The Hunger Games is probably one of the most popular YA series right now, and with good reason. It has been critically acclaimed and has won several awards since the publication of the first book in 2008. And the recent movie has also done very well as well, shattering opening night ticket pre-sale records.
So, I thought I'd give my two cents on the books. To clarify any confusion, I'll be talking about all 3 books in three separate posts The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay.
First up, The Hunger Games:
On the off chance that you haven't heard the plot premise, I'll give a quick summary. Sometime in the unspecified future, America falls. After a series of turmoil and whatnot, a new nation rose, Panem. The nation was comprised of 13 districts, each with their own specialties, and a Capitol. But the districts rebelled, and the Capitol destroyed the rebellion, as well as District 13. In order to continue to assert their control over the 12 districts, and to remind them of the ale and power of the Capitol, the Capitol established the Hunger Games. Every year one male and one female between the ages of 12-18 are selected as tribute from each of the 12 districts. They are sent to the Capitol and thrown into an arena, and all 24 tributes fight to the death (with some help from the elements and the Gamemakers.) Did I mention that the rest of Panem is forced to watch. It's basically a giant reality show.
Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old from District 12, probably one of the poorest districts, ends up volunteering as tribute to save her 12 year old sister Prim from having to go. So she finds herself on her way to the Capitol, and is completely expecting to die. But quickly she finds herself becoming a top contender. And having to make some difficult choices.
Suzanne Collins does several things well in this novel. It's not everyday you find a well done dystopian novel written for teenagers. But, more importantly, Collins should be commended for two incredible feats that she accomplishes in this novel.
Most impressively, she successfully writes in first person present tense, which is significantly harder than it sounds. As a writer myself I commend her greatly for her ability to stay in present tense for the majority of the novel, switching to the past tense to describe events that had happened in the past.
Collins also does a very good job of portraying the immediacy, the danger, and the brutality of the Hunger Games without being overly graphic or unbelievable. Katniss is a very believable character, as are pretty much all of the other characters described.
All that being said, occasionally I did not like Katniss herself. I would probably like her more if she weren't also the first person narrator. It's mostly an issue of preference in reading on my part, but Katniss, due to various events in her life, is rather emotionally stunted. Which is all fine and dandy, but that occasionally leads to very clipped narration, or emotional surges that swing from showing no emotion to an emotional overload (which becomes more of an issue in the second two books, honestly)
All in all, it's a well done book of a type that's not seen very often in its genre. It's one of those books that once you start, you don't really want to put it down.
That's all for now, stay tuned for my review of Catching Fire next time.
Angel out!
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