Yep, more recent reading. Can you tell I’ve got some catching up to do?
Today my thoughts on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. This has been one of the hottest YA series of recent years, and a movie adaptation of the first book, The Hunger Games, is out this year.
This trilogy is all about Katniss Everdeen, a teenage girl resident in a dystopian medium-future North America which following climate change and civil war is now ruled by a brutal dictatorial Capitol. The Hunger Games themselves are the prime example of this brutality, as each district must provide two teenagers every year to compete in a televised fight to the death. Hmmm, wonder where our Katniss will end up?
I had mixed feelings about these books. They’re certainly gripping enough, and led to a couple of late nights reading. Katniss is an interesting character, and her ingenuity in dealing with the various challenges she faces is fun to read. I think it’s also laudable how the books challenge many modern assumptions concerning appearance, image and popularity.
None the less, there were problems with the narrative I couldn’t ignore. Book one is definitely better than the second and third installments, in which the plot rushes way past willing suspension of disbelief. There’s just too much going on that makes no sense, even within the world as it’s presented.
The romantic angle to Katniss’ story was also more angst-ridden and predictable than suited me.
My biggest criticism though was in Mockingjay – and it does deserve spoiler formatting – highlight to read…
Katniss’ overwhelming drive throughout all 3 books is to protect her younger sister; it’s why she volunteered for the Hunger Games in the first place. So to have Primrose die violently in the last few chapters – and for Katniss to live, if not happily at least adequately, ever after – jarred horribly. Not sure what sort of emotional climax to the trilogy the author was going for with this, but for me at least, it failed badly.
None the less, despite some bad flaws I did enjoy the trilogy – it’s definitely better than a lot of what’s out there. Curious to see what they make of it in the movie adaptation too…