(no subject)

[horchata]

I have so much to say about this book, especially about how poor of a decision it was to read this before a workday until 1:00am given the horror at its close, but right now I need to say HOLY SHIT PEOPLE HOW DID YOU STAND THE WAIT BETWEEN BOOKS? This is gonna be almost as bad as Harry Potter for me, with at least the comforting thought that on the way back form the gym today, I will be able to go by my local B&N and pick up Mockingbird.

Also, I have Many Thought on the following, but let me talk about the violence in the book for a second. I am not a gorehound. I cannot take that. I'm grateful that I was very fortunate to grow up as a reader, and thus when I read I have a developed imagination and visualization skills. Mine take the form of a very action-oriented readerly imagination. I picture less the characters themselves sometimes and more their movements. So these books -- there's a really high horror element in them to begin with, but I feel like my visualization techniques really up the ante for me. Plus, I have never desensitized myself to violence and I never plan to do so. (Sexual stuff, totally desensitized. Porn? BRING IT.)

As a result, I was hiding under my covers last night and it took my about 45 minutes and some rosary-clutching to really calm down enough to go to sleep. At 1:30am. Suzanne Collins, you are an incredibly descriptive, horrifying author, but I'm going to need to read Mockingjay with the buddy system.

This Wikipedia blurb does not make me feel any better about it: "Praise has focused on the addictive quality of especially the first book, and the action. John Green of the New York Times compared The Hunger Games to Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. Catching Fire was praised for improving upon the first book. Mockingjay was praised for its portrayal of violence, world building, and romantic intrigue."

Whimper.