the hunger games

We listened to the audiobook of this on the way home from Florida. My review in a nutshell:

Ender’s Game meets the Most Dangerous Game meets Lord of the Flies meets 5th grade vocabulary. Zzzzzz.

It was passably entertaining until part 3, where it suddenly turned into an agonizingly boring domestic relationship drama. I was glad to realize that the book was intended as “young adult” fiction, so that at least the incredibly bland writing could be written off as intentional. But really, why do we need this category? I have to admit, I don’t understand the whole YA thing. You kids with your Twilight and your Harry Potter. In my day, we read Lord of the Rings! And when we didn’t understand a word, we looked it up!

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to now hunt down the people that recommended it to me and kick them in the nuts (or ovaries).

On an unrelated note, on the way to Florida, we listened to Dan Carlin’s final 4 hour podcast on the Roman Republic, and it was awesome.