Am I now a "Mockingjay"?

It's taken me approximately a week....I finished the first in The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.  Wow.  As much as I'm enjoying reading Gone with the Wind, I have had an equally difficult time putting down The Hunger Games.  I finally couldn't stand it anymore today; I sat in my recliner/rocker and finished the book.  It really is a great book.

What is hard for me is not only that this book is apparently geared towards the younger generation (12 to 18 year olds in particular, it seems), but also that these are CHILDREN (12 to 18 year olds) killing each other!!!  There is never a question of IF Katniss (or her fellow tributes) will kill; it's simply a matter of WHEN Katniss and her fellow tributes will kill.  (Don't worry.  I'm not really giving away anything important that you don't learn within the first few pages of the book.)  It's so very disturbing. 

Just as Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" has always been disturbing..  It's always interesting to me that students who choose to read that story in my class are the very ones who come in the day we're working with the story talking about how much they hate the story--how "stupid" the story is because Tessie is killed in the end.  They argue that the story is pointless and just plain "dumb."  Yet, here's this little book by Suzanne Collins that is taking the country by storm. 

I finally read both the Twilight series and the Harry Potter series because others told me how great both series are and that if I love to read as much as I do, I'll love both of them.  So I read both series and, of course, have become a true "Potterite" and "Twi-Hard."  I've read both series at least 4 times through--all the books in each series, and yes, that includes the online availability of the partial draft of Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun as well as The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.  The same thing essentially has happened with The Hunger Games.  I've had a number of friends and students tell me that I HAVE to read the books; they know I'll enjoy them.  So, I finally got myself my copy of the first book, let it sit on my shelf for a good week, and then started it.....and even put aside Gone with the Wind to finish it first!!!

This book really keeps the audience's attention.....no doubt about that.  It's scary and creepy how well it keeps the audience's attention, though, considering the fact that it's a book about kids killing, yes murdering, each other in terrible and violent ways.  We were actually talking about this unusual phenomena the other day (in my British Lit class)--about how we as an audience are drawn inexorably to the scary, gory, unusual, awful, bloody, etc., etc., etc.  (The most interesting part of The Picture of Dorian Gray is when Dorian kills Basil and the way Basil's body is disposed of.) 

Yet, here we all are, hungrily (yes, the pun is intended) reading this new series, even chomping (again, pun intended) at the bit for the next one to come out!  Of course, the whole series has been released, but now that I've bought the first one in paperback, I can't buy the 3rd one until it's out in paperback, too!!!!  I'm sure I'll read it before then, but still.

Anyway, how am I supposed to reconcile my horror at what is happening on the page with the fact that I am drawn to this story--to reading each and every word of this story--like a hungry lion is drawn to raw meat?!  And, I can't wait for the movie to come out!!!!  I keep watching the movie trailers, anxiously wondering if my favorite (how can I say I have any favorite???) scenes will be portrayed as I envision them in my own head!!!

The Hunger Games truly is a horrific story.  I couldn't cry at all, which I found odd, but I knew what was coming.  It's not that the story is overly predictable, which typically ruins a book/story for me.  It's simply that when the reader knows that 24 kids go in to an area and they aren't allowed out until there's only one left standing, there can't be too many surprises.  There are a few, but not so surprising that I found myself crying over them.  I was, and am, horrified.....just not surprised.

Does that make any sense?

I'm hoping to get the next book in the series before the weekend is out and start reading it as soon as possible.  There's no way I can continue waiting to read the next book.  How did the original fans of the book wait for each subsequent book of the trilogy to be released?!  It's just as bad as waiting for the next Harry Potter book or the next in the Twilight series!!!!  Thankfully, I didn't jump on board with either of those series either until all the books were available!!!!  I'd go absotively, posolutely NUTS if I had to wait any longer to read the next book in the series!!!!

Finally, now that I'm a Hunger Games fan, what is my new nickname?  And how do I reconcile all three of my favorite series into one nickname rather than being called individually a "Twi-Hard," "Potterite," and...."Mockingjay" (????)?  I don't know what fans of The Hunger Games  are called, but I like the idea of being a "Mockingjay"-----I can live with that......