Hmm, the first book is $5 on Kindle. Maybe I should check it out.

I was just reading Suzanne Collins' last series (Gregor the Overlander) and liked it pretty well. Maybe I should read these too.

I just bought this on a whim yesterday after seeing this thread.

I posted about it, but my post got deleted.

Read through the first book. Loved it. Bought the second one on the spot. Thanks for the heads up on this series, guys!

The second one was also excellent. I'll be ordering the third shortly.

I finished the first book this weekend thanks to waiting around at the airport and an hour long flight. Definitely enjoyable, and i'm in to the second book. In regards to the first book:

Keep reading - that's addressed.

Cool, thanks Draven. I'm about 100 pages into the second book; still enjoying it.

I don't think it's addressed super-in-depth. I think it was more of a throwaway moment that explains them a little more.

Picked up the third book this morning. I'm going to get to it once I finish off a few Conan the Cimmerian stories.

My nine year old daughter finished the first book in one day yesterday. I didn't realize these books were such a phenomenon. Also, this type of plot doesn't exactly start with "Battle Royale", Stephen King's "The Long Walk" is similar, for example.

Finished Book 2 tonight. A bit predictable as far as how everything unfolded. I have the 3rd one coming from Amazon tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

What a ridiculously obvious rip-off of a great film plot.

Have you read the books? The premise has a passing resemblance to Battle Royale, but none of the details do.

I agree the premise is similar to BR, as well as the selection process part of Hunger Games being very similar to Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, the game section of the book, the details, and certainly the characterization are original. I feel like Hunger Games overall is a stronger story than Battle Royale.

Umm, you DO know that Battle Royale was a book first, right?

I read these over a weekend ... I thought the first two were entertaining, but I hated Mockingjay. It was boring, Katniss was insufferable, and much of what had happened before was rendered pointless. While I understand the point it was trying to make, I thought the path there was pretty convoluted.

I agree. For a bit after reading the third book, I regretted reading the series at all (but I'm over it now). I read another teenage post apocalypse series (Life As We Knew by Susan Pfeffer), since I will read pretty much anything post-apocalypse related, and the third book was somewhat the same way (although not quite as irritating as Mockingjay).

Since I liked, but didn't love, the first two books, and see so much backlash to the third, I think I will skip it. I wasn't too invested in the story, and outside of the game aspect of the story, I didn't really give a shit about the uprising or whatever.

I was of a similar opinion as you after the first two books. I thought they were decent action/adventure novels, but nothing special. I had low expectations of the third based on the reviews, but figured I finish out the trilogy since it's an easy read.

I guess it depends on what you're expecting, but I actually thought the third was a good way to wrap up the storyline. It's definitely an overstatement to call it a character study, but it's probably as close as a young adult novel will get. It's much more focused on the emotions of the characters and their reaction to the games than it is on strictly advancing the plot, at least for the first 2/3rd of the book.

Just finished the first book and really enjoyed it. The ending was unexpected but makes sense as a springboard to the next book. On to #2.

I really enjoyed the first one, the second was okay, and the third one, well, I guess it was okay too. I feel like Collins needs to work on pacing. Quite a few times I couldn't put the book down. Other times it took me days to get through certain parts just cause it dragged so much and it was so annoying. "Katniss was insufferable" is right. Guh...

I have to admit that the third book was definitely a big step down from the previous two.

+1, unfortunately.