it 's an addictive series
How is the series?
Everyone I know seems to have read or be reading this book series.  Mind you, none of us are in our teens!  ;)  My hubby was passed along the first book to read on a plane ride.  Normally, he doesn't get too interested in books in general since he's more of a video/movie guy.  So when he got hooked, I knew I had to give it a try!  It took me a while to get connected to the characters and storyline.  The main reason being that I'm not really into post apocalyptic, sci-fi reading or excessive violence.  I normally love historical fiction.  That being said, once I got into the storyline, I read the entire trilogy in 2 days.  It had enough of the "real world" in it to ground the book and make it interesting to me, with lots of unexpected twists in some parts.  It is not as predictable as you think it's going to be.  The first book can stand on its own, but it's definitely better read as a trilogy.  While the second book is not as strong as the first, it has good parts (my favorite is the development of Katniss and Peeta's bond) and leaves you with such a big cliffhanger that it's pretty much impossible not to immediately want to start reading the third book.  The third book is definitely more dark than the first two with heavy sad parts, etc.  I like that this book really focuses more on Gale to develop his character.  By now, most of us are attached to Peeta since we don't know Gale as well.  Even though this final book is sad in many ways, it is a more realistic approach to what life (and character's personalities) would be like after being exposed to so many different life changing hardships.  So if it would have ended differently, I would have been very upset!  It doesn't sugarcoat things or have a sticky sweet fairy tale ending, but that wouldn't have matched up with the whole theme of the books.  Overall, even though it's not normally my thing, it's an addictive series and I'm glad I read it!  I'm sort of glad it ended because those fictional characters went through so much, it would have been depressing to drag it out longer!  Great series!  Read it! 