BOOK REVIEW: The Hunger Games Trilogy

Over the last several years our granddaughter Grace kept telling me about this great book series that she had read. It sounded good to me, but other books were already on my night stand waiting. This year the first book in the series fell into my hands and I thought, “It is time.” That is how I found myself wrapped up in THE HUNGER GAMES by Susanne Collins.

The former North America is now a country called Panem ruled by beautiful people in a beautiful Capitol. The rulers are harsh, cruel, and easily bored. The outlying area consists of twelve districts where the people are controlled by desperate poverty. Each district is responsible for supplying the Capitol with the needs required for the citizens’ lavish lifestyle. The districts also provide the children for the yearly big entertainment, the Hunger Games.

The rules for the Hunger Game are simple enough: each district supplies a boy and a girl; then the twenty-four youngsters, called Tributes, meet in an elaborate arena and battle to the death until only one is left. This event is televised for the enjoyment of all, thus, great effort is put into costuming, makeup, TV interviews, etc. This allows the citizens of the Capitol to pick favorites and to know who to bet on.

In District 12, sixteen-year –old Katniss Everdeen has been taking care of her little sister, Prim, and their mother since their father was killed in a coal mining accident. In order to feed her family and provide meat for others in her neighborhood, Katniss and her friend Gale spend the days outside the fenced town hunting. At the yearly drawing for the games, Prim’s name is pulled. Katniss knows that her gentle sister would never be able to survive the violence of the games, so she volunteers to take her place.

Katniss and Peeta Mellark, the baker’s son, are the two from District 12 who will be expected to kill not only the Tributes from the other Districts, but each other.

By the end of the first book I was captured. There was no way that I could not read the following books, CATCHING FIRE and MOCKINGJAY. The story does not end with the end of the Game, but continues through the revolution that finally brings the Districts together. From the beginning to the end, the reader is introduced to fascinating characters and given fast moving plots.

I have to admit that the middle book, CATCHING FIRE was not as good as the other two. It was needed for the plot advancement, but was little more than a short story pumped up. There should have been a way for the author to have blended it into the other two.

Suzanne Collins makes a very anti-war statement with these books. (I was not surprised to hear that she was raised as an army brat.) The violent scenes are at times shocking, especially when it is remembered how young so many of the Tributes are. It was a fine line for the author to develop a heroine who had to kill, but make her someone who we would still root for.

I remember how shocked I was by Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”; THE HUNGER GAMES goes more than one step beyond her story. This series proves once again that some of the best writing is being done for the Young Adult trade.