When I first read The Hunger Games trilogy, I flew through the books. It took me no more than 3 days to read any of them. You can read about it here, here, and here. Although I was mildly disappointed in Mockingjay, I wanted to reread the whole series at a slower pace. So I went with my rereading go-to: audiobooks. These are my thoughts:
- Carolyn McCormick as narrator took a little getting used to. The book is told in the first person by 16-year-old Katniss. McCormick is 51. It was a little strange but I got used to her. I wouldn’t say the narration was outstanding but it was certainly listenable.
- The first two books were just as engrossing for me the second time around. Although I knew what would happen, I was on the edge of my seat.
- Catching Fire is still my favorite of the three.
- Mockingjay got worse on reread. I am not a fan of Mockingjay at all now. This is an unfortunate consequence (my Deathly-Hallows-it-gets-better-the-second-time theory failed).
And that’s pretty much it (thrilling, I know). Has anyone else listened to the audio? What did you think?
my books. my life. 
I can’t get into audiobooks, I blame my job and conference calls. I learned to selectively hear things, and tune things out. For this reason, audiobooks has not worked for me.
I would like to try these though. I think I might really enjoy it.
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That’s interesting, because I actually liked Mockingjay better when I did my audio reread. I didn’t have nearly as many problems with the pacing as I did when I was up all night reading it. I totally agree that McCormick was a really weird choice to narrate the first person story of a 16 year old. I have found this to be a repeated problem with the audiobooks that Scholastic puts out.
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I would reread The Hunger Games again but I doubt I would ever read Catching Fire or Mockingjay again. I wasn’t a huge fan of the second two books.
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My daughter keeps encouraging me to read The Hunger Games, but it seems strange to have a 51 year old reader. Not sure if I’ll go with print or audio…
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Because I had read other reviews about McCormick’s narration, I had decided to go with the print editions. When I read THE HUNGER GAMES (in print) I wasn’t expecting much and ended up being pleasantly surprised in that Collins kept me engaged with the story. However, after reading CATCHING FIRE, I felt disappointed at the lack of character development and the writing-style stagnation: It was really just more of the same. I have MOCKINGJAY; but I still haven’t ginned up the interest to read it.
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Found you from Devourer of Books —
My very first exposure to the Hunger Games was the audiobook. I read the other 2 in print, but I think that I liked the book so much more for the story than the audio. It was a while ago, but I remember it being a good way to experience such an exciting story.
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Catching Fire was my favorite as well and most people disagree with that. I haven’t reread these yet, but I have been thinking about doing it. I do feel like I just raced through them.
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Boo for disappointing! I have the audio for Hunger Games and Catching Fire and am planning to do a re-read in anticipation of the movie and such. I’m kinda bummed about the narration. This would be the prefect series for full-cast audio (like Cashore’s Graceling was) as I think it’s plot being so complex and intriguing called for it. Alas, it is what it is and I will likely do as you did and re-read it this way.
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I just loved these books in audio format. I’m just glad I waited to listen to them when all three were available. I don’t think I could take listening to Catching Fire without knowing I had Mockingjay in hand.
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I use audio books a lot. I can’t sleep at night if I don’t have a book going….at first it was all the Harry Potter books, and am now doing the Hunger games Trilogy. I plan to acquire Twilight saga, and the Sookie Stackhouse books as well. I have read them all several times, so now I can put them on audio so I can enjoy them while I sleep. I always do this, because I have anxiety at night and can only sleep if I can think of something else to get my sleep. I love these books a lot.
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I really enjoyed all three books in the series, but I haven’t read them in print before that. I’m not quite sure why people don’t like Mickingjay. It was a good ending for the story in my opinion.
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