Stephen King Slams 'The Hunger Games' After Initial Positive Review
Famed author Stephen King was a fan of "The Hunger Games" when the book was first published. Now, in a new interview, King slammed the series, along with Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series.
"I read 'The Hunger Games' and didn't feel an urge to go on," King told The Guardian in a new interview. "It's not unlike 'The Running Man,' which is about a game where people are actually killed and people are watching: a satire on reality TV."
That is quite a change from the review King gave the book just five years ago for Entertainment Weekly.
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"The love triangle is fairly standard teen-read stuff: what 16-year-old girl wouldn't like to have two interesting guys to choose from? The rest of 'The Hunger Games,' however, is a violent, jarring speed-rap of a novel that generates nearly constant suspense and may also generate a fair amount of controversy. I couldn't stop reading, and once I got over the main character's name (Gale calls her Catnip – ugh), I got to like her a lot," King wrote.
"Since this is the first novel of a projected trilogy, it seems to me that the essential question is whether or not readers will care enough to stick around and find out what comes next for Katniss. I know I will," he added.
King, whose new novel, "Doctor Sleep" is a sequel to the famous book (and film) "The Shining," also bashed Stephanie Meyer's series, calling it "tweenager porn. They're really not about vampires and werewolves. They're about how the love of a girl can turn a bad boy good," he told The Guardian.
He is also at work on the TV series "Under the Dome," which is based on his book by the same title. The series, which was originally a mini-series, recently wrapped up its first season and has been renewed for a second.
"We're excited to tell more stories about the mystery of the dome and the secrets in Chester's Mill, and are thrilled to have the master storyteller himself, Stephen King, tell the first one of next season," CBS president Nina Tassler told the press.
