Book Review the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Inc. 2008
pp 374
ISBN-13: 978-0-439-02352-8

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins will make you very uncomfortable.

You may become so uncomfortable that you may have to put it down even physically walk away from it for a while, but I am certain that you will return to it.

Suzanne Collin's heart wrenching dystopia is set in the not too far future in a society named Panem.  Panem is divided into 12 districts that are under the iron fist control of "the Capital" and it's leaders.  District 13, it is revealed, was wiped into oblivion as an example to the rest of the Districts of the power that is over them.  Each District has a distinct purpose - to mine coal for the Capital's energy, to harvest crops for the Capital's elaborate menus, or  to grow trees to provide wood for the Capital's detailed architecture. We learn that the Capital and it's citizens live a life a luxury, comfort, modern technology and safety from the yearly "Hunger Games" while the rest of the population must suffer from cruel tortures from the government, barely an enough food to survive, and the constant fear that their loved ones will be chosen for the Hunger Games.

What are the "Hunger Games"? What single event can drive a whole population into submission, poverty and fear?

Almost immediately Collins describes this gruesome adaptation that is part reality tv, part gladiator like game, and part hell on earth.  As we soon learn,  The Hunger Games take place once a year and each District must pull a boy's and a girl's to represent them in the games.  These "tributes" as they are called must then dazzle the live tv audience across Panem as they literally fight to the death. Losing means death, while living means waking everyday from the nightmares that you endured in this technologically advanced gladiator-style arena.

In a blink of an eye, Katniss Everdeen, volunteers to take the place of her sister Prim, when her name is pulled to represent their District.  "I reach her just as she is about to mount the steps. With one sweep of the arm, I push her behide me.  "I volunteer! I gasp. "I volunteer as tribute!" There's some confusion on the stage. District 12 hasn't had a volunteer in decades and the protocol has become rusty. The rule is that once a tribute's name has been pulled from the ball, another eligible ... boy...or girl..can step forward to take his or her place...But in District 12, where the word tribute is pretty much synonymous with  the word corpse, volunteers are all but extinct." From this point on the reader is engulfed in the intense questions of what motivates this character to make the ultimate sacrifice -  giving one's life for someone you love.

 Katniss character development is incredibly compelling - she is a classic tortured heroine that could easily walk along side Huck Finn in terms of being an endearing, yet flawed character. 

Through Katniss' emotional struggles, the reader can feels those same heart wrenching questions being released from our inner being. What would I do in a life threatening situation? What would I do to protect someone I love?  What am I truly "made of"?

Suzanne Collins has us follow Katniss through this living nightmare and pulls at one's heart strings with such characters as Gale, Haymitch, Katniss' mother and sister Prim, and Peeta (fellow Hunger Games participant).  It is through these characters Collins is again able to make the reader grapple with the one emotion that many define as the characteristic that truly defines us as human beings - the capacity to truly love.

This love manifested in a love for someone else or even simply as Peeta's explains, "a purity of self." In this book of intense emotions and even graphic deaths, it is Peeta's words "I want to die as myself...I don't want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not..." that the reader truly gets the sense that this is a more profound book about the human character than they might have realized. With this complex layers and themes I actually recommend that readers take the time and read this book more than once.

 So find your most cozy chair, make a cup of soothing tea and get started reading.... it's time to get uncomfortable.


Ages 13 and up:
Due to the fact that the overall premiss of this book is killing for "game" - I would be cautious in recommending this to any young adults under 8th grade.  This book has become quite a phenomenom with adults too due it's intriguing characters and complex underlying themes.  As an adult lover of Young Adult literature I truly enjoyed this article in the New York Times that helps me to realize that I am not alone.
http://www.bookclubgirl.com/book_club_girl/2010/08/i-finished-hunger-games-some-questions-for-the-readalong-plus-todays-new-york-times-on-the-popularit.html


Obviously if you enjoyed this book it is my recommendation to keep reading the trilogy: Book 2 Catching Fire and Book 3 Mockingjay.  They will not disappoint. The themes of power, true love, human sacrifice that pull one into The Hunger Games  are magnified as Katniss and Panem are pulled into making the decision to fight for their desires at a whole scale level.

Suzanne Collins is a griping writer whose talent can be enjoyed by the younger audiences by reading her earlier published series : Gregor of Overlander.  This 5 part book series may also be a good recommendation for those students, like my 8th graders that I read The Hunger Games series with, who just need to get a bit more Suzanne Collins in them.  Like the Hunger Games,  this series is full of adventure, complex but often endearing characters, and suspense.  Read a short review here: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/gregor-overlander-underland-chronicles-book-1