Upon leaving on Friday evening for Albany, aka my humble abode, I realized I needed to go to a bookstore in order to pick up a book I needed for one of my classes. After getting picked up by my father I informed him of my need to stop at Barnes and Noble for said book. On our way to the store he asked me if I wanted to go to the movies that night in order to finally see the Hunger Games. I happily replied in the affirmative as we headed into B & N. Little did I know what was about to take place.
Sitting on a table in the center of the store just happened to be a little island dedicated to all that is the Hunger Games. My eyes lit up as they collided with the cover of the first book of the series. It was in that instant that I knew I needed to read it before seeing the movie. After half-heartedly searching for my book for class and even asking a member of the staff to help me locate it, it became apparent that the book just wasn’t in the store. The man asked me if I wanted to order it, but as I needed it for Monday’s class I declined the offer and instead purchased the Hunger Games. The second the book was in my hands it was like an invisible force field surrounded the two, making them impossible to separate. This book was as good as mine and I hungrily began reading it. By the next morning I had already finished the first book and after work at the café I headed over to the Open Door Bookstore. There I picked up the second two books in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay and began to read.
By that evening I was already halfway through the second book and incredibly ready to go and see the movie. My father obliged me and we took off for the movie theatre with my little brother in tow. Sitting in the dark theatre waiting for the movie to begin my heart began to race. I could hardly hold in my excitement when the previews began and thanked my lucky stars that this movie theatre, the Spectrum in Albany, only runs about three previews before the film. The second the movie started I was enamored. Throughout it I would glance over at my father and have to stifle a laugh as he would constantly move up to the edge of his seat, he was that engrossed in it. After silencing my brother multiple times for trying to talk during the movie, I found that even after having read the book, I too was on the edge of my seat, cheering Katniss on in the Hunger Games.
When the credits began to roll I had come to a few conclusions. The first being that I no longer favored Gale over Peeta as something about Josh Hutcherson’s blonde hair made me giddy inside. The second was that Jennifer Lawrence is a greatly underrated actress. The third was that the movie completely played down any notion of romance that existed in the book, a detail that didn’t sit overly well with me. The fourth being that I couldn’t wait for the second film to come out. And the fifth that if I can’t be an actress in the near future I am going to have to be a writer. I need to be able to create a character with my bare hands, to breath life into each limb and conjure up each individual thought.
Returning home I finished the next two books and while I was a little ticked by the ending, I let it go. This is exactly how Suzanne Collins wanted to tell it. Therefore this is exactly how her characters needed to end up. And thinking this I then thought about my own future novels. How I will get to tell my own character’s stories choosing each word carefully. These stories may not end in the exact way a reader might like them to, but that’s the beauty of it. Feeling surprised, shocked, joyous, angry, and sometimes even horrified right up until the very last word.
"A Fresh Perspective" 