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I seem to have acquired a knack for choosing all the wrong books, when it comes to those I read in German. Obviously, this resulted in being almost constantly grumpy. Finally reaching her whine-listening limit, my best friend suggested I try reading translations of well-known books, instead.
I was understandably horrified at the prospect.



If I did that, I would have to get off my high horse... and possibly admit that not practicing a language for over 10 years does tend to make my knowledge way more than rusty (INCONCEIVABLE!). But it also occurred to me that for someone who loves reading, I appeared to be spending way too much time resenting said activity. So I picked The Hunger Games as my first choice.

I had seen the first two movies, liked Jennifer Lawrence's performance, noted that the story and characters were better than Twilight (the other HYPED UP series of the moment, as far as I was concerned), but was ultimately not too keen on the genre... or the overall hype about Katniss' choice for a boyfriend.



That said, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself actually enjoying the book: our heroine's monologues, her plans for survival, memories of meeting various secondary characters, and most of all the entire world-building.

I even remarked how I didn't dislike Katniss, despite her constant bickering. I was totally sympathizing with the 16-year-old, who was plucked out from her tiny universe of her family's caretaker, and dropped into a world of the hunters and hunted. As if that weren't enough, she had to do all this in a certain manner, lest she pissed off the wrong people... ironically enough, those who put her in the life-and-death situation in the first place.

So of course she's going to be confused, and thinking of what to do next, and how to survive, and not really about someone else's sudden love declaration. Which reminds me, why do so many people reduce this book to the love triangle? Doesn't Katniss herself say it over and over again that it's all for survival?! But there you have it, 10 pages of possible romance, and the rest of the book gets forgotten...



Speaking of her egoism, I never really noticed that many "I"s or "my"s, during Katniss' narration. I suppose this could very well be due to having read a translation. Wouldn't it be ironic for the translation to be better written than the original?
On the other hand, lots of people complained about the mistreatment of commas in the Harry Potter series, which I found (still do) such a weird thing to notice.
I was probably just too busy concentrating on reading in an unfamiliar language, to notice the more subtle language sins.

The aftermath of the games is what stands out most clearly to me. I can't say I was "shocked" to hear it, after all I had watched the first 2 movies. And yet it still left such a lasting impression to see Katniss have to start all over again, but this time wearing a dress, high heels and a love-struck attitude.

There's also the totally clueless make-up crew, who prepares Katniss for her post-war press conference, all while discussing THEIR feelings/reactions of the games. I could totally sympathize with Katniss' disbelief (and subsequent surrender of this particular battle).

Score: 4/5 stars.

Surprisingly good, and I love the German covers way more than the originals.

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Review of the 2nd book: Catching Fire
Review of the 3rd book: Mockingjay