That's a good point, about the point of view. I would have really been interested in the actual games and politics surrounding them but like you said, we never see them in general because Katniss doesn't care or is running or unconscious. I wonder how an alternating view-point story would have worked — YA seems to like those.

I am sure to despise the romance! GOOD TO KNOW I'M NOT WRONG. I don't know. I was talking with a co-worker about my problems with the whole pretend-to-be-in-love thing and she was convinced that it would have made it way more interesting to axe the romance aspect from Peeta's side and have Peeta and Katniss come up with it themselves, fake on both sides, and have it develop from that. But Collins seemed to really, really want that triangle (she seriously had to shoehorn Gale into the narrative so she could make the leap, it was so jarring and out of nowhere). I will probably read the others because I hate myself and want to suffer.

I just feel like in some ways the book was trying to raise interesting questions but then it was all, "ugh, this is hard, let's do sexy angst times instead, that's easy." But it sucks to hear it doesn't improve in the later books. I thought for sure with some more space something interesting might develop.

It's looking like the most interesting thing happening thematically with these books is the covers and how they progress. Hilarious.