Michelle M. sent me a copy of The Hunger Games a few months ago, and I finally got around to reading it, and OMG it was the best book ever. I absolutely loved it! The other night, the question came up “What was the best book you’ve read recently?” And I felt like a complete loon because even though I’ve been reading all the Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi books, and I enjoy them, I wouldn’t exactly say they’re really any good. And then there are all the graphic novels I’ve been enjoying, like Buffy: Season 8, and one Batman after another, which I love (with the exception of the wretched The Dark Knight Strikes Again, of course). But it’s been a while since I thoroughly enjoyed a book the way I did with The Hunger Games. I would sit at work all day just dying to get on the train again so I could get a few more chapters in. Heck, I even stopped sleeping on the train so I could read more!
Anyway, the book takes place in the dystopian future where America is split up into twelve districts and the Capitol. The Capitol has a stranglehold over the twelve districts to prevent another rebellion that occurred years before the book starts. Food is scarce, so every year each district sends two “tributes” (chosen via lottery) between the ages of twelve to eighteen to the Capitol to fight in the Hunger Games, which is a battle to the death, with the last tribute standing winning a years supply of food for their district. The arena for the Hunger Games is pretty enormous and includes fields, lakes, caves, and woods, so the games can go on for weeks with the tributes hunting and killing each other.
The games are also televised like a reality show, so another interesting thing is the politics that go along with the games. The tributes need to pretend they’re honored to fight in the games to please the Capitol, and there are huge ceremonies and interviews that go along with the whole process. Viewers are also allowed to send you supplies, so you have to be likable for the show in order to get gifts from sponsors. The strategy to be liked by viewers employed by the main characters (a girl and boy from the same district) is key to the plot, and adds a lot of tension and drama, which help flesh out their characters.
I won’t get into to much detail about the rest of the plot, but just know that writer Suzanne Collins doesn’t stray too far from the bloody violence the premise inspires. I mean, yes, the good tributes have a bit more honor when they kill than the “Career” tributes who have been training their whole lives for the games, but the book is pretty savage and yet you still care and root for the main characters to tear the other tributes hearts out. And even though they don’t have much of a presence on the page, you learn to loathe the Capitol with every fiber of your being. Have I mentioned this is a Young Adult novel? Seriously. I was worried about writing the word “damn” in the Young Adult novel I thought I was writing, and here are these teenagers hunting each other to the death. I think I may need to reevaluate my writing a bit.
But yeah, this book was amazing, and I highly recommend it! I finished it on the train to work yesterday morning, and I immediately went out during lunch and picked up the second book in the trilogy, the third of which is being published this August. Go read it!
