First Impression

[KATE]

When you first started to read HG, what did you think?

[Aanaleigh]

When I first read HG, I thought it was a bit weird, and then once it got a bit further in, I loved it. I literally couldn't put it down. My history teacher had to take it away to get me to listen to something about Cartier.

[Peeta the Frosting Prince]

I had heard about THG from a few of my FFN friends. I happened to be in Wal-Mart one day and I saw it on the shelf and I began to read it. Only just got to the first few pages in with Gale, and I wanted to know more.

Before I even saw the book, I actually looked at a few fics first. And I read the wiki and accidently stumbled upon how the first book ended. However that did not stop me from enjoying the book or being surprised by it. Because even though I knew the end (only about the berries, nothing else) I was excited and on the edge of my seat to see how it got to that end.

[vividlyvisceral]

When I first read it I was eager to get into the actual games portion. I finished the book in under five hours because I just devour books when I'm interested in them.

-I just found it on the shelf. It was the last one, dog-eared and a little scuffed from being the display copy. I read the back and thought 'sounds like my sort of thing'- as well as the blood splatters on the front. (Australian version) so I took it to the counter, walked out to where my friends were waiting and began to read.

When they found out I finished by 6 o'clock they were stunned.

[KATE]

I really liked HG but I never liked Peeta. Gale had won me over from the beginning, but I do love hearing what your guys' thoughts are on this

[Peeta the Frosting Prince]

What does the cover art look like for y'all, then, Vivid? Does it have a mockingjay on it, too?

I liked Peeta right from the beginning. But I'm a sucker for blondes, and so by the third chapter, it just got better (to me).

[vividlyvisceral]

I can't describe it too fantastically (what kind of writer am I?) but it's black, and the front cover has a stylized 'HG'- and in the 'HG' is a picture of Katniss looking all determined and badass.

Then at the top is says 'the Hunger Games', with blood splatters all around it and down the cover. Plus that Stephenie Meyer review up the top and the Stephen King one on the back.
I have a reversible cover- it was cheap, okay?- and I can have Peeta on the front cover if I want- but I don't because Katniss looks better surrounded by blood splatters. He just looks out of place.

[Peeta the Frosting Prince]

That sounds really awesome, minus that stupid SM review.

...I kinda want Peeta on the cover of a book.

>.>

<.<

[Rowena]

Vivid, I think I've seen the Australian cover...I dislike having to take the time to search for pictures of people who look like characters to make fanart, so I looked up all of the THG and CF covers I could find on Google Images (MJ wasn't out yet then) and saved them to my comp for future use

Anyway, Kate told me to read the book, and I finished it really quickly. It was during the *huge* snowstorm we had last February that I was reading it, and because there is a bookstore in walking distance from my house, and my birthday was during the storm so my mom would buy me books, I got THG and read it in like a day. It took me longer to finish CF because school started again

Usually gore isn't my thing, although I can read about it *much* better than I can watch it in a movie (then I just get all grossed out and start feeling sick), but I thought it was really interesting.

[Peeta the Frosting Prince]

Oh god I can't watch movie gore. I can read like, horrible things, but I cannot watch it. I had to bury my head in Rane's shoulder for a few moments in True Grit. -wince-

So you and Kate started off as friends in a different fandom, then? Sorry if you mentioned that and I forgot.

[Rowena]

I can't watch gore at all - I get all weak at the knees and start trembling. Like we were watching this movie about a boy who goes to Vietnam in my English class, Born on the Fourth of July, and the gore/physcological (sp) stuff in that left me feeling sick.

And yeah, we did. Kate reviewed one of my first stories and I replied to her review; she replied back and we started talking. Eventually she agreed to beta-read that although I don't think I ever posted another chapter, because it really wasn't a very good story Kate was really big in that fandom back then, at least on FF.net, and was one of the judges for a big writing competition over there, and I was just this little newbie with a bad AU story. *reminiscnet sigh*

Anyway, we kept talking and she told me to read THG and then she said a friend of hers was starting a forum for it, and that's how Starvation started!

[vividlyvisceral]

Usually gore isn't my thing, although I can read about it *much* better than I can watch it in a movie (then I just get all grossed out and start feeling sick), but I thought it was really interesting.

Haha, I love reading/writing gore. It's why my pen is 'VividlyVisceral'. I was a bit disappointed because I thought the Hunger Games would have more blood splattering, but I realised that it is a book aimed at a younger audience, so I was happy with what I got.

Oh god I can't watch movie gore. I can read like, horrible things, but I cannot watch it. I had to bury my head in Rane's shoulder for a few moments in True Grit. -wince-

-I have Brayden for that too! Although, he isn't fantastic in those movies either. He doesn't want to watch the Saw franchise because we'll both be cowering into one another squeaking 'is it over yet?!'
He can handle things like True Grit though. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard enough. I saw the original (John Wayne = amazing) and loved it, so I'll have to see the remake eventually.

I can't watch gore at all - I get all weak at the knees and start trembling. Like we were watching this movie about a boy who goes to Vietnam in my English class, Born on the Fourth of July, and the gore/physcological (sp) stuff in that left me feeling sick.

Usually I can't watch it at all, but I've been getting better at coping with those movies. Usually I only begin to recoil when things like people melting (RoboCop) or entire faces blown to smithereens (Saving Private Ryan) - but I deal with it slowly and then I can watch and rewatch the scene.
Not at the movies though. If I'm in a theatre all rational thought goes out the window and I'm a squeaking, squealing mess. Haha.

When it comes to writing though- I adore writing bloody, horrific deaths. I'm part of the aesthetic violence movement, I like to think.

Anyway, we kept talking and she told me to read THG and then she said a friend of hers was starting a forum for it, and that's how Starvation started!

Reading that made a little piano begin playing in my head and then the words 'the Starvation Christmas Special; the origins of the Starvation Forum' ran through my brain.
How magical.

-one thing I really liked about THG however is that it was hilarious explaining it to my friends. When I was asked "Oh, what are you reading?" I'd happily chirp- "Kids killing each other!"
With this book I managed to get two boys, one of which NEVER reads- all he does is smoke weed and eat all day- to read the books and we'd have hour long discussions on how we'd write it.

Naturally they involved more fire-arms and tanks and I had a lot more eye-gouging/stomach splitting. Ahaha.

[maxrider12]

Movie gore has literally made me vomit. I'm awful with movie gore. :-\ I can't even watch Jurassic Park 'cos there's a scene where someone's blood splatters all over the front of a plane. If anyone ever made a movie of Neil Shusterman's Unwind, I would probably never be able to watch it.

I can read about nearly anything. I read about Cato's death at least ten times, and I (for whatever reason) imagined him while he was dying as a ham with eyes ;D And the book Unwind has a part where someone is being taken apart. Literally, they strip him down to his brain. That is my favorite part of the whole book.

I can write any kind of death. In one of my fics, a person sacrifices herself to save her allies by going into a house poised to explode. Her allies go to another house, hear an explosion, and the girl's eye splatters on their window. I also had a death where a girl's long-lost sister stabs her in the stomach, then the sister falls on a spearhead.

Anyway, I loved the Hunger Games the moment I started to read. It was just my kind of book (I love books about dystopian societies). I tried to get my friends to read it, and here were their responses:

Leslie: Sure. (Later) I loved it!
Mary: No, I will not read it because it competes with Harry Potter! (In Mary's mind, every book competes with HP)
Stephanie: Okay, okay, I'll read it if you'll just shut up! (I had to ask her at least twenty times) (Later) Oh my God, this is the best book I have ever read!
Jo: No, I don't want to read The Hunger Games and you can't make me! (There's no big, clever "I told you so" moment. I'm still trying to get her to read it.)
Lorelei: I already read it! Best book ever!

But yeah, I love THG more than any book series I've ever read. Me and Lorelei had this huge texting conversation about who should play who in the movie (CHRIS COLFER NEEDS TO PLAY FINNICK! Look him up on Google Images. You'll see what I mean.) just yesterday.

[Ducky Momo]

Well when i read the first sentance i thought "Wow thats a lousy lead" and stopped reading. A few months later i was bored and out of books so i said "what the heck" and became absoulutly in love with it!!!
Actually my sister had the book and read but she didnt like them! :0 Im still trying to get her to read Catching Fire and Mockingjay!!!

[scriptumhaedus]

Haha... I was the same way. I was driving up to Green Bay to see a Packer's game after Christmas. I picked it up and started to read it, but didn't have the attention span to read it because it had a boring start. I picked it up a month later and finished it in less than four hours. Then I picked up 'Catching Fire' and started it!