The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Romance, Adventure
Pages: 374 pages
Summary: Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don’t live to see the morning? In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
BARON REVIEW: I have mixed feelings about this saga. While certainly a blatant rip off of the Japanese film Battle Royale (despite whatever the author and her rabid fan-base may say to the contrary), I didn’t have this information going in. I read this first book with a open mind; with very few expectations other than it made my friends cry and was without a doubt better than the Twilight craze that proceeded it.
And I’ll be honest, I liked the Hunger Games. Despite a few misgivings on the first person narration chosen and the simplistic language, I didn’t really have a problem with this book. Maybe my opinion would change if I reread it but I feel that my first impression wasn’t jaded and that my current impression would most certainly be so. I refuse to apologize for my initial impression. I felt that it was a very solid young adult novel.
I found this first book extremely engaging. I was invested in Katniss’ predicament, mesmerized by the bleak dystopian setting, and horrifyingly fascinated with the concept of an annual survive-esque game show with kids being picked off one by one. My favorite parts had to be the build up to the actual games. I was fascinated with the talk shows, the beauty rituals, and the way the Capitol realistically justified this child murder on annual basis. It wasn’t real to them. And in that way, they were able to derive a kind of sick enjoyment from it all. These things weren’t explicitly stated but were instead subtle nuances that you could pick up on if you were paying attention. They were also things completely absent in the sequels but I digress.
I believe this is one of the very few young adult novels that I ever thought handled a teenage love relationship realistically. It’s an awkward uncertain thing that isn’t resolved in a few pages; further complicated by the life or death scenario that they are thrust into. Katniss doesn’t know that she cares for Peeta and in fact, fakes most of her relationship with him for the cameras. She believes that Peeta is doing the same; convinced that he is just as cunning and manipulative as she is herself. I found this extremely realistic. Have any of you ever noticed that often when someone cheats on their spouse, they will suddenly become super paranoid that their spouse is cheating on them? It’s usually a red flag, if your spouse starts accusing you, that they themselves might have had an affair. It’s how the human mind works really. Once cheating has become part of your reality, you are aware that others can cheat on you as well. In this case, in Katniss’ world, she uses manipulation and her own wits to survive on a daily basis and assumes that Peeta lives the same way. While the reality is that Peeta is charismatic but brutally honest young man; essentially Katniss’ polar opposite. This romantic dynamic is really quite brilliant. And only wish that Collins had kept it up instead of falling back on a dull love triangle side plot in a vain attempt to one up Stephenie Meyer.
I can write pointless love triangles better than you can.
In conclusion, I believe that as a young adult novel; this book handles itself well. Do I find Collin to be a more confident storyteller than J.K. Rowling or Philip Pullman? Not by a long shot. But in comparison to vast mountain of shitty young adult novels published on a daily basis, I felt this novel was the lesser evil. And though I usually put lofty standards on books that I read, in the case of children and young adult novels I try to reign myself back.
Not everything can be Game of Thrones after all.
Quality: ★★★ 3 out of 5
Enjoyment: ★★★★ 4 out of 5
Rereadable: Sometime in the future, for sure.
Purchase: E-book or hardcopy. Whichever you prefer. I like having a hardcopy myself.
Overall: ❤ Awesomesauce book
Silver Cup Reviews 