The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
By: Suzanne Collins
Copyright: 2008
Scholastic Press

4 Bookmarks out of 5

I know. I know. The title of this blog is 'obscure.' And, to be honest, usually I can't afford to buy new books which is why I started this blog. I knew there were other people out there like me who love to read but can't exactly go to Barnes and Noble every week to buy a $15 paperback or a $25 hardback. But, I do own a nook. And nookbooks are usually $8-$10 depending on which ones you buy. The Hunger Games was $7.99 and I knew that I wanted to download it. It's pretty popular right now and I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about. I also knew that it's a young adult book and I wanted to go back to the days where I could get lost in a made-up place. I am also a sucker for science-fiction anything. (The Barnes and Noble gift cards for Christmas certainly helped out a great deal.)

I guess I should start by giving a little background. The book takes place in North America in the far distant future where a tyrannical government rules over the country of Panem. There are 12 Districts in the country, from which the main character Katniss comes from District 12. Right off the bat I knew that I would like the people from District 12 because it is centered in what was known as Appalachia. Now, my family is from Appalachia and I know I'm a little biased, but you can't beat the rough and tough people who are from this region. This is probably the only reason I bought into the rough and tough exterior of Katniss and her hunting friend Gale. You'd have to know the history of the region and the people to buy into it. Other than that, the main character is just one more example of the main heroine stripping down her femininity to be masculine and hunt for the survival of her family. After the first few pages getting to know Katniss, my immediate though it was "Here we go again. It's a main character who doesn't play by the rules and gets by with a tough exterior." It was beginning to sound like a lot of television shows that are popular.

But, let's stop and think about the intended audience of this book. I'm a 22-year-old college graduate. This book was not intended for me to be the audience. Suzanne Collins wrote this book and it was marketed as a young adult book. This book's intended audience is 12 to 18 years old. You have to have a character who is 'different' than her surroundings because at that age - let's face it - you feel like you're so alone and that no one understands you besides maybe your best friend. And, let's face it, if the book had me as the main character it would have been pretty boring. If I made it to the Hunger Games (which is a giant battle to the death) it would have been really boring because I would have been killed from the get-go and the story would have lost its main character. That's why the main character Katniss has to be different. And if you go in with that mindset, the rest of the story isn't that hard to digest.

Now, let's talk about the Hunger Games themselves. This isn't a new idea in the world of science-fiction. There seems to be a theme going around in science-fiction that all futuristic governments have some sort of battle to the death. Did anybody see Gamer with Gerard Butler? Same basic concept except that Gerard Butler's character is a criminal and that's why the public justifies seeing normal people murdered for the entire country to see. Suzanne Collins puts just enough of a twist on this concept that you sort of buy into it. These people fighting are children, no older than 18. They have never committed a crime. It strikes you as wrong to take the innocence of these children away.

Probably the strongest part of this novel is the fact that Suzanne Collins writes it in the present tense. It pulls the reader along and creates this sense of actually being there with Katniss and Peeta in the Games themselves. It makes the reader feel like he or she can't put down the book because it feels like the book is being written as you read it. If Collins had written this book in the past tense, it wouldn't have created such a connected feeling with the reader. It would feel as if everything was already planned out and then the reader could just stop whenever he or she felt like because nothing was going to happen that wasn't already written. The present tense just pulled me in and kept me going so much that I finish this book in less than a day.

All in all, I understand why so many people have grown to love this book. It has a plot that pulls the reader in and makes sure the reader reads it until the end. But I can also see why so many people dislike this book. Some parts of it feel fake and the writing is not highly sophisticated. This is not a difficult read by any means. But I stress the importance of keeping in mind the audience that the book was intended to be written. If you go in with that mindset, then I find it hard not to enjoy this book and I look forward to the next two books in the trilogy.