Good evening fellow book nerds! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
For tonight's blog posting, I bring you The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. My friend Jessica lent me this book pleading with me to read it so she would have someone to discuss it with. Well, I was happy to oblige, as always. I had heard about the book here and there and was interested in reading it anyway. Jessica assured me I would love it and she definitely didn't lie.
The Hunger Games is book one in a trilogy. (What is it with me and trilogies lately? I believe I am at various stages of at least three different trilogies at the moment.) The books take place in a future dystopian society called Panem which is located in what used to be North America. Panem's capitol city - aptly named The Capitol - is located somewhere in the Rockies. The Capitol is surrounded by twelve districts which seem to get poorer and bleaker the farther away from the Capitol the district is positioned.
Our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, lives in District 12. District 12 is located in what used to be Appalachia and nothing has changed much in Appalachia. Everyone is still dirt poor and the main industry is coal mining. Katniss lives with her mother and little sister, Primrose. Her father died in a mine explosion when she was quite young leaving Katniss as the family's sole provider. She hunts everyday in the forest surrounding District 12 in order to feed her family, even though it is punishable by death. In other words, Katniss can take care of herself.
When we meet Katniss, she is preparing for the annual reaping. We come to find out that each year the Capitol stages a kind of lottery in each district called the reaping. Every child between the ages of 12 and 18 are required to enter his or her name in the reaping. At age 12, your name is entered once. At age 13, twice and so on. Any child may also chose to add his or her name to the reaping additional times in exchange for tesserae (a year's supply of grain and oil for one person). And these additional entries are also cumulative. Because of this, poor children's names are entered into the reaping many more times than wealthy kids and therefore have a much better chance of being chosen in the reaping.
This brings us to the purpose of the reaping. Two children's names are drawn each year from each district - one boy and one girl. These children, called tributes, are then sent on to the Capitol to compete in The Hunger Games. The Capitol created the games as a reminder to the districts to toe the line or else. You see, the games consist of the tributes being thrown together into an enormous terror dome and fighting each other to the death live on TV. Last one standing wins and brings wealth and honor to his or her family and additional food and resources to his or her district.
Against all odds, Primrose, with one entry, is drawn as District 12's female tribute. Katniss volunteers to take her young and delicate sister's place. Volunteering is not unheard of in other wealthier districts where children are breed to compete in the games, but in District 12, it's considered a death sentence. However, volunteering has also captivated District 12 and all of Panem therefore giving Katniss a leg up in a competition that is as much a reality show popularity contest as it is brutal blood bath.
Here I must stop myself before I give away every detail of this book. I loved this book so much and was so engrossed by every word that I want to tell you everything. But I'm no spoiler. I will restrain myself.
Games is classified as Young Adult literature. I believe I have to respectfully disagree. The themes and violence are much more adult than young adult. And the writing is far superior to any young adult novel I've ever read, past or present. But maybe my memory is clouded by what I was reading when I was in the young adult demographic - Judy Blume being in the forefront of my mind. But the main characters are teens and maybe that's all a book needs anymore to be classified as young adult.
One guideline I go by when judging how much I like a book is how quickly I read it. And I burned through this book. I keep a bit of a writers journal in which I take notes and jot down thoughts and opinions on the books I read. (Sorry, the English major in me is hard to squash.) I didn't take one note on this book. I couldn't tear myself away! To take notes would mean I would have to stop reading and that was just not an option.
And even without taking notes, I remember every detail, I believe because the details are what makes this book so enthralling. Every detail is logically laid out, a tough task in the fantasy genre where an author could very easily tend toward the absurd. Just when I found myself questioning something, a logical explanation was given. And the world Collins created is so rich and fleshed out that I almost never questioned anything, even when gifts dropped from the sky to help out a tribute during the games. Everything is plausible yet exotic and captivating.
I really can't praise this book enough. I've enjoyed it more than any other book in quite awhile. I took a brief break to read another book (I will blog on it later this week) and have now begun on book two of the trilogy, Catching Fire. I just couldn't wait. It's like the book crawled into my brain and laid eggs. I NEED to know what happens next. And for this I am giving The Hunger Games five bows
. It was fabulous and I urge you all to read it at your next available opportunity. If you've already read it, stop on by the comments section and we'll discuss more. Until then, happy reading everyone!
For tonight's blog posting, I bring you The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. My friend Jessica lent me this book pleading with me to read it so she would have someone to discuss it with. Well, I was happy to oblige, as always. I had heard about the book here and there and was interested in reading it anyway. Jessica assured me I would love it and she definitely didn't lie.
The Hunger Games is book one in a trilogy. (What is it with me and trilogies lately? I believe I am at various stages of at least three different trilogies at the moment.) The books take place in a future dystopian society called Panem which is located in what used to be North America. Panem's capitol city - aptly named The Capitol - is located somewhere in the Rockies. The Capitol is surrounded by twelve districts which seem to get poorer and bleaker the farther away from the Capitol the district is positioned.
Our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, lives in District 12. District 12 is located in what used to be Appalachia and nothing has changed much in Appalachia. Everyone is still dirt poor and the main industry is coal mining. Katniss lives with her mother and little sister, Primrose. Her father died in a mine explosion when she was quite young leaving Katniss as the family's sole provider. She hunts everyday in the forest surrounding District 12 in order to feed her family, even though it is punishable by death. In other words, Katniss can take care of herself.
When we meet Katniss, she is preparing for the annual reaping. We come to find out that each year the Capitol stages a kind of lottery in each district called the reaping. Every child between the ages of 12 and 18 are required to enter his or her name in the reaping. At age 12, your name is entered once. At age 13, twice and so on. Any child may also chose to add his or her name to the reaping additional times in exchange for tesserae (a year's supply of grain and oil for one person). And these additional entries are also cumulative. Because of this, poor children's names are entered into the reaping many more times than wealthy kids and therefore have a much better chance of being chosen in the reaping.
This brings us to the purpose of the reaping. Two children's names are drawn each year from each district - one boy and one girl. These children, called tributes, are then sent on to the Capitol to compete in The Hunger Games. The Capitol created the games as a reminder to the districts to toe the line or else. You see, the games consist of the tributes being thrown together into an enormous terror dome and fighting each other to the death live on TV. Last one standing wins and brings wealth and honor to his or her family and additional food and resources to his or her district.
Against all odds, Primrose, with one entry, is drawn as District 12's female tribute. Katniss volunteers to take her young and delicate sister's place. Volunteering is not unheard of in other wealthier districts where children are breed to compete in the games, but in District 12, it's considered a death sentence. However, volunteering has also captivated District 12 and all of Panem therefore giving Katniss a leg up in a competition that is as much a reality show popularity contest as it is brutal blood bath.
Here I must stop myself before I give away every detail of this book. I loved this book so much and was so engrossed by every word that I want to tell you everything. But I'm no spoiler. I will restrain myself.
Games is classified as Young Adult literature. I believe I have to respectfully disagree. The themes and violence are much more adult than young adult. And the writing is far superior to any young adult novel I've ever read, past or present. But maybe my memory is clouded by what I was reading when I was in the young adult demographic - Judy Blume being in the forefront of my mind. But the main characters are teens and maybe that's all a book needs anymore to be classified as young adult.
One guideline I go by when judging how much I like a book is how quickly I read it. And I burned through this book. I keep a bit of a writers journal in which I take notes and jot down thoughts and opinions on the books I read. (Sorry, the English major in me is hard to squash.) I didn't take one note on this book. I couldn't tear myself away! To take notes would mean I would have to stop reading and that was just not an option.
And even without taking notes, I remember every detail, I believe because the details are what makes this book so enthralling. Every detail is logically laid out, a tough task in the fantasy genre where an author could very easily tend toward the absurd. Just when I found myself questioning something, a logical explanation was given. And the world Collins created is so rich and fleshed out that I almost never questioned anything, even when gifts dropped from the sky to help out a tribute during the games. Everything is plausible yet exotic and captivating.
I really can't praise this book enough. I've enjoyed it more than any other book in quite awhile. I took a brief break to read another book (I will blog on it later this week) and have now begun on book two of the trilogy, Catching Fire. I just couldn't wait. It's like the book crawled into my brain and laid eggs. I NEED to know what happens next. And for this I am giving The Hunger Games five bows
. It was fabulous and I urge you all to read it at your next available opportunity. If you've already read it, stop on by the comments section and we'll discuss more. Until then, happy reading everyone! 
I am glad you enjoyed it as much as I did! I have to admit, Seth is glad I am done with the series. He was happy to get his wife back :)!
ReplyDeleteYoung Adult Literature is definitely not what it was when we were younger...in a good way. I think it is great that kids are now exposed to themes that are more in depth than what I had growing up. I remember being a kid and bored with everything in the library because it felt like it was so narrowly focussed. YA has been my favorite genre for quite a few years now...much to the mockery of some to which I usually reply "But have you read it? It is amazing as a book itself let alone it's classification as Young Adult Book." I like how it can have both serious issues and not take itself too seriously. I like that a lot of it tends to be more fresh with sci-fi ideas than much adult sci-fi. Too much deals with the paranormal (and vampires specifically) but I enjoyed those when I was younger and into Anne Rice...it just feels overdone and un-original to me now.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read The Hunger Games but it has been on my list for a couple years. I was hoping to pick them up at the scholastic clearance sale this spring.
When you have time, I would suggest the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. Quick reads, really enjoyable, makes you think about what it means to be happy and ugly/pretty/special.
I finally got around to reading The Hunger Games. It was good, but I wasn't as thrilled with it as others seem to be. I think I have read too much fantasy/sci-fi where I just didn't find this theme new and exciting. A good book - yes, but not groundbreaking (to me). If I had read this as a youth, I probably would have loved it. I can see how people who haven't been as exposed to these types of scenarios and moral dilemmas would really want to talk about it with someone. Yes, lots of violence, but not too gory. I would put it on level with Treasure Island...but it is kid on kid violence, so maybe more of a Lord of the Flies.
ReplyDeleteI am reading Saga of Ice and Fire #4 right now (George RR Martin) but will finish the trilogy after that.