Review: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

THE FACTS: 

            Title: Hunger Games

            Author:  Suzanne Collins

            Publication Date:  2008

            Pages:  374

Round of applause:  ALA Top Ten Books for Young Adults, Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book Honor, School Library Journal Best Book of 2008

SUMMARY:

            For 16-year-old Katniss, fighting to survive has been a way of life since her father died and her mother mentally checked out.  She lives in District 12—one of the poorest districts in a futuristic nation centered around the Capitol.  To remind the districts just how much power they have, the Capitol puts on the annual televised Hunger Games, where a boy and girl from each district are sent to fight to the death.  When Katniss’ little sister is chosen in the lottery, Katniss volunteers to go to the Games in her place.  She is transported to the capitol with the boy selected from District 12, peeta, the bubbly Games representative, Effie, and Katniss’s new coach/notorious drunkard, Haymitch.  Katniss spends the rest of the novel vying for sponsorship, playing the crowd, and legitimately trying to stay alive.  Giving you any more details would take the fun out of reading it.

E’S 2 CENTS:

            I was utterly and unabashedly sucked into this book.  While Hunger Games lacks the specificity to directly criticize a government or type of government, its comments on power, rebellion, media and economic inequity are noteworthy.  OK.  So I guess that’s a lot of things.  The last two of those items were what resonated with me most.  In the world of the novel, everything within the Hunger Games is televised.  Their chances of survival are greatly increased by having a good image and presenting compelling entertainment.  It seems so sick that the life of 24 teenagers could become a commodity—let alone a source of entertainment.  But then, don’t we thrive on intimate depictions of the world’s horrors in our media-driven society?  In the way of dystopian literature, Hunger Games picks a few of these social ills and drives them to extremes.  The effect is disturbing yet familiar. 

To make the novel better (and, honestly, to keep it from being entirely too preachy or didactic) these dystopian issues are all nestled within a dynamic plot where the stakes are literally life or death.  It’s fairly obvious that Katniss manages to survive somehow (really guys… her death would cause a serious problem with the established first person narration… not to mention… there’s a sequel), but that didn’t bother me so much.  I was still totally engaged and bewildered about how she would pull through.  I thought the ending was disappointing (not that it was poorly written, but because was inconclusive) but, I suppose, that’s why there’s another book.  …another book that I will probably read as well…

Worth a read.

--E