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by Diamonte » August 31st, 2010, 12:45 pm
I read Leviathan, The Hunger Games, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson in the last couple of days.
Leviathan was interesting, especially when you love steampunk as much as me. But sometimes I feel like SW skips over the possibility of wrestling with deep issues in his novel and just sticks to the surface. His books are nice for a good fluffy read.
Although I might be a little biased since I just finished The Hunger Games for the first time. I liked the book a lot. The concept was fascinating, but I was bothered by the last quarter or so of the novel. I thought the mutts were bizarre and came out of nowhere and were a convenient way to get rid of Cato. Also, I didn't like how Katniss still managed to retain some of her innocence during the novel. She managed to survive them with only one direct kill, and that was done in the heat of the moment. Her other kills were out of self-defense. Considering the nature of the competition, I thought that was very unrealistic. (Not that I wanted to see her transformed into a sociopath either.) Also, I didn't like how sponsors could drop in gifts. It felt like a Deus Ex Machina to me and an easy way to resolve Peeta's problems. But overall, I liked it.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson was my first time reading David Levithan's stuff. I've got mixed feelings about his style. But John Green's chapters just disappointed me. He has a great voice in his writing, but his novels always have some major similarities between them - to the point where Paper Towns and Looking For Alaska can start to feel like the same novel. I wish he'd break away from some of those similarities and stop creating the same characters.