I just finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It takes place in the future, in a country called Panem, "the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was onced called North America." After many natural disasters and global warming, there was a colossal war to fight it out for the remaining resources. Panem was what was left, the result, which included 13 districts. There was a rebellion against the Capitol (think 1984) in Panem but 12 districts were quashed while the 13th was destroyed. In order to remind the citizens of Panem of the futility and danger of rebellion, the Hunger Games were developed. Every year a boy and a girl ("tributes") are chosen by a lottery system from each district to participate. They are "let loose" into a huge arena, complete with rocks, trees, streams, lakes, fields, etc. so that they are pretty much in the wild. There are cameras everywhere so that everyone in the 12 districts can watch (think The Truman Show with Jim Carrey). The object of the game is to kill all the other tributes so that you are the only one left standing and thus the victor. If things get too boring, the Gamemakers will do something to liven it up: fireballs, drought (the streams will empty), "muttations" (something akin to werewolves), and so on. Survival depends not only on your ability to kill or avoid being killed by other tributes but also your ability to find food and water. The protagonist of the story is Katniss, who volunteers as tribute (almost unheard of) to replace her 12 year old sister who's name was picked from the lottery. The novel also includes a love-triangle (think Twilight).
I don't want to give anything away so I'll just say I enjoyed reading The Hunger Games. I started reading it yesterday and I just finished it this morning. Every chapter ends with a cliffhanger and of course you want to find out what happens so I just kept reading. It's a really interesting premise. Since you know that only one person can be the winner, you know that 23 people are going to die -- it's just a matter of finding out how. (What does that say about society...wanting to find out how people die...but I digress.) Anyhow, I like Collins' writing style. It's what I consider light reading. It's written for adolescents (Stephanie Meyers, the author of the Twilight series, gives it a glowing review, which is printed on the cover so that tells you something right there) but I think anyone would enjoy this book. Katniss is a heroine you can cheer for. She's not whiny or mopey or ditzy. I appreciate that.
Movie-makers are going to try to bank on the success of this book. The film version is slated to be released next year. I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy it. It's like I told my husband: when you're reading, you can read as fast or as slow as you want. If it's a violent passage, I can choose to read it quickly and get it over with, slowly and really live in the moment or even skip it altogether. In a movie, you have to live it as much as the director wants you to. I don't know that I want to see 23 kids dying one by one on the big screen. I'm sure I'll watch it anyway but I don't know that I'll pay to see it in the theater.
I've heard this is a pretty good series.
ReplyDeleteYou're such a speedy reader! Wait until you see what happens in book two and three....amazing!!
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