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yes, big fan, suzanne collins is a really good writer tbh. I can analyze this in-depth if you like but my fave is catching fire, also i prefer divergent tbh

What do you think of it?

You say Suzanne Collins is a good writer, so have you read her previous series (Underland)? I thought it was really good. I've never read The Hunger Games though, but I've seen parts of the first one on TV and in YouTube videos and stuff.

I was just asking because I did not think it was something you would like, I was especially shocked to see you say you prefer Divergent

yeah, I read the underland books when they came out, HUGELY impressed; I actually think they do a much better job of exploring mature themes rather than the fairly binary hunger games "the capitol is bad, also spooky spooky science scary stuff, ooooo genetic mutation oo We Live In America Where The Government Oppresses People, It Will Never™ Happen To Me The Reader Tho, Long Live USA".

As a series, underland is fabulous at being mature. In book 1 things are again very binary, but in book 2 he starts to realize that the prophet was seriously dumb because the Bane was a baby n such; he was about to get Stoned To Death dude and he's just 11. Then you move onto biological warfare and literal nazi gassings, and then in book 5 everybody's morals were such HUGE drivers on the story. Finally after seeing atrocities in war by both sides, the moles show up and everybody's like "oh yeah, we uh.......poisoned everybody in this castle's land, and nobody in the underland had ever seen that kind of military tactic before". Humans are literally called killers by gigantic spiders and scorpions.

And then the fact that all the characters are so developed and unique. Ares is a stereotypical "strong silent" guy, but as the books go on, you learn that he's just reserved and suspicious rather than edgy and a bully. Aside from Henry, who's basically a saturday morning cartoon villain, everybody's actions have actual weight and meaning behind them. Ripred, Luxa, Howard, even The Bane are extremely complex characters with great motivations. In book 2 howard refused to save the rat girl and then gregor was all like "u fuckin what, u hypocrite, you're a doctor" and he practically reevaluated his life right on the spot.

Oh yeah book 5 also has him accepting his own death, like jesus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFVa9KfCL7E dude.

My overall gripe with the underland chronicles is that gregor is 11. hahhahaha, no

Now, onto hunger games. Like I said before, when comparing the characters to underland it's so much more binary. This dude is bad, these people are going to kill us, we're all poor here, etc. As a dystopian action novel, it's ok when compared to its copycats, and I absolutely despise it for this genre it spawned. There are some real bad entries, lmao, but hey twilight is actually a really cool novel with an awesome concept when you throw out the romance inthe last 3 books (I have a massive crush on alice, omg)

The morality business of HG doens't build until book 3, but it still explores some stuff, which is ok. But it's still binary; Coin is such an obbbbbvious bad guy from the start, "gale did u design the bomb that killed my sister????" oh but he doesn't respond, i wonder if he did or not............, (on a related note, what's up with the obsession of designing Hilary Clinton characters for your 2012 sci-fi universe?? Elysium has it too).

I think the side characters do a lot better in HG than underland; jhoanna explores addiction (and a lot of characters in general explore drug abuse themes), finnick has the whole prostitution thing, cinna is a great char, even effie and her stylist team are great. The leaders of district 2 trapped in the mountain, her old peacekeeper from district 12 that had his toungue cut off, etc. I just despise most of the main characters beyond katniss because we're supposed to like her. Plus, book 3's love triangle crisis is promptly forgotten, and the whole brainwashing thing seems like a poor way to interweave PTSD into the story.

More on the love thing: I don't necessarily dislike it. But book 3 totally cuts it off....regardless of which "team" you were on for her to wind up with, the plotline is just dropped. So book 1 has action and romance, book 2 has more romance and action, and book 3 suddenly switches to politics full blast with action thrown in at the end. Which i thought was completely retarded, THE PODS, lol. I think the series did improve as it went on, though, sans the last 5 or 8 chapters of mockinjay (where THE PODS begin p much).

lol I really have nothing to say about The Hunger Games 'cause like I said I know nothing about it but I am glad you like Underland (man we like so many of the same things)

I remember not having a problem with Gregor being 11 when I read it because I was only 10 so I was like "well he's older than me" but looking back it's like yeah...he definitely had to be at least 16 years old. Like if you go to a middle school and see the 11 year olds...no fucking way

Yeah you are right about the characters being so complex, I guess that's how it stands out from a bunch of other stereotypical YA fantasy novels. Henry was a cartoon character but it's funny because he wasn't even awful. Like Henry himself was lame but he managed to still elevate the story just by how much he affected everyone else. Like Ares is an outcast because he betrayed Henry, raising the question of whether loyalty or morality is more important. Luxa carries that baggage of betrayal by someone she was close to which makes it harder for her to get close to Gregor and trust others.

The Bane was such a great villain too, OML. Like these themes of destiny and whether or not he was fated to fight Gregor and all that. And how his whole life he was being used and manipulated. I just wish he had killed Twirltongue sooner and had a portion of the book trying to find his own way. I feel like he never really came unto his own and I would have liked that moment where he finally uses his own free will to decide who is going to be. It would make the final battle more impactful.

The character I wanted to see more of: King Gorger, all the way. Like there's all this talk about how he is a parallel to Gregor because their names are anagrams and all that but really he didn't matter. I mean, it was important for him to die because it left the Rats leaderless which led to them seeking the Bane to be their new leader and them having all this infighting amongst themselves, but he just wasn't mentioned enough, imo. Even if he remained dead in the first book it would be nice to see references to him especially from the other rats since they all lived under his rule for quite a while.