Review of "The Hunger Games"

"It's not really fair to present us as a team and then lock us into the arena to kill each other."

     In Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, we follow the life of a girl whose second nature is survival. Katniss Everdeen has provided for her family for years. She's taken the tesserae (extra food provided by the government), hunted illegally when food ran low, and made every conceivable sacrifice to ensure her sister was safe. Now that Prim is twelve, there is a new danger: she has been entered into the reaping for the Hunger Games, a free-for-all where the only winner is the last man standing. Katniss isn't worried; after all, Prim's name is only in the ball once, while she, at sixteen, has twenty entries just waiting to be picked. Then, at the reaping, the unthinkable happens: Prim's name is pulled, and before she knows it Katniss has volunteered to take her place. She's prettied up, interviewed, then thrown into a competition where "living" is a relative term and friendship can be a weakness--or her greatest strength, if only she learns how to trust.

     The writing style Collins employs in her novel is really what makes the story work. Through the lens of Katniss' thoughts, we experience everything as if we were really there. Battles, alliances, and deaths are all portrayed with the same harsh, down-in-the-dirt sense of realism, and it's easy to sink into her way of thinking. The use of the first person point of view and present-tense prose brings about an in-the-moment angle that would be absent otherwise. Katniss, the arena, and the Games themselves are detailed with a balanced blend of adjectives and action, giving the book a regular sense of pacing.

     Another upside is the cast. Everyone, from Prim to Katniss' hunting partner, Gale, and fellow tribute, Peeta, is crafted with the utmost care and precision. Their traits are all unique enough to be distinct but similar enough to interact well, a feat that can be rather difficult to pull off. Even the less pleasant characters, be it the misunderstood Ms. Everdeen, sullen mentor Haymitch Abernathy, or Katniss herself, are complex people with their own shifting desires and fears. Not a whole lot of development takes place in any of these characters, although Katniss does learn a bit about making friends and dealing with tragedy.

     It has been mentioned in previous posts that cursing and such sits on one end of the YA spectrum. For an example of the other end, read The Hunger Games. Although the gore is kept to a minimum, terrible things happen to the teens in the arena: death by impaling, hallucinations, blood poisoning, and mauling all happen at least once. Participants in the Games, known as "tributes", are all between the ages of twelve and eighteen, and their battles are treated as a reality show that is aired on live TV across the nation. Romance is involved, which mainly consists of talking about feelings and opening up about the characters' pasts, as well as a little kissing.

     I would recommend this book to older teens interested in dystopian societies, fast-paced action, and a protagonist who must face moral dilemmas in order to survive. The prose is strong, the characters well-written, and the worldbuilding dynamic. However, it is rather violent--some scenes may cause squeamish readers a spot of difficulty--and the protagonist isn't necessarily likeable. Therefore, I give it four stars.