Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games

There were lots of parts of this book that reminded me of other books, films or cultural reference points. It hung together well enough but I was a bit unsure about the overall effect. The most obvious parallel, for me, was to a film called ‘Battle Royale’ (2000), which in turn is based on an earlier book. The film is about a group of students who are taken to an island and forced to fight to the death by the Japanese government. There were also parallels to be drawn with the Roman Empire, Stoic philosophy, Romeo and Juliet, 1984, My Girl and many others, I’m sure. This pastiche approach reminded me of ‘Ready Player One’ (2011) although that book approaches cultural referencing far more explicitly, which I prefer. The two have other similarities - dystopia, a rise to fame, an exciting, dangerous adventure, a love story, both became films. I think I enjoyed ‘Ready Player One’ more because its content is aimed at middle aged geeks while ‘The Hunger Games’ is aimed at adolescent women. The PG rated love, looking beautiful in pretty dresses and worrying about popularity exemplify the young adult level this is pitched at. On the other hand, it’s violent, dystopian goriness would also appeal to adolescent boys so perhaps I have more of an issue with it because I am the wrong age rather than because I’m a man.


The love story is a bit cringe-worthy but it was saved by the intrigue over whether her relationship with Peeta is genuine and if she prefers him to Gale, her hunting partner back in the Seam. The fact that all the girls at school love Gale, and it’s heavily implied that he’s in love with Katniss, but Katniss has no idea is a bit sentimental and corny. As I mentioned earlier, all romance is very tame and Katniss has never kissed anyone in spite of leading such a deeply adult life and seemingly having many admirers. Similarly, the interviews before the games where Katniss apparently struggles because of her unlikeable personality are a hard to believe. In the end everyone loves her and Peeta declares his love for her in front of everyone; it is a bit vomit inducing. On the whole, I felt the strength of the central plot and the excellent pacing of the narrative saved the book from becoming too twee. I had read in the PLR, where this book was recommended and reviewed, that the pacing was outstanding and this proved to be the case.


It’s just as well because the plot was too facil and, in places, downright hackneyed. The character of Katniss was a slightly unhappy mixture of hardened hunter and ditzy school girl. Her almost inconceivable level of ability and suitability to the games are coupled with some equally inconceivable moments of stupidity. For example, she forgets to loot the bow and arrow from the girl who dies in possession of it even though she has been coveting it since the start of the games and it his her best chance of survival. Equally, it takes her a minute to work out what the sedatives she is gifted should be used for when she needs to subdue Peeta to go to the feast. I was also surprised that ‘the Careers’ didn’t train using more survival skills like Katniss’s given they work so well in the arena! The sponsorship meted out to the players seemed a bit unfair as well. While Katniss got a couple of meals and some burn cream, one of the other player’s got an impenetrable suit of armor! It’s mentioned in the book that gifts are very expensive but it’s also mentioned that the residents of the Capitol bet heavily on the event so I was expecting the gifts to play a much bigger role. The treatment of whether there was going to be one or two victors was a bit clunky but did set up the mutual poisoning scene at the end, which was good, and allows the is-it-real-is-it-not-real? storyline of Peeta and Katniss’s love to continue into the next book.


The themes of this book also saved it from becoming too saccharine or sentimental. Inequality, exploitation, subjugation of a population using the media, humanity’s bloodthirstiness, the morality of murder and the cruelty of consumerism and entertainment culture. These are all weighty topics for young adult fiction and they’re, for the most part, sensitively and subtly handled. In truth, the issue of murder isn’t nearly gory enough for my liking. Contestants help each other and behave in a remarkably civilised manner during the Games whereas I’d have thought they’d be ripping each other limb from limb and screwing each other over at the earliest opportunity. To me, this would’ve been a more faithful representation of human nature although perhaps I’m overly pessimistic!

The strong points of this book were the pacing and the subject matter of the Games. I didn’t really enjoy the way the story was framed or how things developed in the arena. The love story was corny but had interesting angles and some good twists. Overall, it was enjoyable but facile and I probably wouldn’t recommend it.