As always, I love your input here! You're absolutely right about discussing books with someone who doesn't agree completely. It's almost more satisfying, exactly as you said. :)
Peeta was probably what Katniss needed. Like you said, more of a compliment to her and certainly someone who understands what she went through in the arena. But at the same time, I'm just not believing her love for him. She cared for him, certainly. But she seemed to be always trying to settle a score with him. She felt like she owed him for basically saving her from starvation as a child and I'm not sure the feelings born out of that equal the sort of love you need to have for your life partner. If they were going to play it that way in the end, I would have liked to have seen her actually fall in love with him. Not just cut away as she's just trying to get used to him and then jump to 20 years later when they've got kids.
I read a review where someone said they thought she didn't give herself time to wrap up all her loose ends. I think that puts it better than I had been able to. I think they said exactly, "it's like she ran out of pages or chapters in order to wrap up all her loose ends." Which makes me go back to my first impression of the first book where I felt like she soars at writing action but lacks some of the same skill at world building and personal interaction that was needed after the climax. There's too steep of a cliff from Prim's death to the end. (And when I say world building, I mean mostly that third dimension that makes you really feel a place, she does a good job of giving us sensory details to help us see it, but it seems two dimensional to me.)
I will have to check out that series though! I haven't picked up anything new since finishing these, so that would be a good follow up, I bet.
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Peeta was probably what Katniss needed. Like you said, more of a compliment to her and certainly someone who understands what she went through in the arena. But at the same time, I'm just not believing her love for him. She cared for him, certainly. But she seemed to be always trying to settle a score with him. She felt like she owed him for basically saving her from starvation as a child and I'm not sure the feelings born out of that equal the sort of love you need to have for your life partner. If they were going to play it that way in the end, I would have liked to have seen her actually fall in love with him. Not just cut away as she's just trying to get used to him and then jump to 20 years later when they've got kids.
I read a review where someone said they thought she didn't give herself time to wrap up all her loose ends. I think that puts it better than I had been able to. I think they said exactly, "it's like she ran out of pages or chapters in order to wrap up all her loose ends." Which makes me go back to my first impression of the first book where I felt like she soars at writing action but lacks some of the same skill at world building and personal interaction that was needed after the climax. There's too steep of a cliff from Prim's death to the end. (And when I say world building, I mean mostly that third dimension that makes you really feel a place, she does a good job of giving us sensory details to help us see it, but it seems two dimensional to me.)
I will have to check out that series though! I haven't picked up anything new since finishing these, so that would be a good follow up, I bet.