Book vs. Movie – Catching Fire

February 14, 2018June 4, 2019 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Welcome to the 75th Hunger Games!

I mean, welcome back to another Book vs. Movie Showdown! I love these posts so much. Can’t you tell? Anyway, I’m back with another one, and this time it’s a sequel. I haven’t read sequels in so long! Or actually, if you have seen my earlier postings, I usually read the first book of a series and don’t go on to the next one for many years. It’s a bad habit, but I’m slowly getting over it.

You guessed it! This showdown is all about Catching Fire, the second installment of The Hunger Games! It’s only getting better and better in my opinion, and I’m very excited to see which one wins. Are you ready? Let the games begin!

* * * * * * * * * * S P O I L E R S B E L O W T H I S L I N E * * * * * * * * * *

So the first thing I have to say is: wow.

Both the book and the movie were incredible. This one is going to be a hard one for me, especially since after reading the book, I can see that the movie did a pretty good job of following the book. I love it when movies do that, don’t you?

While I was going through the book, I just kept thinking about what parts they could have added to the movie to make it even more exciting, or which parts they took out of the movie that probably would have slowed down the pace. I think it’s important when directors and producers are able to make creative decisions to make sure that the movie is a good one, even if it means that not everything is exactly like the book verbatim. Sometimes, it makes it work out better for both the source material and the movie.

There were certain scenes in the book and the movie that – while they were pretty much the same – gave me completely different feels or reactions. Cinna’s death in the book didn’t seem as final as it was for me in the movie. Katniss’s reaction to Cinna being brutally beaten by the guards made it that much worse to witness it than just hearing Katniss’s reaction to it in the book. I cried a lot more in the movie than the book. Another one was Mag’s sacrifice. In the book, Katniss sees her convulse before she is dead, but I was still way more emotional about her dying in the movie. The way she bravely walked in the mist without any hesitation, after kissing Finnick goodbye for the last time just completely broke my heart.

Some of the differences that I can recall:

First meeting between Katniss and Plutark (Book)
Katniss meeting the runaways from District 8 (Book)
The discovery of the facade surrounding District 13 (Book)
The wedding preparation (Book)
What happened in District 11 during Katniss and Peeta’s Victory Tour (Book)
The interaction between Katniss and the Victor-Tributes during training (Book)
The revelation of Plutark’s involvement in the games (Book)

I am so glad that I have the opportunity to read this series for the first time while doing a rewatch of the series. It definitely allows me to appreciate the movies in a new light. But, once again… there can only be one winner. Unless I should pull a Katniss and Peeta and start a rebellion? Hmm…

I definitely loved the details that the book included much more than the fact that the movie didn’t include it. I think it would have made it that much better. I definitely recommend reading this book. It was much better than the second one in my opinion.

What do you think? Do you agree, or should the movie have won? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

February 9, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol – a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before…and surprising readers at every turn.

Book Overview:

Author: Suzanne Collins | Series: The Hunger Games | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick | Length: 11 hours, 37 mins | Publish Date: September 1, 2009 | Genre: YA Dystopia | Literary Awards: Golden Duck Award for Hal Clement Award for Young Adult (2010), Soaring Eagle Book Award (2011), Children’s Choice Book Award for Teen Choice Book of the Year (2010), Indies Choice Book Award for Young Adult (2010), Teen Read Award Nominee for Best Read (2010), DABWAHA Romance Tournament for Best Young Adult (2010), Goodreads Choice Award for Favorite Book and Young Adult Series (2009), Premio El Templo de las Mil Puertas Nominee for Mejor novela extranjera perteneciente a saga (2010) | Rated: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: HECK YES

“You know, you could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve him.”

Holy sequel, Batman!

I think the worst things about sequels is that you never know if it’s going to live up to your expectations. If the first book to a series is absolutely amazing, and then the sequel just totally bombs it, then you’re left feeling completely disappointed and wondering why you even took the time to invest in the series in the first place. That’s the thing about sequels though, how will you know if it’s better or worse than the first unless you read it?

What a Catch 22!

In this case, the sequel turned out to be even better than the first one, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Katniss and Peeta have survived the Hunger Games in an unprecedented win – instead of both dying like they planned, Seneca Crane stops them and declares them both the Victors of the 74th Hunger Games. In the entire history of the Hunger Games, there has never been more than one winner. They emphasize that in all of their broadcasting: “There can be only ONE Victor”. So to think that there are now two winners, and they are both from lowly District 12, is completely unheard of.

The citizens of the Capitol are eating it up, so happy to hear that the star-crossed lovers of District 12 will be able to live “happily ever after” and not have to ever worry about the Games again.

That is until this year’s Quarter Quell announcement. This year, President Snow – who is absolutely infuriated by the rebellious acts of the districts that are taking place after this win – tells the world that this year’s Tributes will come from previous Victors only. Not even the Victors are safe, and the world is pissed.

“It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down.”

Now Katniss and Peeta, and the rest of the Victor-Tributes have to fight each other once again, and in this case, they are all friends with one another. How can they be forced to get into the arena a second time, after being promised by the Capitol that once they win, that’s it? The Victors are angry, the world is angry, and that’s when the Districts start to fight back.

This book was so much more action-packed than the first, knowing that at any time, Katniss could find herself under the control of President Snow, and something bad could happen to her family. He had eyes everywhere; nobody is safe. Nothing is sacred. She’s the Mockingjay after all, even if she never wanted to be. So what is the world going to do, when their symbol of hope is put in danger once again?

You’ll just have to read it to find out.

Don’t forget to check out the Author Spotlight here!

Book vs. Movie – The Hunger Games

February 2, 2018June 4, 2019 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Welcome, welcome, ~~to another year at Hogwarts~~ to another segment of Book vs. Movie!

It’s been a long time coming, right? I actually should have done one for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children but I hadn’t watched the movie in a while by the time I read the book. Who knows? Maybe I’ll do a reread and a rewatch in the near future?

So I decided to read The Hunger Games for the first time ever, after all of the movies came out and have been out for a while now. Of course, I had to rewatch The Hunger Games as well since it’s been over ten years? Maybe longer? While the book is so fresh in my head, I decided to do this segment to compare which one was better, to me.

* * * * S P O I L E R A L E R T B E L O W T H I S L I N E * * * *

The main thing that I really loved about the movie more than the book was that we got to see an insight into what the game makers were doing in the background. In the book, the only thing we know is what Katniss is experiencing, since it’s told from her point of view. The book works that way though. She explains to us about the Hunger Games, what it means to put your name in the raffle more than once, what it’s like to witness her fellow Tributes be slaughtered in front of her eyes. If those aspects were told from another perspective, it wouldn’t be as convincing or as emotional as it is when Katniss tells us. So that part works. But knowing that everything that happened in the games – the fire that burned Katniss’s leg and the fireballs that were aimed directly at her, the Mutts that chased them at the finale of the games – was due to the game makers sitting at their little stations and adding it to the arena at just the right time makes the games that much more sickening. Their goal is to make the Hunger Games a form of entertainment for the public, even if it’s only the Capitol and maybe the earlier Districts that would see it as such. The rest of the Districts are forced to watch the games, forced to watch their children murdered and destroyed for the sake of fun, all because of some stupid treaty from the last rebellion.

No wonder they rebelled in the first place.

Even the little parts in the movie that Katniss can’t see because she’s in the games, like Haymitch witnessing a Capitol family in a sitting area, show a different side to Panem and the movie that you don’t get to see in the book. If you don’t remember this part, this was before Haymitch was able to secure enough sponsors to give Katniss medicine for her leg. There was a family: a mom, dad, daughter, son. The parents had given the son a toy sword as a gift, and since the families in the Capitol grow up believing that the Hunger Games are just that – an annual game for their viewing pleasure – the son chases his sister and pretends to stab her with his sword. To them it’s all just a joke, treating it as if it were the damn Superbowl and wanting to be a killer when they grow up. They either don’t understand that these kids are actually dying and are forced to kill one another or be killed instead, or they simply don’t care. You don’t get that sense in the book, at least, not as much as I would like.

There were some inconsistencies between the two, as usual:

District 11 sending Katniss a loaf of bread after she gives Rue a proper burial (Book)
The riots that happened after Rue was murdered (Movie)
Peeta losing his leg because of Katniss’s tourniquet (Book)
Katniss telling Peeta that her affection for him was only part of the game (Book)
The Mutts representing the fallen Tributes (Book)

But both were amazing in their own way, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to experience both. There can only be one winner, though… Oh hey, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it?