Many people that know me will know that I have recently well and truly become addicted to ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins. It was first brought to my attention a while ago, I heard a few people talking about the books, but they seem to have slipped under my radar somehow. Anyway, I was over in the Limebird forums and a discussion popped up again about ‘The Hunger Games’ and it piqued my interest enough for me to head on over to Amazon and order the books. They were only £11 ($17) for all three books (which I thought was a complete bargain) and a few days later the books arrived. Now if you’re not aware of ‘The Hunger Games’, then seriously, go and get them. They are amazing. I read A LOT of books, and this is the first set of books in a long while that have completely captivated me.
Basically, the story is told from the perspective of Katniss Everdeen who lives in Panem (which is the post-apocalyptic version of the USA). Years ago, rebels tried to take over The Capitol (where the Government are) and failed and as punishment, every year they hold something called the Hunger Games. These are a huge televised event where one boy and one girl from each district in Panem (there are 12) are selected and must kill or be killed in the area. Only one can survive. When Kantiss’ sister Prim gets called for the games, Katniss’ volunteers herself. *insert dramatic music*
Once I started the first book, I knew I was hooked. I soaked up the deliciousness of Collins’ descriptions, I envisioned every word she said and hooked on to the tension she had created, meaning that I was unable to put the book down. I completed book one in 24 hours and hungrily chugged my way through the second book ‘Catching Fire’ the next day. Taking a breather from reading and milling around yesterday evening, attempting to eat some food (I had been ill that day), I snuggled in to bed to read the third book ‘Mockingjay’. Again, I eagerly flicked through the pages… until I reached page 59 that is.
My eyes darted over to page 60 and something wasn’t right. I had skipped from one place to another and the words seemed strangely familiar. Characters that weren’t in the third book were suddenly in my mind again and I was utterly confused. Thoroughly convinced that my mind was playing tricks on me (as I had been ill that day as I mentioned before), I thought that maybe I was simply tired and needed to put the book down and go to sleep. I rubbed my eyes, picked the book back up and read a bit more…no I’ve definitely read this before. Then it hit me… I was back in the first book again. Like a mad woman I flicked through ahead, hoping that it was maybe only one page… but no, from page 59 all the way up to 394 was the first book again. Then it went back to book three for the last 20 pages or so.
I couldn’t believe it. I had never had something like this happen before. I was exasperated, I wanted so badly to know what happened in the rest of the book, but there I sat, in disbelief. The publisher of these books Scholastic, is a well known, extremely successful publishers, no doubt with thousands of employees helping to print their books every day. So, how does something like this happen? How does it get overlooked that around 300 pages of a book has been replaced with another? As you can imagine, I was not impressed at all. Talk about great quality control.
Has anyone had any experience of this at all and what do you think that I should do? I’m very tempted to write a letter to the publishers to let them know and I will be sending the books back to Amazon. *puts on grumpy customer face*
For now, anyone want to lend me a copy of Mockingjay?
UPDATE: I would like to announce that the lovely Claire from Scholastic has got in touch with us via the blog (see comments below) regarding the book. They are also sending me another copy! Here is her response:
Hi Limebird Beth
Many apologies for the fault in your copy of Mockingjay, we at Scholastic do appreciate how disappointing it must have been to not to be able to find out how the story ends for Katniss and Peeta – especially when you were unwell at the time.
The Production team (there are 5 of us) became aware of the error last week and since then have investigated and finally isolated the rogue printing, which was ordered on 8th December and delivered into shops between 15th and 24th December. It was a printing error on the copies used to make up a few of the boxed sets.
We work really hard to ensure all of our books our produced to a high standard and are always grateful when people take the time to point out any faults or let us know when things have gone wrong. This is the first time we or the printer have experienced this kind of fault and we are working to find ways to make sure it never happens again.
In the meantime, please do send your faulty copy back to Amazon, who will send a replacement copy to you. Apologies again for interrupting your back-to-back reading of the trilogy, and I hope you enjoy reading Mockingjay when it gets to you, they really are brilliant books!
Claire: Production & Distribution Director
Limebird Writers 