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

It's a YA sort of life

My Dear and Patient Reader,

Thank you for your understanding in my inability to post at a consistent time.  I can promise you more book reviews will come and that I will get caught up on everything… someday.  I’ve had a request or two to post some of my thoughts beyond the book reviews that make up the majority of this blog.  After all, this blog is supposed to be about my exploration of YA, and that has to do with more than just what books I’m reading from the genre—this still evolving genre that deals with the questions Who am I? and What am I going to do about it?

I’ve been thinking about and realizing lately that it’s not just teens who ask these questions.  We all reencounter them in adult life, especially at times of transition.  For me these questions are natural companions of feeling overwhelmed.  And right now… I’m there.  I’m working two jobs, taking five classes, rehearsing for a play, serving as president of a student organization, and trying to pull together graduate school applications…not to mention trying to maintain some sort of social life including friends, family and dating.  Much of the way I feel currently is comparable to my senior year of high school (although now it’s accompanied by the dreadful prospect of a hefty chunk of personal debt).  The over commitment to extra-curriculars, the sleep deprivation, the uncertainty surrounding where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing next year, the anxiety of wondering what will happen to the relationships I’ve formed over the last four years—it’s all back like an old friend (or fiend… not sure).

And so, here at 2 in the morning on a Wednesday at the age of 21 years 8 months and 3 days, I am still asking Who am I? and What am I going to do about it?  How YA of me…   I supposed the one thing keeping my personal existence from fitting right on a little YA shelf is that I don’t have the limited adolescent perspective of YA books:  I’ve traveled, lived on my own (both in another state and, for a while, another country), I’ve been a leader and a follower, I’ve been hurt (oh yes) and I’ve hurt others, I’ve loved and been loved, I’ve learned from some mistakes and repeated others, I’ve laughed, cried, failed and triumphed, I’ve discovered the people and ideas that are important to me, and I’ve developed a pretty darn good idea about the type of person I want to be.  And even for all that, I still find myself squinting at half-composed possibilities glowing with fuzzy uncertainty in the middle of the night. 

I suppose my point is this:  no matter how far removed one is from the ages, experience levels and contexts of YA novels, there are questions embedded within them that resonate with something human… not just something adolescent.  The novels that are truly able to speak to this without it being stifled by the superficial aspects of their respective genres (in this case namely the nostalgia of adolescence) are ones worth reading and keeping.  That, my friends, is how classics are born.  …and how I choose to end this post in favor of sleep…maybe.

--E

Other Blogs From My Class

Seeing as I'm behind in everything in my life--blogging included--I thought I'd give you something to bide your time till I write again.  Looking for a different take on the books I've been reading?  Want to read about more books from this genre?  My entire class is working it's way through YA.  Check out what they're doing...

Young Adolescent Lit 101

ENGL 487 YA Lit

Shake Well Before Enjoying

YA Lit: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Make Way for YA!

To Infinity and Beyond

Chasing Hermes

T’s Word

dear joshua,

The Golden Rule of YA Lit

One Does Not Love Breathing

Go Ask Alice … What is it all about?

Julie’s YA Blog

The Wide World of YA Literature

Confessions of an English Major

The Young Women’s Damsel-Free Literary Circle

Experimenting with YA Lit

Young Adult Lit for the High School Classroom

Reading the Youth

FYI: YA

Are You There, God? It’s Me, a YA Reader

Patricorp

An Impoverished Voice

Superman’s Thoughts

YA Lit is for Everyone Happy blog reading! --E

Review: What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

THE FACTS: 

            Title: What My Mother Doesn’t Know

            Author:  Sonya Sones

            Publication Date:  2001

            Pages:  272

Round of applause: 2002 ALA Best Book for Young Adult, 2002 ALA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2003 International Reading Association Young Adults' Choice

SUMMARY:

            This novel, narrated in verse, follows14 year-old Sophie’s thoughts as she navigates from love-interest to love-interest until finally arriving at an unlikely “Mr. Right.”  Along the way Sophie deals with other issues:  her Jewish identity, her mother’s depression, her father’s absence, her changing body and all the other friend drama that generally plagues young teens.  Through her chronological poetry, she explores the events of her life, her feelings about them, and, inevitably, comes to realize the importance to true human connection.

E’S 2 CENTS:

            I would scarcely call what Sones has produce poetry, or at least good poetry, but there is something innovatively effective about her use of verse.  While not particularly substantive in content, What My Mother Doesn’t Know absolutely mirrors the internal activity of an adolescent girl’s mind and heart.  The ups, the downs, the wanting but not wanting, the deception, the injustice, the miscellaneous emotion—it definitely struck a chord of recognition with me.  Somehow the first-person verse illuminates Sophie’s thought (and emotional) process better than regular prose could.  It also makes for a quick read (no wonder this is a top pick for reluctant readers).  Beyond providing adolescent girls with a reflection of themselves in verse form, however, I didn’t think this book amounted to much.  Sure, Sophie deals with some greater issues than just boy-girl drama, but overall the story lacked depth and complexity.  The fact that it was banned gives What My Mother Doesn’t Know some additional appeal, but the ‘deplorable’ reference that granted Sones’ book this status seems so trivial that I’m not enticed by its censorship in the least.  (Is a passing reference to masturbation so incredibly lewd?  Really?  Especially when the character supposedly engaging in such behavior is colored as a total creep?  …that hardly counts).  I give Sones props for generous and comprehensive website (geared a little more toward young teen readers/writers… but check it out here), but What My Mother Doesn’t Know didn’t really do it for me.  If you’re looking for a quick “Oh I’ve SO felt that way!” zone out book, it’s worth a read.  In most other contexts, I give it an apathetic “eh…”


--E

Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

 THE FACTS: 

            Title: Looking for Alaska

            Author:  John Green

            Publication Date:  2005

            Pages:  221

            Round of applause:  2006 Printz Award

SUMMARY:

            Looking for Alasksa opens with the narrator, Miles Halter preparing to leave his Florida home for Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama.  When only two people show up to his going away party, Miles isn’t surprised—he’s never had many friends.  That starts to change when he meets his boarding school roommate Chip “the Colonel” Martin—the boy who will ironically dub the stringy Miles “Pudge,” become Mile’s best friend and introduce him to Alaska Young.  “The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young.”  (I’d try to be more original… but the back cover basically sums that part up).  On his first night at Culver Creek, Pudge is kidnapped in the middle of the night by some “weekday warriors” (the rich kids who go home on the weekends), duct taped and thrown in the lake.  After this incident, Pudge is drawn into the Colonel’s friend group even more and becomes an integral part of a prank planning team to get revenge on the weekday warriors.  In the midst of planning and pranking, Pudge falls more and more for Alaska—even as he starts dating a girl named Lara.  It’s hard to summarize the action of this novel without giving anything away… so I’m going to stop… sorry.

E’S 2 CENTS:

            Love and obsession.  Read. It. Now.  I had a really hard time trying to write a summary for this book—And I always think it’s a good sign when I want to talk more about the novel and the characters than recap what happened.  John Green does several things incredibly well.

1.     I wanted to keep reading and reading.  Each chapter is labeled ___days before or ___days after, counting down to and away from one central, life-changing event.  I wanted so badly to know what was going to happen on the day.  I suppose that convention loses some of its appeal after you know what happens (aren’t you glad I didn’t spoil it for you?), but I still things it’s a great way to structure a novel.

2.     The main characters are full, intelligent and compelling.  I wanted to get to know them more.  Pudge was especially interesting to me—an excellent pick for a narrator.  Pudge isn’t a “weekday warrior,” but his family and/or economic problems are limited unlike Colonel and Alaska.  In many ways he brings a neutral lens to the pre-established biases his friends have about Culver Creek.  He is inexperienced with many things (from the social structure of his new school to drinking and smoking) and allows us to explore and experience such things for the first time.  Pudge is also very intelligent, idiosyncratic (he likes to memorize the last words of famous people for one), and observant.  I was engaged in his story and equally frustrated by the elusive Alaska. 

3.     Ambiguity.  One set of last words Pudge remembers is “ I go to seek a great perhaps.”  Pudge cites this as his reason for attending boarding school, but such a search evolves into a much larger presence in the novel.  All the main characters are teetering on the edge of a “great perhaps,” a great cloud of potentiality—of knowing and not knowing—of seeing through glimpses and trying to make sense of shadows.  We, like the characters in the book, can never know exactly what happens in another person’s experience, their private moments, not matter how well we know them.  I’m glad this novel deals with not knowing—and that it ends with hope.  I don’t want to give anything away, but the way the novel deals with uncertainty is truly beautiful. 

Worth a read.  For real.

--E

Review: The Pigman by Paul Zindel

THE FACTS:

Title: The Pigman

            Author:  Paul Zindel

            Publication Date:  1968

            Pages:  149

            Round of applause:  Horn Book Award Honor Book, New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book

SUMMARY:

            The Pigman is narrated by two friends, John and Lorraine, who trade off chapters as the novel progresses.  John and Lorraine, two high school sophomores with less than perfect home lives, vow to report the facts of their experiences with “the Pigman.”  The Pigman is an older gentleman that John and Lorraine randomly prank call one day.  Lonely and eager for continued conversation with the two young adults claiming to work for a charity fund, the Pigman invites John and Lorraine to his house the next day to collect the check.  Lorraine is hesitant about visiting the old man, but inevitably she and John pay him a visit.  The old man’s name is Mr. Pignati and, after he shows John and Lorraine his collection of pigs, the two start referring to him as the Pigman.  The Pigman is old but childlike and eager to please.  He loves spending time and money with John and Lorraine.  Eventually they find themselves spending a part of every day with the Pigman.  One day however, the Pigman’s physical age trumps his youthful sprit; he has a heart attack and is admitted to the hospital.  John and Lorraine are worried about the Pigman, but, when he entrusts them with the keys to his house, childish spirits prove too much for these high schoolers to resist.  They screw up.  Big time.  …you’ll have to read that part…  Even trying to make up for it goes poorly and ends in the Pigman’s death (oh cool it… you know he dies just from reading the back cover).  The only way John and Lorraine can figure to cope with it is to write it down.  Hence… the novel. 

E’s 2 CENTS:

            I enjoy this book, but it generates in me almost the same sense of anxiety that perks up whenever I watch movies like The Hangover or Meet the Parents.  I would never presume to put this seminal YA work in the same category as summer blockbusters, but there is something about the tragically inevitable outcomes of preventable stupidity that make my “future mom” reflexes go berserk.   I suppose I can’t go too far into detail without spoiling the specifics of the characters’ poor decision making, but I should clarify that no matter how annoying I find John and Lorraine’s choices, I do think such choices serve the purposes of the novel.  John and Lorraine try to act older than their maturity can support just as the Pigman tries to act younger than his body can support.  Both have unfortunate—if not tragic—outcomes. 

            The language is a bit dated (this is one of the first YA books….1968), but the themes remain supported.  Personally, I think Zindel’s autobiography The Pigman and Me is a more engaging read—or at any rate enhances one’s understanding of The Pigman.  All in all though, The Pigman is worth a read.

--E 

Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

THE FACTS: 

            Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

            Author:  Mark Haddon

            Publication Date:  2003

            Pages:  226

            Round of applause:  joint winner of the 2004 Boeke Prize.

SUMMARY:

This novel is written from the first person perspective of a math obsessed 15 year-old boy with Autism named Christopher.  He begins his story by declaring that he is writing a murder mystery novel to record his investigation of the mysterious death of Wellington, his neighbor’s dog.  Despite his father’s warnings to not get involved in other people’s business, Christopher begins asking questions and looking for clues to solve the mystery.  Through his investigations, he interacts with people he’s never met (not a small feat for someone on the Autism spectrum), is able to set aside—at least temporarily—some of his aversions (the colors brown and yellow, for example), and actually solves the mystery of Wellington’s death. 

But it doesn’t stop there.

I can’t get into it too much without ruining it for you, but Christopher’s investigation into Wellington’s murder leads him to a much bigger discovery…one that causes him to brave new experiences much bigger than meeting his neighbors for the first time or tolerating brown and yellow.  What is it you ask?  Guess you’ll have to read to find out…

E’s 2 CENTS:

            Okay.  I love this book.  If you’re looking for sweeping, poetic prose you’ll have to take a trip back to the library, but Haddon’s masterful construction of his protagonist’s unique voice is past commendable. Christopher’s specific diagnosis is never directly addressed in the novel, but the dust jacket notes the author’s years of experience working with students with autism.  It’s likely that Christopher has a mild form of Autism such as Asgerger Syndrome, but for those of you whipping out your iPhone for your Wikipedia App, you can cool your jets.  Haddon renders detailed descriptions of various points on the Autism spectrum virtually unnecessary.  This is one thing I really appreciate about Curious Incident:  it doesn’t dwell on the Autism… it doesn’t have to.  The narration is constructed in such a way that the reader knows very early on what would be challenging or easy for Christopher.  The novel isn’t about Autism, it’s a story of a boy making discoveries and growing up told through the lens of Autism.

            Haddon deals with some sophisticated math concepts with comparable dexterity. Christopher—incredibly skilled at math… not so much with interpreting social interaction—throws around some intense mathematical concepts.  I don’t understand them (and check my temperature if I ever claim to!), but I didn’t feel like I had to have a working knowledge of A-Level Maths in order to appreciate Christopher’s love and capacity for the subject.  I appreciate any author that can include abstract theories or complicated equations and still keep me reading.

            I could keep going for a while, but you get the picture.  This is a wonderfully constructed book that grants readers a peek into a very unique perspective.  While it presents this awesome opportunity to “see through another’s eyes,” Curious Incident also tells a pretty good story.  We get to see Christopher grapple with those YA questions—Who am I?  What am I going to do about it?  Where do I belong?—in light of some incidences that are curious indeed.  Endearing and compelling, this novel is definitely worth a read.


--E