Recently read

So it's been a while since I've written anything I've read about but I've recently read a couple of trilogies and I thought I'd comment on them.


First of all, The Hunger Games. These books registered in my subconscious at some point but being published in the PhuD pushing time (2008-2010) they were put on the backburner until Pooey recently asked if I'd read them. Boom-boom onto the kindle, and I can now say that yes I have! And I devoured all three of them within a week. Based vaguely on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, in a post-apocalyptic dystopian USA (now called Panem), the Capitol controls the outlying Districts by having each of the 12 areas draw two teenagers (Tributes) who are entered into The Hunger Games where they fight each other to the death in a wilderness arena. Why do they do this? The winner of the Games gets a luxurious home for life and their District gets more food/supplies. As much as people say the concept of the Games I kept thinking that it's quite similar to Survivor where we watched people eat rats and run weird obstacle courses for our entertainment. Hmmm. Anyway, I recommend them!


The other trilogy I read was Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends vampire series. Jodie is mugged on her way home from work one day...but wakes up a few days after the mugging underneath a dumpster. Turns out she's now a vampire and she acquires a minion, 19 yo aspiring author C. Thomas Flood (Tommy to his friends). But who is the vampire who made Jodie? And why is he stalking the streets of San Fran and leaving corpses near her?! In my opinion, this is a classic example of a trilogy getting worse and worse until the last installment completely sucked (pun not intended). Sometimes, laughing out loud by yourself is something that makes you realise how crazy awesome something is. The original Bloodsucking Fiends made me laugh out loud a lot. The second one (Bite Me) is alright but not as good as the first. The third one IS TERRIBLE. It is largely narrated by a 16 year old girl who wishes she was a vampire and who gave me the shits repeatedly. I don't know how to explain it without giving it away, but I don't want to encourage people to read it either...unless you really want to know why I hated it. Ugh. 


So in summary, Hunger Games - good! Bloodsucking Fiends - only first book good!