed to realize was that it was popular among a very specific age group: pre-teen girls and middle-aged women. And as Robert Pattison himself so eloquently put it (and I paraphrase): Twilight is Stephanie Meyer's wet dream.
I cracked open the book and began reading at my local Border's. As I read, I began to get the foreboding feeling that this book was crap. My fears were quickly confirmed, but I forced myself to power through because I still held onto the misguided hope that the book would get better. It didn't. An hour later, when I realized that I still had left several hundred pages of some older woman's lurid sex fantasy about a teenage boy, I felt the life force draining from me as though a dementor, nay, vampire, were sucking out my very soul, and I had to put the book down in the interest of my own survival. I stopped at the really suspenseful moment where Bella is accosted by several hoodlums and is about to be gang-raped. I didn't bother to read on because one, I knew Edward Cullen would come, and two, I didn't give a shit and wanted to end my misery as soon as possible.
Anyway, I'll keep this short and list some random points that I can remember about this book:
1. Bella is the most annoying character ever. She is strikingly one-dimensional and exhibits a limited range of emotions and personality traits, other than an endearing (not really) sort of clumsiness and a constant need to be protected and rescued.
2. Bella, for no reason whatsoever, is suddenly popular among all the males at her high school, which is what puts this book in the fantasy genre. This also means that as a female, I automatically hate her guts so if you're a fan of Twilight, you can probably write off this book review as the rants of an insanely jealous female.
3. Edward Cullen is a 100-year old virgin! His film would trounce Steve Carell's.
4. Edward Cullen also sucks as a character. He is basically characterized by his godly hotness and gives no reason for falling in love with Bella other than the fact that she smells delicious. He is also a major creeper and super possessive, which are traits that abusive boyfriends share.
5. This book ruined Clair de Lune for me. Debussy rolled in his grave.
6. Bella and Edward fall passionately in love from the get-go, so their relationship isn't well-developed. In fact, it's shallow and grates on my nerves and their cheesy lines make me puke.
7. Edward and Bella's angstiness make me want to slap them both.
8. Blah blah blah this books sucks I'm tired I don't want to write anymore.
I'm not the type of person that leaves things half-assed, but I'll make an exception for this book because it is so ridiculous. I watched the film because I thought I would get a good laugh out of it, but it is really awkward and made me extremely uncomfortable instead. On the other hand, I can see why silly young girls and lonely middle-aged woman would like this book. It is about unconditional love from an extremely handsome and perfect guy toward a mediocre young girl. I commend Stephanie Meyer for being able to channel her teenage frustrations and bitterness into writing. She's making a lot of money now, so I suppose it's a sort of slap in the face to all the girls who picked on her in high school and the hot guys who ignored her. All I can say is, unless you are a teenage girl or a woman in the throes of your mid-life crises, don't bother reading this, not even for laughs.
I wasn't going to do a post on Twilight because that has already been done a hundred times over. But then, I realized that this blog needs more posts. Also, who doesn't love having a bit of fun at Twilight's expense?
Anyhow, I first noticed this book with the delicious-looking apple on its cover popping up in bookstores many years ago. Without bothering to check what it was about, I naively decided that it must be a phenomenal book because it is so darn popular. What I failed to realize was that it was popular among a very specific age group: pre-teen girls and middle-aged women. And as Robert Pattison himself so eloquently put it (and I paraphrase): Twilight is Stephanie Meyer's wet dream.
I cracked open the book and began reading at my local Border's. As I read, I began to get the foreboding feeling that this book was crap. My fears were quickly confirmed, but I forced myself to power through because I still held onto the misguided hope that the book would get better. It didn't. An hour later, when I realized that I still had left several hundred pages of some older woman's lurid sex fantasy about a teenage boy, I felt the life force draining from me as though a dementor, nay, vampire, were sucking out my very soul, and I had to put the book down in the interest of my own survival. I stopped at the really suspenseful moment where Bella is accosted by several hoodlums and is about to be gang-raped. I didn't bother to read on because one, I knew Edward Cullen would come, and two, I didn't give a shit and wanted to end my misery as soon as possible.
Anyway, I'll keep this short and list some random points that I can remember about this book:
1. Bella is the most annoying character ever. She is strikingly one-dimensional and exhibits a limited range of emotions and personality traits, other than an endearing (not really) sort of clumsiness and a constant need to be protected and rescued.
2. Bella, for no reason whatsoever, is suddenly popular among all the males at her high school, which is what puts this book in the fantasy genre. This also means that as a female, I automatically hate her guts so if you're a fan of Twilight, you can probably write off this book review as the rants of an insanely jealous female.
3. Edward Cullen is a 100-year old virgin! His film would trounce Steve Carell's.
4. Edward Cullen also sucks as a character. He is basically characterized by his godly hotness and gives no reason for falling in love with Bella other than the fact that she smells delicious. He is also a major creeper and super possessive, which are traits that abusive boyfriends share.
5. This book ruined Clair de Lune for me. Debussy rolled in his grave.
6. Bella and Edward fall passionately in love from the get-go, so their relationship isn't well-developed. In fact, it's shallow and grates on my nerves and their cheesy lines make me puke.
7. Edward and Bella's angstiness make me want to slap them both.
8. Blah blah blah this books sucks I'm tired I don't want to write anymore.
I'm not the type of person that leaves things half-assed, but I'll make an exception for this book because it is so ridiculous. I watched the film because I thought I would get a good laugh out of it, but it is really awkward and made me extremely uncomfortable instead. On the other hand, I can see why silly young girls and lonely middle-aged woman would like this book. It is about unconditional love from an extremely handsome and perfect guy toward a mediocre young girl. I commend Stephanie Meyer for being able to channel her teenage frustrations and bitterness into writing. She's making a lot of money now, so I suppose it's a sort of slap in the face to all the girls who picked on her in high school and the hot guys who ignored her. All I can say is, unless you are a teenage girl or a woman in the throes of your mid-life crises, don't bother reading this, not even for laughs.
Book Review: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Final Opinion: Didn't like it. 6/10
Recently, I've been really into science fiction. Sleek spaceships, awesome technology, post-apocalyptic futures, and genetic engineering. What more can a girl ask for? Which is why I decided to look into The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I've been hearing rave reviews about this book for the past two years, as well as reading news about the upcoming film, so I decided to jump onto the band wagon and dive into the series as well. My roommate loved it (but then again she loved Twilight too) so I gave this book a go while on a flight to New York, and was in for a bit of disappointment. Sure, it was suspenseful and would make for a great action film, but it was a little bit lacking in the character development area. The main female lead, Katniss, is a bit too contrived and unnatural for my taste, and the author doesn't nearly torture her enough. Also, the novel doesn't fulfill its full dramatic potential and is often anti-climatic.
Anywhoo... The novel takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where North America has become a nation called Panem (reminds me of that new TV show starring Christina Ricci). Panem is divided into The Capitol and twelve impoverished districts, and people from the districts are considered second-class citizens. Each district is forced each year to send a tribute of one girl and one boy between the ages of 12-18 to The Capitol, where the they take part in the Hunger Games and fight each other to the death as part of a reality TV show. The main character, Katniss, is from District 12, where she must scrape out a living poaching animals in the woods so that her family, consisting of her mother and younger sister, may have enough to eat. Her younger sister ends up getting picked as a tribute, but Katniss volunteers to go in her stead. The male tribute is named Peeta, and Katniss eventually develops a romantic relationship with him as the novel progresses.
One of the main flaws of the novel is that Katniss pretty much has no weaknesses from the get-go. She is characterized as a sullen, fiery, sharp, clever, and rebellious young woman (which are considered generally admirable traits in today's society). Though she has had no prior experience as a reality TV star, she is still able to fall seamlessly into the role. Sure, she acknowledges that she is nervous and has no clue what to say or how to act in the scenes where she is in front of an audience (by audience, I am talking about the characters watching the Hunger Games, not the readers), yet she is still somehow able to pull out of her ass the exact right thing to say and the exact right way to act and charm everyone. I suppose this is supposed to illustrate her strong desire for survival and keen instinct, but what bothers me is that there is no precedent for this. Where in the world did she acquire the emotional capability and experience to manipulate the audience? She has quite the sophisticated knowledge on what it takes to convince the audience that her love-act with Peeta is real, as shown in the cave scene where she devises an emotionally-charged moment with Peeta when she convinces him to divulge what made him fall in love with her in the first place. Her expertise in handling emotions and feelings makes no sense to me, because from what we know about her thus far, she has spent the majority of her time in the woods hunting and providing for her family, and hasn't had much time to socialize with people other than to bargain for food. Not to mention, though she can be quite sharp in terms of survival instinct and picking up subtle cues from her mentor Haymitch, she is quite the dullard in the face of Peeta's obvious romantic affections. Which is why I don't find it convincing at all that she is somehow able to capture exactly the subtle emotions required of her to feign a romantic relationship with Peeta and convince the audience that her seemingly-rebellious actions were a result of her intense passion for him. Of course, this can be explained away by the possibility that Katniss might truly be in love with Peeta, but just hasn't realized it yet, but it doesn't explain how she can be so articulate and poetic about her emotions. For someone with minimal social experience, Katniss is still able to maneuver herself in front of an audience like a seasoned socialite. Plus, she credits knowing how to act with Peeta from watching how her father and mother acted together, which seems kind of a flimsy excuse to me. Also, kind of gross. I don't like thinking about parental PDA, and Katniss made out with Peeta a lot, which means she totally saw her parents doing that too. I was surprised when they didn't end up having sex in that cave.
Also, even though Katniss is so good at manipulating the emotions of others, readers know very little about her own emotions. She feels angry, sad, happy, confused, conflicted, whatever. Her feelings are never gone into in great depth, which adds to the impression of her as a mostly stagnant character. She doesn't really come out of her harrowing experience as a different person, nor does she realize something new about herself other than the possibility that Gale may be more than just a friend to her, nor does she overcome an inner flaw. This book is about a sixteen-year old girl who undergoes a traumatizing experience, so I expect her to be a little more traumatized. I felt that this book could have had the potential to be a little deeper and more meaningful if it had been more of a coming-of-age novel about a girl who overcomes great difficulties both inwardly and outwardly, and grows a little more as a character. But this book is purely action, and I suppose it makes for a good read if you're bored.
Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, I felt that Katniss wasn't tortured nearly enough. Yeah, she had to kill other kiddies her own age and see people she cared about injured and/or killed, but the author could have fleshed it out a little more. Some famous author once said (I forgot who, and I'm paraphrasing) that to write a good book and really develop a character, you have to put him/her in a lot of undesirable situations and make him/her suffer as much as possible. Katniss had the potential to do a lot more suffering than she did. First of all, this book built up a lot on how Katniss would eventually have to face the dramatic decision killing a friend in order to avoid being killed herself. I expected this to happen with Rue and Thresh. I felt the author was heavily foreshadowing a point in the novel where emotions would be stretched to the breaking point as Katniss is forced to make a painful choice. Yet this pretty much never happens. Rue and Thresh get anti-climatically killed off by other characters. I felt that had the author placed Katniss in a situation where she had to decide between killing Rue or being killed herself, it really would have fleshed her out as a character. But alas, the author takes the easy way out and avoids having to write such a heavy confrontation by getting Rue suddenly and abruptly killed off. This also happens with Thresh, who miraculously spares Katniss's life on account of Rue. This part of the novel made me wonder if Katniss would do the same for Thresh, and I kept reading expectantly to see if such a situation would arise. But nope. Disappointed again. Thresh gets killed off by Cato, the main bad guy. Also, I felt that Peeta's death was foreshadowed several times in the novel, especially at the end where Katniss gets an uneasy feeling about Peeta. But he survives to get his heart broken by Katniss. I don't really care though, because I don't like Peeta much either. He pretty much serves as dead weight that Katniss has to drag around and keep alive. I wish she killed him, though it makes sense why she didn't, so I'm not going to complain about that.
Overall, this book was so-so. I guess that popularity of this series mainly lies in the novelty of having little kiddies killing each other in a reality TV show (which really isn't all that novel if you've heard of Battle Royale). The few things I liked about this book were the Jabber jays and the mutant wolf-humans. Pretty neat and creepy. Also, this book really reminded me a lot of the Roman gladiatorial games, especially since many of the characters had Roman names, such as Cato, Coriolanus, Caesar, Plutarch, Cinna, Octavia, etc. The contestants are a lot like Roman gladiators, in that many of them are forced into the games, have to fight to the death, and the victors are showered with wealth. However, the author herself has said that she was mainly influenced by the Greeks and the story of Theseus, so I might just be imagining things. I don't really see much of a connection to Theseus, but whatever. I'm not going to go into that since this book review is already long enough. But to sum it up, I didn't like this book because the characters were shallowly developed, and the main character exhibited very little growth and change. It is a good read if you are looking for action and suspense, though it is frequently anti-climatic. I won't be coming back for the second and third books.
Recently, I've been really into science fiction. Sleek spaceships, awesome technology, post-apocalyptic futures, and genetic engineering. What more can a girl ask for? Which is why I decided to look into The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I've been hearing rave reviews about this book for the past two years, as well as reading news about the upcoming film, so I decided to jump onto the band wagon and dive into the series as well. My roommate loved it (but then again she loved Twilight too) so I gave this book a go while on a flight to New York, and was in for a bit of disappointment. Sure, it was suspenseful and would make for a great action film, but it was a little bit lacking in the character development area. The main female lead, Katniss, is a bit too contrived and unnatural for my taste, and the author doesn't nearly torture her enough. Also, the novel doesn't fulfill its full dramatic potential and is often anti-climatic.
Anywhoo... The novel takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where North America has become a nation called Panem (reminds me of that new TV show starring Christina Ricci). Panem is divided into The Capitol and twelve impoverished districts, and people from the districts are considered second-class citizens. Each district is forced each year to send a tribute of one girl and one boy between the ages of 12-18 to The Capitol, where the they take part in the Hunger Games and fight each other to the death as part of a reality TV show. The main character, Katniss, is from District 12, where she must scrape out a living poaching animals in the woods so that her family, consisting of her mother and younger sister, may have enough to eat. Her younger sister ends up getting picked as a tribute, but Katniss volunteers to go in her stead. The male tribute is named Peeta, and Katniss eventually develops a romantic relationship with him as the novel progresses.
One of the main flaws of the novel is that Katniss pretty much has no weaknesses from the get-go. She is characterized as a sullen, fiery, sharp, clever, and rebellious young woman (which are considered generally admirable traits in today's society). Though she has had no prior experience as a reality TV star, she is still able to fall seamlessly into the role. Sure, she acknowledges that she is nervous and has no clue what to say or how to act in the scenes where she is in front of an audience (by audience, I am talking about the characters watching the Hunger Games, not the readers), yet she is still somehow able to pull out of her ass the exact right thing to say and the exact right way to act and charm everyone. I suppose this is supposed to illustrate her strong desire for survival and keen instinct, but what bothers me is that there is no precedent for this. Where in the world did she acquire the emotional capability and experience to manipulate the audience? She has quite the sophisticated knowledge on what it takes to convince the audience that her love-act with Peeta is real, as shown in the cave scene where she devises an emotionally-charged moment with Peeta when she convinces him to divulge what made him fall in love with her in the first place. Her expertise in handling emotions and feelings makes no sense to me, because from what we know about her thus far, she has spent the majority of her time in the woods hunting and providing for her family, and hasn't had much time to socialize with people other than to bargain for food. Not to mention, though she can be quite sharp in terms of survival instinct and picking up subtle cues from her mentor Haymitch, she is quite the dullard in the face of Peeta's obvious romantic affections. Which is why I don't find it convincing at all that she is somehow able to capture exactly the subtle emotions required of her to feign a romantic relationship with Peeta and convince the audience that her seemingly-rebellious actions were a result of her intense passion for him. Of course, this can be explained away by the possibility that Katniss might truly be in love with Peeta, but just hasn't realized it yet, but it doesn't explain how she can be so articulate and poetic about her emotions. For someone with minimal social experience, Katniss is still able to maneuver herself in front of an audience like a seasoned socialite. Plus, she credits knowing how to act with Peeta from watching how her father and mother acted together, which seems kind of a flimsy excuse to me. Also, kind of gross. I don't like thinking about parental PDA, and Katniss made out with Peeta a lot, which means she totally saw her parents doing that too. I was surprised when they didn't end up having sex in that cave.
Also, even though Katniss is so good at manipulating the emotions of others, readers know very little about her own emotions. She feels angry, sad, happy, confused, conflicted, whatever. Her feelings are never gone into in great depth, which adds to the impression of her as a mostly stagnant character. She doesn't really come out of her harrowing experience as a different person, nor does she realize something new about herself other than the possibility that Gale may be more than just a friend to her, nor does she overcome an inner flaw. This book is about a sixteen-year old girl who undergoes a traumatizing experience, so I expect her to be a little more traumatized. I felt that this book could have had the potential to be a little deeper and more meaningful if it had been more of a coming-of-age novel about a girl who overcomes great difficulties both inwardly and outwardly, and grows a little more as a character. But this book is purely action, and I suppose it makes for a good read if you're bored.
Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, I felt that Katniss wasn't tortured nearly enough. Yeah, she had to kill other kiddies her own age and see people she cared about injured and/or killed, but the author could have fleshed it out a little more. Some famous author once said (I forgot who, and I'm paraphrasing) that to write a good book and really develop a character, you have to put him/her in a lot of undesirable situations and make him/her suffer as much as possible. Katniss had the potential to do a lot more suffering than she did. First of all, this book built up a lot on how Katniss would eventually have to face the dramatic decision killing a friend in order to avoid being killed herself. I expected this to happen with Rue and Thresh. I felt the author was heavily foreshadowing a point in the novel where emotions would be stretched to the breaking point as Katniss is forced to make a painful choice. Yet this pretty much never happens. Rue and Thresh get anti-climatically killed off by other characters. I felt that had the author placed Katniss in a situation where she had to decide between killing Rue or being killed herself, it really would have fleshed her out as a character. But alas, the author takes the easy way out and avoids having to write such a heavy confrontation by getting Rue suddenly and abruptly killed off. This also happens with Thresh, who miraculously spares Katniss's life on account of Rue. This part of the novel made me wonder if Katniss would do the same for Thresh, and I kept reading expectantly to see if such a situation would arise. But nope. Disappointed again. Thresh gets killed off by Cato, the main bad guy. Also, I felt that Peeta's death was foreshadowed several times in the novel, especially at the end where Katniss gets an uneasy feeling about Peeta. But he survives to get his heart broken by Katniss. I don't really care though, because I don't like Peeta much either. He pretty much serves as dead weight that Katniss has to drag around and keep alive. I wish she killed him, though it makes sense why she didn't, so I'm not going to complain about that.
Overall, this book was so-so. I guess that popularity of this series mainly lies in the novelty of having little kiddies killing each other in a reality TV show (which really isn't all that novel if you've heard of Battle Royale). The few things I liked about this book were the Jabber jays and the mutant wolf-humans. Pretty neat and creepy. Also, this book really reminded me a lot of the Roman gladiatorial games, especially since many of the characters had Roman names, such as Cato, Coriolanus, Caesar, Plutarch, Cinna, Octavia, etc. The contestants are a lot like Roman gladiators, in that many of them are forced into the games, have to fight to the death, and the victors are showered with wealth. However, the author herself has said that she was mainly influenced by the Greeks and the story of Theseus, so I might just be imagining things. I don't really see much of a connection to Theseus, but whatever. I'm not going to go into that since this book review is already long enough. But to sum it up, I didn't like this book because the characters were shallowly developed, and the main character exhibited very little growth and change. It is a good read if you are looking for action and suspense, though it is frequently anti-climatic. I won't be coming back for the second and third books.
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