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It’s been eighteen years since Suzanne Collins wrote “The Hunger Games”, the smash hit literary sensation that continues to feel relevant and capture the attention of readers. This ongoing series will be a review series of both the Suzanne Collins books, as well as the film adaptations of the novels. I will post my review on the last Thursday of the month as we revisit the totalitarian world of Panem and the hope of the Mockingjay.
Book: “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
Publishing Info: Scholastic Press, October 2008
Where Did I Get This Book: I own it
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .
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 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 weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
Review: I got back from a week long cruise with friends this past Monday, having to sink back into the real world like one always does after a vacation. As I was taking my kid to school on Tuesday and I was pulling into the drop off lane, I noticed something that hadn’t been there before I left: there were now people in green vests standing on the corners by the various drop off and pick up entrances to her elementary school, keeping an eye on the drivers who were coming and going. I immediately clocked that they were there to watch out for ICE. Coming back to reality after a fun trip with dear friends is already hard; it’s even harder when you come back to an occupied metro area that has an ever present anxiety of our neighbors being harassed and kidnapped, especially when those being targeted include children.
Welcome to “Fire Catching”, my series where I revisit “The Hunger Games”, the dystopia phenomenon written by Suzanne Collins. It had been some time since I read the first book in the series, almost fifteen years probably by my count, though my husband and I have watched the movies many times. When I read it originally it was a fun dystopia with complicated world building, nuanced characters, and a lot of action that fit well together and created a book that I read in about one afternoon. I really loved it then. I still really love it on this revisit, though it feels a bit closer to home these days. This will be a review for the most part! That’s what you are here for. But I’m sure I’ll also be reflective a bit. I feel like I have to be.
What strikes me about “The Hunger Games” this time around is just how much Collins trusts her readers to be able to handle dark and complicated themes, while also being able to break them down for the audience in ways that aren’t condescending but are easy to understand. Katniss Everdeen is our first person protagonist, a sixteen year old girl living in a poverty stricken community known as District 12, one part of multiple districts that have to answer for a rebellion against The Capitol years earlier. The districts answer by sending two kids, one boy and one girl, drawn by a lottery, to a battle to the death. Katniss isn’t selected, she volunteers so that her gentle younger sister Prim doesn’t have to go. It’s most likely that you know the story. But I never get sick of it, and re-reading it this time I was pleased with how harrowing her story of training, preparing, fighting, and having to perform for her oppressors as entertainment remains. Katniss is prickly, she’s had to grow up far too fast (not just because of life in the Districts but also because of her father’s death leaving her mother catatonic for a spell), and now she has been chosen to be a prop for an oppressive government’s bloodsport. She’s complex and hard headed, but Collins is also great and bringing her vulnerability out, more than happy to remind the reader that she is a child who has been put into a horrifying situation. We see everything through her eyes, and while sometimes it’s a bit on the nose as to how she is misinterpreting things (girl, of COURSE Peeta adores you and has adored you this whole time), but at the same time I fully believe that she has EVERY reason to be paranoid and to think the worst of people, whether it’s her drunk mentor Haymitch, or even the sweet and quiet Peeta.
And we are just starting to scratch the surface of the world building for Panem and its history here, and Collins gives us enough information to make a compelling story while also holding enough back to give us much more to work with as the series goes on. The idea of children’s peril and death being used as punishment and control isn’t new by any means (from The Minotaur to “The Long Walk” to “Battle Royale” it has been seen in so many stories throughout history), but the way that Collins builds this world makes it feel freshly horrifying. With Katniss giving tidbits about how the Hunger Games work, the various ins and outs of how the system can be rigged and gamed based on social standing (because even in the oppressed districts there are still class differences within themselves and between themselves), hints of how The Capitol crushes dissent with a veneer of beauty and wealth, and showing how death has been turned into eagerly eaten up entertainment due to years of propaganda, the world building is rich and incredibly well done. The games themselves are horrifying, more horrifying than I remembered from the first time I read it. I’m sure that’s in part due to the fact I now have a child of my own that I can’t help but project into the horrors, as well as the other stuff going on in my community that seems downright dystopian at the moment. Still so relevant, unfortunately.
This is going to be a gratifying and intense re-read, I can tell. “The Hunger Games” is still such a great start to the series. Next up I will tackle “Catching Fire”. Which I haven’t actually read! So that will be interesting!
And please take a look at this link for Stand With Minnesota, a resource hub for mutual aid, donation drives, and other resources to help communities all over my home state right now. We need help.
Rating 9: Still as harrowing and relevant as when it first came out, which is both a positive (for timelessness purposes) and negative (for the too real feels of it all).
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Hunger Games” is included on the Goodreads lists “Best Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction”, and “Best Survival Stories”.
The Library Ladies 