Book review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

[kilroy]

Print date: 2008 (20s: 1, 50s: 2, 60s: 4, 70s: 9, 80s: 7, 90s: 7, 00s: 20, 10s: 1)

I've seen this story before: Lord of the Flies, The Lottery, Battle Royale. It's a credit to the author that I didn't care. This story is good enough on its own merits that I can enjoy it even if I've seen most of the elements before.

The prose style is carefully and appropriately blunt. I can only imagine Collins going back over her work and stripping it down again and again, looking for ways to make the narrative leaner. It works; the main character is a no-nonsense kind of girl to begin with, and that comes out in every line of the narration. The author also doesn't over-sell the dramatic moments; she hews to a realistic minimalism that keeps things sharp and focused. There's symbolism but not poetry, emotion but not melodrama. In a lot of ways it's the perfect young adult book-- all high-quality material but almost no candy.

Of course "perfect" here involves children murdering each other, so your mileage may very much vary. (As a side note, I really need to get a few books in that aren't quite so challenging. This is getting depressing.) I will say that the issues are dealt with responsibly and that the author makes it clear that you're not supposed to approve of this. It's a book that explores basically one issue, so it manages to go to some depth and breadth within that context. I also imagine that some of the broader cultural problems are going to get dealt with in the next few books-- I'm getting that whiff of revolution that seems to come with any vaguely scifi trilogy.

I like the characters both in the sense that I enjoy them and empathize with them. I particularly appreciate that Katniss doesn't quite understand herself and that her feelings about things are complex and ambiguous-- it's good to see in any story, but in a young adult book it's positively invaluable. I was surprised by the love story just because it seemed so out of place, but the cameras added a nice twist to things and Collins manages to carry it off.

There's no question that I'll be buying the remaining books; I don't have a towering passion for it, but I genuinely want to find out where this goes. It's good and I enjoyed it, and that's more than enough for me.

Verdict: Keep. (32.5/85)

Page count: 384 (17537 total)

Completed: 51 (23 female authors, 26 male authors, 2 anthology)
Rejected: 34 (20 male authors, 14 female authors)

Next book due: Wednesday, June 1st

Comments

[brigid]

The woman tapped to play Katniss in the movie played a very similar (well, emotionally similar) character in the movie "Winter's Bone." It's a fantastic movie.

You might enjoy "The Forest of Hands and Teeth," which is the first book in a trilogy. I loved the first two books, thought the third was... not as good. It's YA zombies, and the second book has one of the absolute scariest scenes I've ever read, BUT, it involved heights and I have a fear of heights.

I'm currently reading M.K. Hobson's "Native Star," which is well written and compelling. It's AU, set in the USA just after the civil war, but there is magic... different schools of magic, actually... and some science/magic conflict and also cooperation. There are biomechanical flying machines, for instance.

I recently finished "The Replacement" by Brenna Yovanoff which was a solid enough book (again, YA), but I think I was spoiled by the GRRM bender I went on right before reading it. I'm going to try it again in a few months and see if I like it better. It's about a teenager who is a Changeling in a town where every 7 years fairies steal a human baby to sacrifice it, to protect and nurture the town. He's allergic to iron (including stainless steel and the iron in human blood) and consecrated ground. He's an obvious outsider. He should have died as a baby. He's taken someone else's place. He's got a lot to deal with.

There are your less challenging suggestions. :D

[kilroy]

I seem to recall hearing about "Hands and Teeth" at some point, but it's good to have it written down so I remember it. "Native Star" sounds fascinating. And let me know about "The Replacement" when you go back. :-)