Many, many people I know have read these books now so I thought it was about time I jumped on the bandwagon. I managed to read all three (they’re each about 450 pages long) in just five days – I’m not sure if that says more about the books or my vast amount of free time pre-semester – and am torn between loving them and writing them off as more Twlilight-esque drivel. Or maybe that’s the same thing?
*Spoiler Alert*
So the similarities with Twilight are pretty obvious. Teenage female central character who strops a lot. Weird love triangle where female central character can’t decide who she loves. Continuous build up of suspense to be thoroughly disappointed by lack of action (usually as female central character blacks out). I just hope Jennifer Lawrence can pull off moody female protagonist better than Kristen Stewart when the movie comes out in March.
But the books do point to something deeper. Set in a futuristic North America, where the majority of the human race has been wiped out through civil war, those in command in the Capitol keep their subjects in the outlying districts under control by forcing them to sacrifice two of their young people to the deadliest form reality TV has ever taken. The Hunger Games. Twenty-four teenagers must fight to the death for the entertainment of the Capitol citizens and to remind the districts that the Capitol is in control. Eventually, partly due to the actions of the main characters as they fight for their lives in the arena, a rebellion begins as the districts try to overthrow the corrupt regime.
An interesting comment on reality TV and the perverse ends such forms of “entertainment” might one day be used for, has become much more, I think, in light of the Arab Spring this past year. Suzanne Collins presents different reactions to such situations of oppression – do you subvert the system with acts of non-violent rebellion or resort to militarization and force? And does one necessarily lead to the next if there is to be true liberation? She also conveys the corrupting nature of power and the dangers of trying to establish a democracy, especially when a rebellion has a clear leader who wishes to step in to the power seat.
Though the books were clever and entertaining and just the break from reality that I needed before the craziness of semester begins, there were moments of disappointment. Such as the numerous times when the protagonist would black out or be injured just at the climax of an event and we would have to hear about it hurriedly through its retelling by another character. There were also moments, in the last few chapters of the third book in particular, where I actually laughed out loud at the stupidity of the characters or the predictability of the plot.
I’m still really looking forward to the movie though.
I concur.