The Hunger Games

Phenomenal! I’m not sure that I’ve read a book this quickly in an incredibly long time, but I simply could not stop with Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games. Having finished it only minutes ago I’m already desperate for the next in the trilogy and plotting how to obtain it as fast as possible.

            Now let me slow down a bit and elaborate on these feelings of such intense fervor. This novel, although written clearly with a young adult audience in mind, had drawn influence from very adult concepts. Annihilation of our modern world as we know it, intense government interference and control, the suffering of the poor and the frivolity of the rich, and above all, the terribly confusing feeling of falling hopelessly in love, just to name a few. Collins has created a world where children are sent to compete to the death to keep the people of Panem, a 1984 mixed with V for Vendetta with a shot of Oz type society, from rising up in rebellion as it had once done. And with that one simple choice she immediately draws you in. How can a reader not be fascinated by the idea that these characters are not adults, some barely even teens, and yet are coping with events far beyond the scope of any normal person’s existence? Thankfully Collins tempers her indulgence in violence and gores just enough to keep a sinister and raw edge to the setting, without allowing it to overwhelm the novel as a whole.

            Of course, a novel is nothing without it’s protagonist, and Katniss Everdeen is one to go down in the history books of literature. She reminded me so much of Tamora Pierce’s Diane from her Immortals series. And if you’ve been reading this blog at all you know my connection to any of Pierce’s characters, hence there was no chance of Katniss and I not getting along splendidly. She’s a fierce girl, protective and independent but not above feeling and being human. Her early friendship with Gale, a boy from home, is written with grace and moderation. You don’t quite realize that she might be in love with him until Katniss does herself. Of course, the rest of the novel interrupts whatever love might have been between the two, and throws us instead into the heady whirlwind of Katniss and Peeta’s relationship. The two start as allies, then enemies, then lovers (as only a young adult novel can work the term “lovers”) and then leave off in a precarious position of indecision and mistrust. He loves her more than anything, and Katniss hasn’t the faintest idea if she’s ready for that, even able to return it on the same level. Thus Collins triumphs, as I the reader struggled alongside Katniss to discern the wayward tides of love. I’m pretty sure I ended up just as confused as our heroine.

            The novel is fast paced, with action that makes putting it down close to impossible. The characters are relatable, while the setting just strange enough to make this a new story wrapped in the pieces of old ones. Not to be hyperbolic, but I actually will say that this is the best book I’ve read in a very long time and only look forward with eager anticipation to the rest of the trilogy and any work Collins might produce in the future. Go read it. NOW!