The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
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Book Reviews of The Hunger Games
Book Review: Intense and completely captivating! Could not put it down!
Summary: 5 Stars
From the ruins of what was once North America, emerges the nation of Panem, a cruel, domineering nation who's rule reaches from its rich, lush Capitol to the twelve downtrodden, emaciated districts it controls. Once the districts had the vitality and drive to rebel against the nation, and they were defeated. As a reminder of who holds the power, the capitol rations the amount of food that the general population can receive, keeping the people broken and starving. In addition, so that they never forget, it is mandated that once a year each of the twelve districts will conduct a reaping day, in which a lottery chooses the name of one boy and one girl. The chosen pair will journey to the capitol and take part in an event that captures the attention of the entire nation, the Hunger Games. Within an arena, a small world created just for the Games, the players from each district must compete against each other to become the winner of the Hunger Games, an accomplishment that means honor, recognition, fame and most importantly, food and comfort for the rest of their lives. Only one player can win, and to win, all the other players must die. From the moment the games begin they are in danger, everything can be a weapon, and not just the players, but the arena itself, is thirsty for death.
You don't just read this book, you take part in it. I was amazed, once I finished the book, to discover where I fit into the story. All this time she is speaking of the viewers- they are caught up in the production, the way the Gamemasters want them to be. People who would never cheer for a death find themselves hoping for the death of a child who is made to seem like the "bad guy". They are rooting for a child to defeat and murder her opponents. You want Katniss to do more than survive, you want her to best the other players in anyway necessary and you watch with a sick fascination as she does so.
And as I read this book, I wanted these things, just as the Gamemasters meant me to. I feel the emotions that I'm set up to feel and I want the story they are feeding me to go just as it is. I am the viewer. I can try to console myself by saying "Well we all want what's best for Katniss, what will keep her alive" but that's a lie, I want all this to happen to Katniss.
The author has remarkable insight into the darker parts of human nature and how we all respond to the train-wreck phenomenon and can't help but stare at what we're not suppose to. We can all be easily drawn in and subdued with the promise of a story of star-crossed love. As the little guys we feel the hunger and injustice of the districts but we all want the life of excess that exists within the Capitol. I kept looking for holes in this logic, for plot dips and changes that would sway the writer from the focus of her story. A rather pessimistic view to take while reading a book that I COULD NOT GET ENOUGH OF but usually when something is too good to be true someone drops the ball, and the story. Not even a hiccup. It was seamless.
Well played Ms. Collins.
Book Review: from [...]
Summary: 5 Stars
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Ruthless and calculating, the Capitol rules the districts with an iron hand. Especially after what happened to District 13. But people don't talk about that.
Inside the Capitol life is a constant celebration filled with beauty and abundance, especially during the Games. Outside the Capitol, in the other districts, people live in poverty struggling to find enough to eat. To remind them, year after year, that they once rebelled and are now conquered, the Capitol has made the Hunger Games an annual spectacle of brutality masked as entertainment.
Two tributes are required from each district. One boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Whisked from their homes, forced into an arena, the tributes are trained, armed, and ordered to fight to the death. There is one Victor in every Game. But no one ever truly beats the Hunger Games because no one can ever truly beat the Capitol.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen doesn't care about the Games. She cares her mother and protecting her younger sister Prim. She cares about surviving and finding enough food for her family. For Katniss, underfed and ill-prepared, stepping into the arena promises a quick and gruesome death.
Her male counterpart, Peeta Mellark, is unlikely to fare much better.
There can only be one Victor. But working together, Katniss and Peeta might just find a way to beat the Games in The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins.
By now, this book hardly needs a review. Wildly popular, The Hunger Games already flies off the shelves. After reading the book, it's easy to see why.
Collins presents a bleak, futuristic world filled with action and the promise of excitement and intrigue. The Hunger Games is not written as a story being told to a reader. Instead Katniss seems to be talking directly to the reader. The immediacy and pathos this adds to the story cannot be overstated. Readers are right there with Katniss as she meets the other tributes--and calculates how best to kill them and the likelihood that they will beat her to it. Katniss could be cold and calculating, indeed she often is, but the dynamic between Katniss and the other characters makes her more than that. It makes her human.
The Hunger Games is essentially filled with battles, twists, and suspense. But it is also the story of life in a police state. Even more, it is the story of a girl learning who she is in the most unlikely of settings and understanding that sometimes victory can be about a whole lot more than winning.
Possible Pairings: Black Potatoes by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, Incarceron by Catherine Fisher, The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Big Brother (reality show), Death Race (movie), Survivor (reality show)
Book Review: a letter to the author
Summary: 5 Stars
Dear Suzanne,
You don't mind if I call you Suzanne, do you? I feel like I know you so well already, know the lovely, twisted inner workings of your mind that compelled you to create a masterful creation such as The Hunger Games. You brought Katniss ("the girl who was on fire") and Peeta to life and showed them to me, and you made me fall in love with them and hate them, cry for them and cheer for them. You introduced me to the sad world that they were born into, that of District Twelve, "where you can starve to death in safety." I don't like what you have done to me, Suzanne, leaving me feeling unclean and over-privileged, and then mocking me (that's right, just like the silly mockingjay) with this ridiculous trilogy that I must now read, that I must stop everything I am doing and get my hands on these books.
"The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins."
What sick and twisted socio-political system could come up with such a thing? And televise it for all to watch - that's just cruel and wrong and it makes me feel awful to admit it, but... brilliant. I mean, I don't even like reality T.V., Suzanne, and I certainly would not want to watch your Hunger Games, let alone participate in them, but like a train wreck, I could not, and still cannot look away. You have left me wanting more, with a need for understanding.
I need to know Katniss, maybe even become her, because she is strong and full of spirit in a way that I long to be. And in her actions, I see my own need for survival and struggle to maintain a relevance in life, when everything but living and dying has become so trivial. I need to know that my life has not been minimized into a series of well angled camera shots as I shoot an arrow through another tributes heart, or that my friendship with Peeta is merely a contrived (and possibly made for T.V.) substitute of everyone that I left behind in District Twelve. And maybe more than anything else, I need to know that Peeta does not lose himself, because he said those fateful words: "I want to die as myself. I don't want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not." Because if he lost himself, what does that make me?
All of this need - it hurts, Suzanne. Why did you do this to me? And will you leave me again, paralyzed with need after Catching Fire? I have a feeling you will because you're cruel like that, but like an obedient follower, I will be there, waiting patiently for this dystopia and whatever other meager rations of information and emotion that you have to offer me.
I love you, Suzanne. And I hate you.
Lisa
Book Review: One of the best books I've read in a while
Summary: 5 Stars
Collins has created a gripping epic of a story, which is an arguably darker combination of the already dark stories 1984, Lord of the Flies, and the short story The Lottery. I certainly couldn't put the book down from beginning to end, however I found myself thinking the text was very dark and not suitable for younger readers. In fact, I was reminded of stories like The Bluest Eye, which is a text involving children as the main characters, but is often banned from various school reading lists and regarded as a book not suitable for kids.
That disclaimer aside, this is one of the better books that I've read in a while, and it certainly deserved all the press and awards that it's received. I'm sure that several production studios will consider it for a film, which is bitter sweet in my opinion. This would make a great movie, but it would be incredibly dark.
On the literary front, this is a perfect example of a dystopian society, which is the best kind of science fiction. Also, what makes any good science fiction novel really good is the subtle or not so subtle hint that all of the terrible things going on in the story are palpable at some level. It seems a little farfetched that our society could turn into this, but it's not far from where Rome was just before its fall and the degradation of art and culture had reached its limit with rampant incest and duels to the death in the Coliseum. Even now, reality TV is not a far cry from the gladiator games. How long will it be before we want to be entertained by watching people compete by killing each other?
However, what makes this book amazing, in my opinion is that Collins has taken a relatively original idea (possibly pulling from sources like the Japanese film Battle Royale) and really flushed it out in a phenomenal way. The great travesty with science fiction and fantasy books is that many of the authors have great concepts, but are terrible writers, leading them to flood the market with books that have great elevator pitches, but are, in reality, not that great. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think that Collins has given us a truly original story, but what made Chaucer and Shakespearre so great, among other things, is that they took well-known stories and rewrote them with their literary genius.
The way that Collins writes the story through the eyes of Katniss creates empathy for the reader, and makes the dark world tangible and the characters she's interacting with three-dimensional. Katniss is always believable in every action and decision, making her a reliable narrator, and therefore, making the other characters reliable as well. In doing so, the story's underlying messages are communicated clearly and effectively, showing our own society a mirror of itself and what it can become if we don't start moving in a different direction. I recommend this book to all readers 14+.
The other books in this series so far are Catching Fire (book 2).
-Lindsey Miller, lindseyslibrary.com
Book Review: The story is about sacrifices, family, love, and survival
Summary: 5 Stars
Bea, 8th grader: This is one of those books that cannot be put down because of the excitement it brings to the reader. This book is called "The Hunger Games" which is an adventure ride filled with action, love, and life from the very start. The author, Suzanne Collins (a brilliant writer), always puts fresh and new features to the characters that can keep you up through the night.
The story is set in the future in a place called Panem which is made up of twelve districts controlled by the Capitol. The Hunger Games was created by the Capitol to remind the other districts never to rebel. Two kids from each district (male and female) from the ages 12-18 are chosen as tributes and placed into an arena where they must fight to the death every year.
The main characters are from District Twelve. Katniss Everdeen is one of them. She lives a life of poverty with her young sister Prim and her hopeless widowed mother. She puts herself at a risk everyday by hunting in illegal grounds with a bow and arrow in order to hunt for food. Her intentions are good since her father died. In her journey you will find that she is smart, skilled, and a bit stubborn. Still she is on top of the game, and so is Peeta Mellark.
Peeta Mellark lives a comfortable life unlike Katniss. He does not struggle as much. He lives in a bakery with two older brothers, a baker for a father, and a witch-like mother. Peeta is a strong boy who can lift heavy things and wrestle. Not only is he strong but is clever as well. He managed to slip inside the opponent's side keeping his real intentions and plan along the way.
From my point of view, the story is about sacrifices, family, love, and survival. Love and sacrifices, because Katniss was not supposed to be picked but she could not bear to let her twelve year old sister enter the games. Family, because Katniss took on the role of being the head of the family and made sure that they had something to eat most of the time even if it was very little food she could provide through her hunting and barter skills. To stay alive and survive the games, so that she could go back and care for her family was Katniss' goal. It was Peeta's love and sacrifices for Katniss that helped them survive the grueling games.
This book is appropriate for young and old readers alike. There is violence in some parts and sad deaths but the romance was kept at a rate where it was sweet and not to explicit or extreme either. This book managed to keep me going on to find out what happens next till I realize the time. And even though I finished the book I still wonder how the second book will be like since the first book revolved around the games. Who knows, maybe Katniss and Peeta will stop the Hunger Games once and for all, or there could be a bigger problem back at district twelve. Maybe it might skip to the next batch of tributes and their own adventure. But all I can say is that the book kept me at the edge of my seat and maybe yours too.