Blood Bath
Aug. 30th, 2012 08:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
commonpeople1
The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
These are some of the things I was interested in as a teenager: large-scale disasters, getting the first kiss, popularity, avoiding sports, soap operas, avoiding bullies, sci-fi and horror. Nothing unusual for a teenager, so it's really no surprise that The Hunger Games is such a hit with young people: all these elements (and more) are part of its world.
Suzanne Collins has created a dystopia mirrored on Ancient Rome's gladiators and Ancient Greece's myths (the Minotaur), with doses of Margaret Atwood's worries on what's happening to our ecology (hybrid animals, scarce resources.) In the future, America has been destroyed and in its place now exists the small country of Panem - divided into 12 districts which are forced every year to compete against each other in the Hunger Games as punishment for once rebelling against the Capitol. This punishment comes in the form of one boy and one girl from each district being randomly selected to fight against each other in a booby trapped arena, until only 1 out of the 24 is left alive. The Hunger Games is also a reality TV show that all in Panem are forced by law to watch.
We are led into this world by Katniss, a strong and resourceful teenager from the poor district 12, "The Seam". She talks to the reader as if to a friend, taking her time to first introduce her family, her life, and her grievances with Panem, before disaster strikes: her 12-year-old sister is randomly picked to play the Games and Katniss sees no other alternative but volunteer in her place.
Because we are always following Katniss' voice, we don't know what the TV viewers can see, we don't know where her enemies in the Arena are hiding, we don't even know if she can trust the few people who offer a friendly hand. It's a narrative choice that lends the story a compulsive quality and makes the book a page turner. I also imagine that the pressure for her to make moral choices all the time, and fight against incredible odds, makes her a very appealing heroine for teenagers. Her journey is one of revelation: at the complexities of the adult world, at what it means to grow up, at what it means to love.
I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did, or for it to be so gory.
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Date: 2012-08-30 11:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 08:16 am (UTC)By the way, when's the latest I can get comments to you on your short stories? Sorry for the delay - I had a spell of RSI on my hands and had to limit myself to work. But I've got them now in my bag - will hopefully have some for you today or this weekend.
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Date: 2012-08-31 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 02:37 pm (UTC)(have wrist rest, have gel mousepad, have also internet addiction, which cancels out the previous two...)
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Date: 2012-08-31 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-30 07:18 pm (UTC)Did you read the other two books too?
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Date: 2012-08-31 08:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 07:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 05:33 pm (UTC)