Hello everyone!
And by back I mean at least 10+ years.
Why, you ask?
I've no clue.
At one point a week ago I woke up and I wanted to go back and read this to see what it was about the book that I disliked the first time around when I picked it up. I distinctly remember saying at one point I prefer the Divergent series to this one, so apparently that's my next stop for comparison.
I'm guessing it has to do with the protagonist, but we'll see.
For the time being, our book of the night really doesn't need all that much introduction.
If you were ever interested in the Romans throwing their gladiator games, only they're organized with children this time, then The Hunger Games is the book for you.
You'll find a couple links at the bottom of the page since, back in the day, I actually reviewed some of the movies that were coming out at the time (I think I have the last two, so I may need to rewatch the first and second at some point, to have the full collection).
But on with the show!
The Hunger Games was published in the time when dystopian future novels were all the rage, and it helped fuel the movement, which I think was a brilliant financial chop for Suzanne Collins, since it brought her both fame and fortune. I have yet to read the prequel she wrote, but I'm definitely going to be picking it up at some point after I finish the original trilogy - I'm on Mockingjay at the moment.
So of course this book is also dystopian: it's about the country of Panem, which rose after complete dissent and chaos engulfed what used to be North America, and out of this chaos emerged thirteen districts, with the Capitol city as, well, it's capital.
With each district specializing in something (3 for electronics, 8 for textile, 11 for agriculture, etc), everything goes straight to the Capitol out of production, leaving most people in relative poverty, on the premise that poor people won't rebel when they don't have anything to rebel off of.
However, there IS a rebellion we only hear about vaguely - the end result being District 13 getting bombed out of existence completely, as a reminder that the Capitol has all the power, and to top it all off, the Hunger Games get installed at that point, for punishment sake, during which each year two children are chosen from each district and sent to an arena where they duke it out to the death with the others until only one's left alive, and they're crowned the victor.
At the point our story begins, it's almost time for the 74th Hunger Games, and we meet our protagonist Katniss Everdeen who's had to look after her family since the age of 12 and the death of her father, a miner in their coal district. The mom suffered horrible depression afterwards, but with a little sister in the house, Katniss taught herself to hunt and gather edibles, became best friends with Gale, and started dealing at the Hob, which is a sort of black market that shouldn't exist, but exists anyway.
And so she gets to escape out into the woods beyond 12 often enough, but there's no escaping the Reaping, during which Prim is chosen, of all people.
Prim being Katniss' sister, Katniss volunteers to go in her place, and along with Peeta, the baker's son who's drawn from the other names, they're whisked off to the Capitol and showered with every luxury imaginable (it's easy to spare no expense when you know these people are going to die soon anyway, right???).
Their mentor, Haymitch, shakes off some of his drunken stupor to coach them, and they sort of decide on a tactic which might give them a slight edge, not that Katniss is told about it.
See here's the thing you need to know about Katniss: she can't lie to save her life and prefers the blunt truth, but going in there like a bulldozer isn't going to help her, so any other tactic but that would be preferable.
We don't understand the tactic until later though, as we're first introduced to the Capitol, the prep teams, and all the stuff the Tributes go through (getting beautified and fattened up before heading into the Arena), including interesting fashion choices (like setting people on fire) and interviews that will play on and on for years afterwards.
It's during the interview Peeta reveals some of the tactic, which isn't even a tactic for him: he's been in love with Katniss for years, so the star-crossed lovers theme is now thrown into the mix.
Katniss makes an impression on the Gamekeepers by shooting an arrow into their feast table (more accurately, the apple in the pig's mouth on said table), and she's the crowd favourite from the get-go, but once in the Arena proper, all bets are off.
Luckily, they're thrown into a forested area and so Katniss can work through her arsenal of skills, finding out that Peeta has teamed up with the Career Tributes (those would be from Districts 1, 2 and 4, who always prep for the Games all their lives) and for her part teaming up with a girl named Rue from 11. Unfortunately, the alliance doesn't last as Rue is killed, but Katniss honours her with a flower burial and sings a song over her grave, which later earns her a reward from District 11 in return.
It's with about a third of the tributes to go when the rules apparently change: the only ones able to win are districts who still have BOTH tributes alive, and Katniss recognizes the chance to go home, with Peeta in tow.
She finds him, almost mortally wounded, and the two of them play up the romance angle for all its worth, even to the point where Katniss heads back to the start spot of the arena for the medicine they need, tangling with the boy from 11 who spares her life in return for her kindness to Rue (girl from 2 isn't as lucky, but she's a right bitch so I mean ...).
In the end, it's down to Katniss, Peeta and the guy from 2, but the tables turn when the Powers That Be toss muttations at them, which is basically some sort of mutated monster that seems to either be mutated from the corpses of dead tributes, or these things just have some of their characteristics.
Either way, Katniss mercy-kills the guy from 2 after he falls into their clutches, and then she and Peeta SHOULD kill one or the other since the rules change again.
But Katniss has a plan and brings up some poisonous berries for them to eat, which forces the Capitol to crown them BOTH victors so they even have a living soul to tell the tale.
And while the Capitol seems to rejoice at the lovers who survived, Katniss takes one look at President Snow who crowns them, and knows: she's made an enemy out of the most powerful man in the entire country.
She also manages to alienate Peeta right before their arrival home, because while it was all a game and strategy for her (though at points she herself is confused, as a 16 year old, about what she feels), Peeta has been all-in with her from the beginning, honestly in love with her and trying his best to succeed out of the goodness of his heart.
So you know, she ends the book like she started it: all alone, but facing much, much bigger problems than before.
Setting up the stage for the latter books, Hunger Games takes us into a really creepy future in which parents are so brow-beaten they allow their children to be taken from them and stuck into arenas to die, not to mention that mostly everyone doesn't have enough, or has just barely enough, to survive from day to day.
Toss in some teenage hormones, young love, jealousy, potential live triangle, and regime-defying, and you've got yourself a novel.
I actually enjoyed the first book because of the set-up, even though I understand how gruesome it is. But it's definitely a way to escape, and while Katniss may not be the most likeable character (for real, I understand life is tough and whatnot, but what reason would Peeta EVER have for doing something shady like Katniss thinks he is, all the time? I swear she wouldn't and doesn't know goodness when it hits her in the face), the others make up for it.
Especially Peeta, and I like the prep team in the Capitol as well.
History buffs will note that the names of some of the contestants (like Cato), the places (Capitol) and even the whole country (Panem) come straight out of our Roman history (Panem et circenses, anyone?), which only underlines the prevalent theme in this book.
However, it's only just beginning. We saw that the president is unhappy with Katniss's actions in the arena, and you can bet things start heating up in book two, Catching Fire.
Tune in next week to hear what I have to say about it, right here on this blog.
xx
*image not mine
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