The Hunger Games – Catching Fire (Film)

I’ve read all the Hunger Games books and am absolutely in love with them, the first film I thought was amazing and then I was super excited to see the second one. I was right to be excited as well, it was so great. I went and saw it with my boyfriend and his family, as they also all love it and we saw the first together, we watched it at a different cinema to the normal ones and I quite liked it, loads of corridors with movie props which is something I think is nice, as places like Planet Hollywood with all their props are just so awesome. Anyway, the actual film was incredible, with  my favourite scene being the one of Mags’s death (sorry for the spoiler) as it was a moment I cried at in both of the book and the film as it was pure selfless sacrifice and knowing her relationship with Finnick it just makes it all the more sad.

I always feel the sad scenes of films are the best purely because they are the most powerful, so of course that would have been my favourite, and I am really excited for all of the next film. This one is left on a bit of a cliff hanger with you not knowing what is going on, and despite actually knowing as I’ve read it all, I am still super excited how it pans out on film. Something I felt was missing from this film though was Beetee and Wiress being a bit more impactful as characters, but then I did read the books quite a while ago and I do personally always get way more attached in books than films anyway, so maybe that was just me.

It was all great though, another of my favourite bits actually being the desperateness to Katniss in this one, it is no longer just about survival, it is them versus the capital and I think that really showed, especially when Katniss and Peeta are separated by the walls, with that desperate look upon her face. I would recommend not just this film, but the first and the books to pretty much anyone, as it has so much; action, romance, war in a sense, it is all there and all fits together perfectly. Anyone reading this have a different favourite scene?

‘Oryx and Crake’ – Margaret Atwood

This book was amazing! I have no idea what I was expecting when I picked this up but I know I was not thinking that it would be this good. The blurb was pretty weird but good, and I was told it was in a sort of hunger games style which is a series I loved and so I figured I would try it out. When someone says hunger games style I was thinking more of a brutal free for all survivalist killing spree, especially as the blurb mentioned the main character lived in a tree and wore just a bed sheet. This however was not quite right, the way that this is similar to hunger games is in the idea of a future dystopia  which at times can be a bit survivalist and slightly brutal. 

I’m struggling to explain how this book works as it is just such a strange read. Basically, there are two times that it flips between, distinguishable by the main character’s name changing between them, so in the first he is Jimmy, a young man living what is classed as an ordinary life in these times, and then there is an event which changes everything. This causes him to change as a character; becoming Snowman, which is the persona living in the tree wearing just a sheet.

The writing of this was amazing as you were made to sympathise with certain characters and turn against others, all while wondering what is was that happened, how everything fits together and how it is to end. It is not until the end of the novel that you find out what it was that happened, which is always a feature I really love in books as it builds up so much curiosity and tension that you don’t want to stop reading. The whole storyline was flawless and I would seriously recommend this to anyone from young adult and up, it was great. There are parts that mean it is aimed for adults but nothing too graphic just things that might make you feel a bit awkward.

My favourite quote was one talking about the events when Jimmy is Snowman but looking back at his life as Jimmy and was; ‘every moment he’s lived in the past few months was dreamed first by Crake. No wonder Crake screamed so much’. Another great quote was; ‘What could he have said or done differently? What change would have altered the course of events? In the big picture, nothing. In the small picture, so much.’