The Great Literature Debate of This Generation.

The publication of J.K. Rowling's novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (...Philosopher's Stone for all you Brits) was the beginning of a cultural literature movement that revolutionized the young adult fantasy genre. The first 3 books of Rowling's epic 7 novel saga came out when I was 8 years old and I like to think that they are the reason why 14 years later, I  read  just about any book that I can get my hands on. Obviously there were many other young adult fantasy novels before the publication of Harry Potter, but I feel like the craze did not really begin until Rowling put pen to paper. With the help of the top grossing film versions of the books, it is rare to find someone who does not know the Harry Potter storyline. These books paved the way for the young adult fantasy genre as we know it today. It's almost as if without Rowling's work, we would not know Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga or the newest young adult craze, Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. Without that first spark, those flames would not have caught fire.  With that being said, it's time to get down to the ever popular question: 

Which series is better?

I have read each of the 3 series' (well, almost. I've been about halfway through Catching Fire (HG) for about a month now, but I'll get to that later) and have narrowed my opinion of each series down to a few bulletpoints and general comments. For those of you who have not read the books or seen the movies, or those of you who are currently reading the books and don't want to know what happens, I will announce this here: *SPOILER ALERT!* If you continue reading this post you will know the basic storyline (beginning to end) of each series whether you want to or not. So if you don't want to know anything about them, I suggest you leave now. Or watch this educational video on Landsharks. 

Harry Potter

• - Wizards leave an orphaned baby on the doorstep of his asshole uncle and bitch of an aunt. He has a lightening bolt shaped scar on his head. It's pretty rad. His name is Harry. They make him live in a cupboard under the stairs. Not so rad.
• - When he's 11 he finds out he's a wizard, his parents were killed by an evil dude named Voldemort, no one says his name they just call him things like "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" but when Voldy turned his wand on Harry, the curse rebounded due to Harry's mother's undying love for her son and Voldy essentially becomes some type of spirit thing and has been in hiding or dead for 10 years. 
• - Harry decides to go away to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

• - For the next 6 books, Harry attends Hogwarts with his 2 bff's Ron and Hermione. They get involved into all sorts of crazy shit like giant spiders, cracked out government leaders, dudes called Death Eaters, dementors (crazy soul sucking creatures who feed off of fear) and of course ol' Voldemort himself. And fancy dances and love triangles, of course.
• - End of book 6: Harry's mentor dies. He finds out that Voldy's soul has been separated into a gajillion pieces called Horcruxes and he must find the pieces and kill them. Only then can Voldy be killed.
• - Book 7 was epic. By far the best in the series. I don't even count it as part of the series, just it's own separate entity. Book 7 is the only book that does not primarily take place at Hogwarts. It takes place all over fuckin' England. Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend most of book 7 finding the Horcruxes and destroying them. The whole thing is intense. Rowling pretty much killed off a good chunk of characters in the first 2 chapters. It was awesome (Except for Hedwig. That was sad). 
• - In the end it's a showdown throwdown between Harry and Voldy. Ultimately, Harry dies, then comes back to life, then kills Voldy. 

I've read all of these books multiple times, and with each book I have noticed a distinct growth in Rowling's writing. Book 1 was written well, but it was clear that she hadn't quite perfected her style yet but when you look at book 7, it's a masterpiece. It was almost as if she was growing alongside Harry & co. The more you read the later books, the more you realize that she really found her style and it's strong and it's good. She has a way with keeping you on the edge of your seat and when the tension breaks, you feel the relief that the character's in the story feel. I will admit that I teared up a little when Dumbledore died. I don't know many people who could not feel that sadness that Harry felt. When the author's writing is good, you feel like you're apart of the story no matter how unrealistic the storyline is.

Twilight

• - Moody, teenage girl girl named Bella moves out of her mom's in the desert to her dad's in Forks, Washington because her mom's a cougar and snagged a young dude on a minor league baseball team and they're moving to Florida.  Not too close with her dad.
• - Reunites with her dad's best friend's son Jacob and they become good friends. He's an Indian. 
• - Goes to school, notices  5 supermodel-esque people sitting in a corner in the cafeteria, one of them in particular catches her eye. 
• - She's told that they are the Cullen family and even though they're all adopted, 4 out of the 5 are dating each other. Notices the one she thinks is a stud muffin is staring at her.  His name is Edward. Finds out he's her biology lab partner. He sits down next to her and the look on his face is like "you smell like shit but I'm trying to be polite and say nothing". As soon as the bell rings, he leaves and doesn't come back to school for like a week. Finally when he gets back he apologizes to her for being so awkward and they get their flirt on.
• - She almost gets killed, he uses superhuman strength and speed to save her, she's confused as hell. Eventually she discovers that he and his whole family are a clan of vampires. They don't burn in the sun, they just have super sparkly skin that looks like diamonds. 
•   - The Indians are not fans of the Cullens. They know that they're vampires. Indians turn out to be werewolves who turn out to actually be shapeshifters who just happen to turn into wolves. 
• - Edward or Jacob, Edward or Jacob---Bella must choose who she wants to be with. This  subplot goes on for books 1-3 as well as the vampire hunting Bella and an ancient family of vampires who want to kill her for her knowledge of their world if Eddy doesn't turn her into one of them (predominantly book 4). 
• - Book 4: Eddy and Bella get hitched. She wants sex. He doesn't want to hurt her. They screw anyway. Finds out her eggo is preggo with a vamp-human halvsie. It's growing at a super fast rate and eating her from the inside out. Meanwhile the old vamps are coming to Forks to kill her, and the wolves all hate Jake because he ran from the pack to help the vamps. Gives birth to a halvsie baby who's given an atrocious name that I am too lazy to look up how to spell. Bella dies during childbirth, Eddy bites her a shit ton of times to try and save her, she becomes a vamp. Now the old vampires are coming for her monster child. 
• - Jake "imprints" on the kid (he pretty much fell in love with her. Not in like an "aw you're adorable" way but like a "let's bone when you're legal" way) and a shitload of shit happens and they all live happily ever after. 

I wanted to like these books, I really did. The thought of such a dramatic change in the vampire persona was an interesting concept to me, but the more I read the more I wished for the possibility to reach into a book and punch Bella and Edward in their faces. The writing was awful. I have read that Stephanie Meyer has written other award winning books before the sparkly gay vampire books and that they were much better but I find that hard to believe due to her terribly simple style. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the simple writing style. Hemingway and Salinger---fucking genius'! Basic and to the point when it comes to writing is just fine, but her presentation was just all wrong. As  a reader, I could not identify with any of the characters. They were all just so dramatic and so emotional. They just all deserved to be bitch slapped.  And why so many subplots? I understand that the books were pretty much just all about Edward and Bella's forbidden love but GODDAMN why do there have to be a billion tiny little subplots within the one simple plot? The 3rd book was probably my favorite, mostly because there's a battle scene. The 4th book was damn near impossible to get through. Reading it was like nails on a chalkboard. I will never understand how she won awards for writing. I blame the Mormons.

The Hunger Games

• - Girl named Katniss living in the dystopian country of Panam that's separated into 12 districts (technically 13 but one was destroyed).  Each district has a different focus. Katniss lives in District 12, the poorest district, which focuses mainly on coal.
• - Has a best friend named Gale (it's a dude) and lives with her little sister and cracked out mom. Dad died in a freak mining accident years before. Mom's been in a state of shock ever since.
• - Hunger Games: take place once a year. 12-18 year olds are entered into it. after age 12 entered in a bunch more times. A boy and girl from each district are chosen, cleaned up and paraded around like a show pony, then put into an arena controlled by a group of "gamemakers" and must fight to the death.  All of this is aired on live TV all around the country. Everyone watches it at all times.
• - Katniss' sister is chosen and she volunteers to take her place. Katniss and a boy named Peeta are the "tributes" from District 12. They have a weird history. She was starving and he threw her a loaf of bread in the rain when they were little once. Magical.
• - They get ready to compete with the other tributes. They go on a talk-show type thing and Peeta tells the world that he's had a crush on Katniss ever since they were small children. She gets pissed off. She digs Gale.
• - Enter the arena. Lots of fighting and death and blood. Peeta is badly injured. Katniss helps him get better. They get hot and heavy in a cave for a few days. Gamemakers announce that the rules have changed and if a District has both tributes stay alive until the end, then they both win and don't have to kill each other. Katniss and Peeta end up being the surviving underdogs. Gamemakers change the rules at the last second and say that there can only be one winner. Katniss decides that they should eat some poisonous thing so that way neither of them will win. Right before they eat it the gamemakers change their minds and they both win.
• - Katniss' disobedience sparks revolutions in other districts. The country's president warns her to watch her step because he's out to get her or something.
• - Book 2 they have to get back in the area. Revolutions all over the damn place. 
• - Katniss: Gale or Peeta? Gale or Peeta?
• - Gale dies. Her sister dies at the end of book 3 (OMG IRONY!). She and Peeta end up together. The world is at peace.

As I said earlier, I have not finished the series. I made a bet with a friend as to how it was going to end and when they finished it they told me how it ended. Oh, I won.

As much as I liked the first book, I've been having a hard time getting into the 2nd one. My best friend just finished it and told me that After I get passed the part of the book that I'm at, the book gets more exciting. So far all Katniss has done is repeat herself over. And over. And over. I got bored. Other than that I have a deep respect for Suzanne Collins. The first book was fairly well written and very entertaining albeit being a little too predictable for my taste. I intend on finishing the series at some point. Hopefully I can finish the 2nd book within the next week. The love subplot is not too straightforward and that's a big reason why I liked the 1st book. Katniss kind of does her own thing and although I think she has a good head on her shoulders, she also is very naive. But hey, she's like 16. So that makes sense. Overall, Collins' writing is good. She explains all of her fictional terms to the reader in subtle ways while at the same time making it easy for the reader to understand how the fictional world of Panam functions without making it seem too modern. In a way, it's kind of a realistic approach to the future. 

And the winner is...

Harry Potter of course. I don't even need to go into an explanation as to why it's the winner. The Hunger Games trilogy is good but the repetition is a little too distracting. The character's flow well together and the reader can really feel the tension between the Peeta-Katniss-Gale love triangle. The clear loser is Twilight. Meyer's poor attempt and making a realistic fantasy is just too...blah. The love triangle plot is just too overwhelming and it takes away from just about every other part of the story.  

As I wrote this, I thought of doing a comparison of the movie versions of the books. But alas, this post is long enough so I will save that for another day. 

Update: apparently I was lied to and Gale doesn't die. I think that's kind of lame and gives me less of an incentive to read the book. But I'll most likely read it when I get it back from my friend anyway.