"Some people go and some people stay. I'm staying."
This book. Y'all. I don't always give reviews and I ALWAYS hesitate to rate something five stars, b"Some people go and some people stay. I'm staying."
This book. Y'all. I don't always give reviews and I ALWAYS hesitate to rate something five stars, because I strive to be impartial, but this book here... It will wrap you up, throw you out, and charm it's way right back into your good graces. You'll love these characters, hate these characters, and accept these characters against your better judgement. This book is a book I think everyone should read once in their lives. I won't stall anymore.
It's about this cowboy (emphasis on the "boy"), Tex- short for Texas. The first chapter opens with Texas riding his horse out in the plains before school. Because he is the 1st person narrator, you immediately get a feel for the rowdy trouble-making teen that has little time or patience for sitting still and his truest love is his horse, Negrito. Tex is 14 and lives with his 17 year-old brother, Mason. His mother died when he was a toddler, and his father is a rodeo cowboy, leaving Mason and Tex to take care of themselves for months at time. Aside from missing his father, Tex sees little trouble in this arrangement, but of course Mace does not agree. By the end of the first chapter, Tex comes home from school to find that Mace sold both their horses when their heat was turned off, a crime that leads the brothers to come to physical blows. The world continues to unfold around Tex, as he navigates through a world that is changing despite him.
Hinton wrote this book for readers like me, readers that FEEL their characters without sparkly descriptions. Tex's vernacular is simple, and so are his thoughts, which leads the reader to do all of the real feeling in this book. It is up to the reader to take home the theme of the book, and I can see where it would be different depending on the point of view, but there are plenty to choose from: Poverty, Coming of age, family relationships, parentless home, drugs, and so many others. This review could never do it justice, you just have to experience it yourself. ...more
I really only read this as it was a sequel to The Hazel Wood, but honestly, the story just dragged on... If I weren't so persistant, I wouldn't have fI really only read this as it was a sequel to The Hazel Wood, but honestly, the story just dragged on... If I weren't so persistant, I wouldn't have finished it. ...more
I am a huge fan of the Hunger Games Trilogy and have read AND listened to all 3 books multiple times throughout the years, so I can honestly say that I am a huge fan of the Hunger Games Trilogy and have read AND listened to all 3 books multiple times throughout the years, so I can honestly say that I have been looking forward to reading this book since before it was released. I was not disappointed in any of the events aside from possibly the time set in the book... Otherwise the dialogue, the characters, the familiarity of surnames and certain elements were just what I was looking for and what I needed from a prequel. I do understand and even appreciate the psychology and decisions behind Snow, as well as seeing him in greater depth, and understanding what made him the man he was when Katniss came along. In fact I love how Collins showed us how and why so many little things got under his skin. However, I don't see this novel as a successful standalone for anyone outside of the fanbase. While I disagree about the first half being "boring", that could just be because I am an avid fan and I can run with details to fit into my ideas and conspiracies about the series. I enjoyed the pace for the most part- until the end. I would have easily read another addition to the series that sees Snow's development of the games, but as I stated before, I can understand there isn't much of a market for that. And I do think that, the more Collins expands BEFORE Katniss, the greater the chance for little inconsistancies- the same area Rowlings fell into with Fantastic Beasts.
Also- I do hate when an author drops breadcrumbs throughout the book, and then just kind of jams them all together in the last few pages, and I feel like that was done here. The ending felt really rushed, there was so much left to convey, I would have rather had another book to wrap things up better.
***********SPOILER AHEAD***************
DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE BOOK.
And Let's just say, I have a couple questions regarding the timeline itself. Anyone doing elementary math can see that Coriolanus remembers being five during the war, he's working in the 10th hunger games now at 15- which makes him 80 in the 3rd quarter quell? That seems like a little old, but we see elderly politicians quite often, and in all honesty, it is set in the future, so modern technology could extend the human life-span, so it still seems plausible, However, I'm not sure that explains how his father- who died during the war- could have designed the Hunger Games with Dean Bottoms. However, there is nothing that truly contradicts all of this, it just seems a little wonky to me. It almost seems as if not everything could be wrapped up in this manner without clarifying more. And Oh how I would have loved to find out where and how Tigress and Corio fell out. This is a mystery that I have thought about since The Mockinjay....more
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