The Hunger Games

[migueltojose]

While I do know at least one female reader who felt the way you describe, most don’t for a simple reason you’re overlooking: Collins spends very little time fleshing out Gale’s character. He’s barely featured in The Hunger Games and only slightly more so in Catching Fire. He doesn’t really get a lot of focus until Mockingjay.

As it is, his character is portrayed in a pretty boring, one-dimensional way for two-thirds of the series. You can hardly blame readers for generally finding the relationship between Katniss and Peeta more riveting than that between Katniss and Gale.

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Alright I give up. I knew when I started it was an uphill battle. If I had the time I would tear the book apart and be able to better articulate that which I don’t like about it. But I don’t have the time or the inclination. Notwithstanding the fact that overall I liked the series. Maybe there’s something about it that strikes a chord with us.

 

[empther]

Notwithstanding the fact that overall I liked the series. Maybe there’s something about it that strikes a chord with us.

It’s the “what if” factor.

What if I was in Katniss’s situation? What would I do?

The “what if” factor is important in my own book. Theresa is forced into “impossible” situations. She gets through them. Could the reader do as well? A provocative question!

 

[migueltojose]

I agree, fundamentally. But there seems to be more to it than that. And the fact that the tweenage girls were so "in to " this book, massively, suggests something more. My daughter is level headed and intelligent (nothing like my son…) and she was toally engrossed by this series. I read them and thought… eh… not bad. Girls aren’t turned on by war and violence typically so it had to be other things. Maybe it was the “hook” of Katniss “volunteering” for her sister… There is more here that warrants further dissection… and that is what I’m suggesting because I’m not the one to do it, but, somebody should… the anonymity of a forum so to speak… isn’t that why we’re here… to some extent…