Foreword/Disclaimer: I haven't ever done a review on anything in this blog, so look past
it if you like or continue to read if you'd rather. I suppose my thoughts are
fairly radical, so read at your own risk. The whole thing is probably snarkier
than necessary, but oh well. These are my thoughts. Do with them what you will.
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The Hunger Games trilogy. One word: eh.
Allow me to thoroughly explain.
The plot: the storyline of these books (more so the first one than any of them) is absolutely fantastic. The idea is raw and unique, and extremely powerful in its own right. Kudos to Miss Collins for thinking up such a splendid idea. I am envious of this creativity.
The characters: more or less multi-dimensional. At least they were consistent with their roles. I feel personally that Katniss was really boring. And perhaps that's the complete aim of the author. But if Katniss Everdeen existed in real life, despite her "underestimated good looks" and braveness, I don't think I'd like to be friends with her. Not to say that makes up my mind as to whether It was a good or bad book; it's just something else I think about. She seems like a typically dull person. Doesn't smile. Doesn't like to say what she's thinking. These things lead me to believe that Peeta just fell in love with her looks. I mean honestly, folks? They hadn't exchanged a word, ever, until the hunger games and all of the sudden he's been in love with her all this time? Really?
I'm getting away with myself.
The writing: absolutely nothing special. When I read a book, I read it like a writer. I read it as if I'm going to highlight the sentences or phrases or passages that catch my eye or are unique, fresh, and altogether something I'd like my own writing to turn into. (I do actually have a few books on my shelves that have multiple high light marks in them.) So, basing this "writing" scale on that, I would have to say I am thoroughly disappointed with the writing. To be bluntly honest, I only saw two or three things in the entire trilogy that I, had I owned the book, would have highlighted.
Overall comments: Disappointment. All the hype about these books got me excited, and for what? The riveting plot? That's it? There is more to a story than a good plot line, if you ask me. I was told the writing was pretty good and so began reading the novels practically already as a fan of the trilogy. Don't get me wrong; every time I had to stop reading I couldn't wait until I could pick up the book again (from the plot and flow of the story), but at the same time, I continuously wondered if I would ever be completely satisfied (by the lack of descriptive/creative writing).
---
The Hunger Games trilogy. One word: eh.
Allow me to thoroughly explain.
The plot: the storyline of these books (more so the first one than any of them) is absolutely fantastic. The idea is raw and unique, and extremely powerful in its own right. Kudos to Miss Collins for thinking up such a splendid idea. I am envious of this creativity.
The characters: more or less multi-dimensional. At least they were consistent with their roles. I feel personally that Katniss was really boring. And perhaps that's the complete aim of the author. But if Katniss Everdeen existed in real life, despite her "underestimated good looks" and braveness, I don't think I'd like to be friends with her. Not to say that makes up my mind as to whether It was a good or bad book; it's just something else I think about. She seems like a typically dull person. Doesn't smile. Doesn't like to say what she's thinking. These things lead me to believe that Peeta just fell in love with her looks. I mean honestly, folks? They hadn't exchanged a word, ever, until the hunger games and all of the sudden he's been in love with her all this time? Really?
I'm getting away with myself.
The writing: absolutely nothing special. When I read a book, I read it like a writer. I read it as if I'm going to highlight the sentences or phrases or passages that catch my eye or are unique, fresh, and altogether something I'd like my own writing to turn into. (I do actually have a few books on my shelves that have multiple high light marks in them.) So, basing this "writing" scale on that, I would have to say I am thoroughly disappointed with the writing. To be bluntly honest, I only saw two or three things in the entire trilogy that I, had I owned the book, would have highlighted.
Overall comments: Disappointment. All the hype about these books got me excited, and for what? The riveting plot? That's it? There is more to a story than a good plot line, if you ask me. I was told the writing was pretty good and so began reading the novels practically already as a fan of the trilogy. Don't get me wrong; every time I had to stop reading I couldn't wait until I could pick up the book again (from the plot and flow of the story), but at the same time, I continuously wondered if I would ever be completely satisfied (by the lack of descriptive/creative writing).
I also initially thought that maybe the difficulties of
writing in first person make exceptional work a hard thing to achieve. (Seeing
as twilight is also written in first person and also not written very well.) I
thought maybe it was like the plague of writing; if you can't do it 100%
"perfectly," you can't do it at all. However, then I recalled that I
have a favorite series (Solitary by Travis Thrasher) that is written entirely
in first person and I adore it. The writing is fresh, clean, witty (because of
the character, mainly), and unique. It's also to the point but at the same time
descriptive. This brought me to the conclusion that it was not simply the
all-encompassing struggles of first person writing that make it a task to do
properly. I in no way claim to be superior in any aspect of the word to these
authors in the realm of first-person writing. I find it extremely difficult to
write in first person unless it's a non-fiction work that is about me. This is
why I choose to use third person in any fictional work that I produce. I
realize and accept that I'm not very good at writing in first person and carry
on. To me, it's almost like these authors said "this story will sound
better in first person" but neglected to think about how precise they must
be in order to get their points across in a descriptive manner.
Overall, I tend to read things for their writing, not solely their plot lines; and perhaps that's just me and I'm weird for seeing things that way. Whichever. For those of you who base only on plot lines and don't care about the writing, have at it. You're the reason twilight became so unfortunately popular. I, however, will sit here and attempt to find something to read that is more than halfway decent while at the same time riveting through the plot and the prose. How groundbreaking!
In the end, it's obvious to me that the plot is what made the hunger games so popular. And I see very clearly why; the plot is simply extravagant and amazing. I will not deny that I very much enjoyed it. That much I appreciate. What just gets me is the fact that the writing isn't anything special. That's all.
Miss Collins deserves all the attention and hype that she got; just for the plot line, not the writing.
Overall, I tend to read things for their writing, not solely their plot lines; and perhaps that's just me and I'm weird for seeing things that way. Whichever. For those of you who base only on plot lines and don't care about the writing, have at it. You're the reason twilight became so unfortunately popular. I, however, will sit here and attempt to find something to read that is more than halfway decent while at the same time riveting through the plot and the prose. How groundbreaking!
In the end, it's obvious to me that the plot is what made the hunger games so popular. And I see very clearly why; the plot is simply extravagant and amazing. I will not deny that I very much enjoyed it. That much I appreciate. What just gets me is the fact that the writing isn't anything special. That's all.
Miss Collins deserves all the attention and hype that she got; just for the plot line, not the writing.
---
My Theory on What Makes a Book Popular
Generally it takes a broad combination of things to get a book to even be eligible to become popular. As in the depth of the characters, the development of them over the course of the story, the flow of the story, the raw plot line itself, the description and use of figurative language, etc.
In the end, after all of that is said and done, I feel like there are two main things that have the potential to make a book popular. They are plot line and writing. Now keep in mind that in this case, one element can exist without the other and still be successful all by its lonesome; however, it is possible to have an equal share of good on both elements in one story to make it successful as well.
Example: Assuming you read the above review on my take of the Hunger Games trilogy, I made it blatantly clear that I am very supportive of the plot but not the writing (meaning style, use of description, figurative language, etc.). (Just like I said above in my review of the Hunger Games: even though the writing was nothing special, I still felt inclined to read because of the plot line; every time I put down the book, I couldn't wait to continue.) The plot has made the trilogy popular enough to be made into a movie for goodness sake. Don't get me wrong, Miss Collins is a genius for thinking up such a unique, original idea, but the plot is all that carried the story to fame. She deserves the fame for the idea, just not the writing. That's all I'm saying.
Now, on the opposite side of the spectrum, if you have really really good writing and maybe not so intriguing/strong of a plot line, it still is possible to keep readers interested enough to continue. If your sentences are bursting with rainbows of description and written with a great, unique style and knowledge of creative sentence structures and organization, it could very well be all you need to have a popular story on your hands. However, this tends not to happen as often as the above example. (Plot over writing as opposed to writing over plot.)
There is one story this theory doesn't quite match up with though...
The Twilight Saga.
I absolutely have no idea what brought this story to life. I'm pondering perhaps the fan base and the age group of said fan base. (I will admit, when the books first started coming out years ago (back when I was in middle school (the main targeted fan base, if you were wondering)) I immediately bought in to the hype and the romance and everything. But back then I was also not a writer and read things at face value, never really digging in deep and picking it apart to see what the raw of it was. Recently, just to test my changes in how I read things now as opposed to 6-7 years ago, I re-read the entire first book, Twilight, and it was absolutely horrid. Stephanie Meyer finally got some kind of idea in how to write in the fourth book, Breaking Dawn.) The plot line I suppose is salvageable overall, although it could do with some drastic changes in my opinion. In the end, it was the fan base, age group of the fan base, the onslaught of sudden obsession with forbidden romance and sparkly vampires, and the poorly-and-yet-constructed-just-enough plot line to hold everything together.
It's things like these that frustrate me as a writer. Authors like this give young, serious writers a bad name (among other things, of course). Again, not to say that I am a professional reviewer or writer and every product I crank out is glistening with golden script. Lots of the ideas I have get tossed into the trash bin almost immediately. However, I do like to think (based on my own thoughts and other people's input) that I can write fairly well, plot line-wise and creative writing-wise. It does, though, take a ton of polishing on my part for me to feel completely satisfied with anything I write.
Anyway, I am basing all of this on solely reading the stories and my own opinions. I'm not in any way trying to bash Stephanie Meyer (or Suzanne Collins) as human beings; it's possible they are charming, lovely people. They're just charming, lovely people who can't write creatively, is all I'm saying. Just because you can't write worth a darn or write well doesn't mean that's the quality of a person you are and that you should be shunned because of your disgusting writing skills, or lack thereof.
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Hate me if you like. These are all solely my thoughts. I gave you the chance at the very beginning to turn away from this blog post, so if you're still reading at this point, just know that it was ultimately your choice to continue.
(:
Ta~
(/opinionated quips)
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