Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Series: The Hunger Games #1
Published: September 2008
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages:
From: Shawna Freeman
Rating: 9/10
The fourth and final Hunger Games film was released on the silver screen: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II. Since I don’t have cable or Internet, I’ve been slow in learning when certain films will be released; this one is included. But, when I discovered it was showing at the Creston movie theater, I jumped back on the wagon I love so much and began devouring the Suzanne Collins novels.
Collins, an American author, dreamt up the idea of The Hunger Games partly from watching footage of the war in Iraq. The novel, a post-apocalyptic young adult book followed by two others, details the story of Katniss Everdeen, a young girl living in District 12.
Her father dead, Katniss takes care of her family by illegally hunting and trading. She and her friend Gale hunt beyond the fence in the mining community, then sell the game and any produce they find in the woods, for money used for other things like yarn and such. Her mother faded out after her father’s death, and Katniss protected her younger sister Primrose.
Then, the annual Hunger Games reaping occurs, and Katniss volunteers as tribute to protect her family.
I’ve loved this series for a long time, and even more now that all four films have been on the silver screen. But, this was such a well written novel, it built the world Katniss lives in up so we could watch her suffer in the Hunger Games arena without questioning how she got there.
I loved Collins’ way of bringing humanity to the story. Sometimes, readers just want the adventure, but we forget the characters are still human beings (if fiction) and go through everything as we do. Collins did a wonderful job showing us just who Katniss is, how she just wants to be left alone and how she reacts to everything: from Peeta to Haymitch to the Games to the death of Rue.
My only complaint is I wish Collins had written this for adults, because the science fiction-fantasy aspect, combined with the blood and gore of the Games, creates this world better depicted and described to an adult demographic.
However, despite my wishes, Collins wrote this series for kids and young adults, and she did a lovely job with it. Every time I read the words Collins imagined, or view the film with Jennifer Lawrence, I want to be in that world on the emotional roller coaster right alongside Katniss and Peeta.
I am definitely excited to read the next two novels in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, and watching the movies as well.
For the Hunger Games trilogy novels, you can purchase them online and in stores. Other books by Suzanne Collins can also be purchased online and in stores, and the latest film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II, can be viewed in theatres everywhere.