Hunger Games trilogy

***Possible Spoiler Alert***

So the Hunger Games have made up half of the new books I have read so far for my New Year's Resolutions (hereafter referred to as NYR, because it's a mouthful every time, and I don't stop mentioning them halfway through January like many people. :]  ).

I really liked the first book. I read it warily because I have low tolerance for violence and gore. And I knew what I was getting myself into. At the end for example, with Cato, I had to really skim that portion because it was so disturbing. His last few seconds still haunt me. I wasn't sure where I stood with the whole Peta Vs. Gale thing.

The second book I devoured. And oh man, was that a great ending. Suzanne Collins got me the first time around- I wasn't sure what Peta's true character was until the tracker jacker nest exploded. The second time, I had caught on to her style and had kind of figured out the "surprise" plot. At least, I had the gist of it. Although maybe it wasn't supposed to be a surprise. Anyway, I really enjoyed it.

At this point, maybe 3 days have passed. I knew I shouldn't go immediately into the 3rd book (I shouldn't even have started the second) because my classes had started and I was (and still am) trying to get my business built a little more solidly.

But, as is the way with me and good fiction, I have no self control. So I read book three, on the computer, starting at like 11pm, and finishing around 5:30 am. Yeah it was bad. The book... phew, it was awful. Really, really bad. I knew with the subject matter and respected authors' attitudes toward their masterpieces, I couldn't really expect a fairy tale ending. I would have appreciated it, but for some reason author's always want their pieces to be really cemented in reality. Even if it's fantasy. Anyway, I was in complete disagreement with who some of the main characters turned out to be, namely Peta and Gale. I thought the demise of some of the main characters, as well as the methods, was unnecessary. And I thought Katniss seemed really dead in this last book. The technical maneuvering toward the end got so boring that I skimmed a lot of it. Don't get me wrong, not all of it sucked. I thought the way District 13 was portrayed was pretty cool. I liked the way Coin played out. And various other things. But overall, it seemed to me that Collins caved under the pressure to produce an ending even more phenomenal than the beginning and middle. It seems she wanted the story to go out with a BANG. It felt it went out with a thud. Katniss deserved better. Damn it, I deserved better.

I'm looking forward to seeing these books translate well to the big screen, soon. Granted, even with a PG-13 rating, I'm probably going to have my hands over my eyes for many scenes. Ah, well.

Hunger Games was my last prospect. Now, I really need some recommendations on some great fiction that's not too realistic, preferably with a happy ending, to fulfill my goal of 25 for this year.