and may the odds be ever in your favor

I finished reading The Hunger Games today. I know, I know, I’m the last YA fan on Earth to read it, and I did feel kind of guilty for snagging an ARC of Catching Fire at ALA when I hadn’t even read the first book yet. How dare I take the sequel away from people who were already salivating for it?! I felt like someone would find out and screech “IMPOSTOR!!!” and then everyone who didn’t get a copy would descend on me in a frenzy and then they’d all battle to the death in a vast arena beat each other up to get it.

Anyway, I’m glad Duncan fought his way through the rabid crowd for Catching Fire, because Hunger Games is one of those books that makes you want to read the sequel RIGHT. NOW. Which I can’t do, as Catching Fire is lent out at the moment, but it’s coming back soon. And then… *rubs hands together in delicious anticipation*… there will be READING.

I didn’t write a full review because of course Hunger Games is awesome. You’ve already heard it’s awesome. You don’t need me telling you how awesome it is. If you’re interested, then you’ve already read it, or are planning to. And if you’re not, then nothing I can say is going to convince you to read it. You are BEYOND HOPE.

(Book-blogging makes me start to type like Maureen Johnson.)

But I do want to talk about similarities between Hunger Games and one of my other favorite books of last year, Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Even before I read Hunger Games, I noticed the similarity between the main characters’ names, Katniss and Katsa. And as I read it, I noticed others.

The books both have:

• A main character whose name starts with “Kat”
• …who is independent, self-sufficient, and good at hunting/killing
• …and plans to never marry
• A romantic interest with a silly name starting with P (Peeta and Po? Seriously?)
• An oppressive regime, which the characters must outsmart
• A younger girl, whom the main character feels bound to protect
• Harsh landscapes through which the characters must survive
• Permanent physical injuries (I don’t want to spoil too much here)
• A sequel with the word “Fire” in its title (I’m just saying)
• Significant jewelry

Of course, Graceling is set in a fantasy world in which characters have supernatural powers, while Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future in the ruins of what used to be North America (in that way it reminds me more of Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series, which also has the oppressive-regime thing going on). I think it’s interesting that despite the complete difference in setting, the books can still be so similar.

(Just to be clear: I don’t feel this diminishes either book in any way, or that either book is a “rip-off” of the other. I think they’re both amazing books, and I love them both and can’t wait to read their sequels (which will probably be completely different from each other). I love the characters of Katsa and Katniss, and they’re definitely not the same person.

In a way, this reminds me of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, another pair of books which have striking similarities in plot, but which manage to be different and awesome in their own ways. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of fanfiction, but I don’t see anything wrong with telling the same story from a different perspective. Some of my favorite books are retold fairy tales.)

Maybe right now is just a good time for fierce, independent young women battling overwhelming odds. In which case: bring it.

Anyway I know I said I wasn’t going to do a review of Hunger Games, but seriously: this book is un-put-downable. It sucks you in. Like this: THWOOP. And you are riveted, until the very last page, which ends with a cruelly taunting “End of Book One,” and then you drop to your knees and go “WHYYYYYYYYYY IS THE SEQUEL NOT IN MY HANDS RIGHT NOW?!” And then your cat wakes up in alarm, and you think about renaming her Katniss, but decide your roommate wouldn’t approve. And anyway you’ve already had to explain Hypatia to everyone you know. So there’s only one solution: you need another cat as soon as possible.

Just read it, is what I’m saying.