The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games


By: Suzanne Collins
Reviewed by: Kait, 16
Rating: Really liked it


My reaction to Hunger Games was rather bipolar. First, I CANNOT STAND present tense fiction. I feel like it is just trying to artificially create suspense that otherwise doesn't exist. But hey, I got over it, maybe you will too.

That being said, I felt that it was really a fabulous book plot-wise. It had sufficient suspense, action, and intrigue to keep me reading. And I actually had a few moments where I couldn't put the book down because I HAD TO KNOW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT.

The concept is semi-original - post-apocalyptic society, very similar to the setting of 1984. The added twist being that, in this society, every teenager must enter the "reaping" - a raffle in which one boy and one girl from each district (like states) are chosen to compete in the Hunger Games. How do you win the Hunger Games? You kill the other 23 contestants.

AAAAAAAND part of me was kind of grossed out because (prior to reading it) I had the nagging suspicion that this novel was going to be like Saw III. (no need to comment on how bad of an analogy that was - I have never seen ANY of the Saw movies nor do I intend to. Ever.) But I was pleasantly surprised. In between the gory violence, there were quite a few moments of literary beauty or fantastic suspense or pure romance.

And hey, I'm a 16 year old girl. Cut me some slack for loving Gale (Peeta, eat your heart out.)

So, for that I would recommend this novel.





And here comes the other side. Suzanne Collins has the Stephenie Meyer Effect.

Yes, I just shed a tear. Yet another author has fallen plague to the hey-I-don't-actually-have-to-write-something-worthwhile-or-rhetorically-adequate-instead-I'll-focus-purely-on-plot-and-contrived-romance-with-obscene-amounts-of-kissing syndrome.

Really guys? REALLY?? Come on, seriously? It takes NO skill to write a novel completely driven by plot and fabricated romance. What does take skill? Rhetoric! Literary merit! Motifs! Themes! All of that brilliant stuff that we know and love and adore and resent during AP Composition tests.

So yeah. That's the one thing I did not like about The Hunger Games. And yet, the novel still was good and I would never dissuade someone from reading it.

And that's my two cents.

Peace kids :)


Recommended to: High School Age