Real or not real?

Hunger Games. It's the new Twilight, only you can respect the female lead.

And yes, there is still a love triangle.

The third, and final, book came out last week. I will discuss ranging from non-spoily to super spoily. Stop when you need to.

NON-SPOILY

The Hunger Games trilogy is a dystopian (my favorite) tale which takes place in the none too distant future (but distant enough for us to have super messed up the world...more than we have already). The Capitol is in charge of 12 compartmentalized districts (there used to be 13 but ooo, we don't talk about that). To keep said districts in line, each year the Capitol puts on the hunger games where two adolescents from each district are chosen lottery style to fight each other to the death. Oh, and it's televised and everyone is forced to watch.

Sounds lovely, right?

I read the first book while camping last year. Each new shenanigans thing that came up (fire cape, fire torpedoes, etc) Face and Ams were all...seriously?

But seriously, I couldn't put the book down regardless of their taunts. After finishing the first book, I was angry. Angry that the main character - Katniss - wasn't standing up to 'the man' like I wanted her to. Angry that I probably wouldn't get revolution until the third book.

Having now finished the three books, I'm sated, and thank Suzanne. In the first book we are introduced to the horror of the Hunger Games. In the second we are introduced to horror part II. In the third we are finally introduced to revolution, and all the gray moral areas it comes with.

NOT TOO SPOILY

I appreciate Hunger Games. I like Katniss' feisty and unruly nature. Plus, I love love love dystopias.

I'm glad there were larger issues the text dealt with other than: are you team Peeta or team Gale (first book I was team Gale and by the third, team Peeta).

I loved that in the second book Katniss said IT DOESN'T MATTER if I love Peeta or Gale, I have something bigger to take care of...and then got down to business because "some walks you have to take alone."

I like that the book is cognizant of cliches. I chuckled when another feisty female character explains why she dislikes Katniss: "...you're a little hard to swallow. With all your tacky romantic drama and your defender-of-the-helpless act. Only it isn't an act, which makes you more unbearable. Feel free to take this personally."

The third book made you think. Think about war. Think about death. Think about sacrifice. Think about power. Think about reality versus perception. Think about the lasting effects of war. Think about what lines each of us will cross.

SUPER SPOILY

I love/hated the moment when the new regime comes to power and their first order of business is to conduct a hunger games, but this time with the rich Capitol citizens. And you are all NOOOO, but it is all very French Revolution, and all very will-humans-never-learn. I like the shock when Katniss says yes (WHAT?) to the new games - because she is so distraught at the tragic death of her sister - because it showed her as a flawed character (just like all of us).

I was all OH SNAP when the same technology Gale came up with to kill the enemy ended up killing Katniss' sister. Because that's the point isn't it? In war everyone loses. Everyone. Even if Gale's idea hadn't killed Prim, it would've killed another's sister. Another's son. Another's wife. Another human being.

For the peeps out there who are all what the heck Katniss, why did you end up with Peeta and then have babies, what the heck was that ending...I'd like to give a defense (what? I know.).

Peeta represented the good in Katniss. Peeta was always, from the very beginning, anti-war and anti-death and anti-violence. Peeta saw the big picture. Saw the fruitlessness of war. Gale sought vengeance for unspeakable deeds. And neither of them is wrong. Katniss had parts of each viewpoint within her. Who she ends up with - although I really thought for a minute she would just hang with herself - would come down to which viewpoint she wanted to choose.

There is a part in the third book when Katniss is engulfingly lonely. She kind of makes out with Gale (what what) and he is all nope, not like this, you aren't even in your right mind. She needed someone to take away the darkness.

The end of the book supports that. Peeta is the one who comes back to her and brings her back to life, little by little.

And those kids they have? The represent our most likely doomed, but most necessary hope of a brighter future. They are "...the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again."

"You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real."
Suzanne Collins