Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is a literary novel in the dystopian genre, with a pick of romance. It is set in a world, not unlike ours, called Panem, where there are 12 districts, and one Capitol, that makes them work for the Capitol’s own happiness.

A 16 year old girl named Katniss Everdeen lives in near poverty with her sister and her mother. She hunts for food to support her family, despite getting few things and little money to support her family, and her best friend’s family too.

Katniss is afraid of one thing, which is the Hunger Games; a sadistic play where 24 teens ranging from the ages 12-18 have to try and murder each other in a cold blooded fashion until there is only one person left, and titled ‘Victor’ of the Hunger Games. Katniss struggles with cruel danger, love, and heartbreaking loss as she anticipates the 74th anniversary of the dreaded and bloodthirsty Hunger Games which she has been tortuous in many ways to avoid.

__

My favorite character in the books was Gale Hawthorne, Katniss’ best friend. He was also her hunting partner, helping her with trapping wild animals, while Katniss helps him with hunting animals for his family, and splitting the bounty and shares 50-50.

He was in total shock of the reaping for the Hunger Games, but had to support Katniss nonetheless, trying to tell her to survive, especially when he knew that guilt and loss would be large factors in the Games.

The characters felt very real during the games, with agony in getting injured quite deeply, to exasperation when one person wouldn’t die. One death that shook me quite hard was a girl from District 11 who had a very kindhearted, beautiful soul, and would try to help people in all the ways she could

Katniss honored her dead body by covering and weaving in flowers in her arms, neck, waist, legs, and hair. Unfortunately, the Gamemakers removed this part of the Hunger Games replay, making everyone forget about Katniss’ kindness

My favorite part of the book was when Katniss and Peeta Mellark were with Caesar Flickerman, a vivacious, animated person who interviewed the tributes from each district, all the while cracking jokes with everyone and making all of the feeble responses respectable, and memorable. 

Katniss’ interview, however, was particularly special, due to the way her interview outfit was created by her stylist, Cinna. He fashioned the outfit to make it seem one of a kind, never seen before on the bodies of any of the districts’ tributes. It was something that Katniss only was deep inside, where her burning rage for the Capitol outdid the other passions in her heart. In a way, I feel that Cinna knew exactly how Katniss felt during her entire life, all aggravated with the cheek of the Capitol, making all the districts work hard and get nothing in return for their assiduous working. 

What I probably didn’t like much was the number of deaths in the book. Not just in the Hunger Games, but also in general. Deaths and murders were supposedly caused and orchestrated because of Katniss’ failure to comply with the rules, and she later felt many of the deaths were her fault, which, under the circumstances, was manipulated to be a true statement; though, regardless of the circumstances, I felt very bad for Katniss. 

This book, or this series really, was one of the first dystopian YA novels I had ever read. And still, it’s a remarkably written series. I, personally love how the motivation that fuels Katniss is both pure and absolutely ruthless. Her personality isn’t tainted at all by that over the top self-hating, self-sacrificing, eyerollingly horrible mess that I see in a lot of new YA Dystopia series. The love for her sister is honestly making her usually stiff character human. It kept me absolutely hooked as I realized that Katniss would do anything above anything for her sister. 

I also appreciate (thank you Suzanne) for the small amount of romance that didn’t overpower the novel. In many of the novels I read, there was a lot more romance that generally took away the actual point of the book, and turned it into a super cheesy romance novel that I had no intention of re-reading… 

And it’s not that I dislike romance, I just don’t want it to overpower an otherwise beautiful book, and make it seem like the love is all that matters. 

Finally, a YA novel that doesn’t actually hang on to a love triangle- oh no, did I say too much?

I would most definitely recommend the Hunger Games series to people who enjoy dystopian literature in excess, or like fiction mixed with a little friendship and romance and mild violence. 

Thanks for reading!! <3