OK, so I succumbed to the pressure and read the Hunger Games trilogy on my Kindle Paperwhite (I need to post about my experience with it in the future – love it!). I’ve always enjoyed young adult literature, and I’m a sucker for dystopian and apocalyptic stories, so those were positive marks to start with. When the movie came out on DVD, I did see it, and told my family that the biggest problem I had was that people would stand by and let kids kill each other. I think the books did a much better job of making that aspect somewhat believable.
I’ve read a number of works with dystopias, from 1984 to The Handmaid’s Tale, but I think this was the first I’ve read from a young person’s perspective. And I liked it. I think Suzanne Collins did a fantastic job, as she pulled me in to the universe of Panem, from it’s crazed dictator to the rebels who want to end the hunger games and gain a measure of freedom.
Reading is one of my major occupations, probably second behind breathing, and I do recognize what makes good writing, great writing, purely entertaining writing, and not-so-good writing. I’ve read many classics (my major was English Education), along with many “fun” horror, fantasy, and science fiction books. I own over 6,000 books (no, I haven’t read them all — yet), many considered to be classics. I know a good sentence from a garbage sentence. The thing is, though, that the experience of reading should be fun, more often then not. Maybe some people loved the “whaling” details of Moby Dick, but most people don’t. It’s an important novel, full of symbolism, but it really isn’t for the average reader. As a matter of fact, read it too early in your life and you may never want to crack open fiction again. And where is this all going? Entertainment. Fun. Can’t wait to have five spare minutes to pick up the book kind of fun. And that’s what The Hunger Games provides. It’s a compelling story that keeps you turning the pages, and is much better written then I had expected.
So now you understand that I loved the experience of reading the trilogy. And with that you can safely assume that I wanted to have those feelings of youthful exuberance dealing with life and death situations on the written page all over again. How to get it? Find a new book series. And I had my doubts that I could find another that I would enjoy as much. But then along came Divergent. I’m probably about halfway through the first book and am even more impressed with Veronica Roth’s worldbuilding. I’m enraptured with this world of five factions, and love how she has carefully woven the teens’ personalities with the faction characteristics they grew up with, even when some have switched factions after the age of 16. It’s a smartly written novel and I’m constantly wanting to be reading it. That’s a good sign. When I was reading The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann a couple decades ago, I had to force myself to get through a few pages a day. Mann’s classic was rewarding, and worth it, but it wasn’t like a day at Cedar Point, and that is what these young adult novels remind me of.
By the way, if you want to see what my fiction is like, I have some short stories available at Amazon. I’ll have my futuristic thriller novel on there sometime in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, here is my author page: http://www.amazon.com/Ed-Gosney/e/B00COD7UYU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
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