The Hunger Games

     I usually don't read popular modern fiction.  It just doesn't appeal to me.  I tried, a couple of years ago, to read the Harry Potter books, but I only got a few chapters into the first one before I stopped.  It was just, in my opinion, too boring and badly written.  I think that's actually the only popular fiction I've read; the kind of books that fall in that category hold no interest for me.

     When I heard about The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, I must admit that I thought to myself, "Here we go again.  Yet another badly written book that everybody's going crazy about."  But then friends started to recommend the book to me.  Oh, no, they said, it's not badly written.  The idea is really interesting, and it's actually a very good book.  So I decided last week that it was time I read The Hunger Games.

     When I started reading, I was really quite surprised.  The book was actually good!  Well-written, interesting plot, much more unpredictable than I thought it would be....  I ended up devouring it in three days.  Now I can't wait to read the other two books in the trilogy!

     The first thing that surprised me about The Hunger Games was the writing.  Collins skillfully uses an unusual writing style--the book is written in the first person and present tense, with frequent flashbacks--that quickly drew me into the story.  Which brings me to the next thing: the plot.  When I first heard what the book was about*, I was sure that it would be very predictable.  There were certain things that would inevitably happen.  How wrong I was!  From the very first few chapters, I found that the plot had all sorts of twists and turns, some minor, some not so much.  All of them were good.  The book was also not quite as bloody and violent as I expected.  Collins, in my opinion, handled the fight-to-the-death part of the story well.

     The characters were also very compelling.  The main character, Katniss Everdeen, is very complex and interesting.  The supporting characters, too, are quite appealing.  From Prim to Cinna to Effie Trinket, I can't imagine the book without any of them.

     Another thing I really liked about The Hunger Games was the Roman and mythological influence.  The idea of tributes is very similar to the story of Theseus and the Minotaur.  And the Hunger Games themselves are simply modern gladiator fights.  I've always loved Greek and Roman mythology, and I loved the way Collins wove this into her story.

     In conclusion, The Hunger Games was very good--much better than I expected them to be.  I enjoyed it very much indeed, and I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the series!


     *For those of you who don't know what The Hunger Games is about, here's a brief synopsis.

     Once, North America was a continent.  But now, after the oceans have swallowed up so much of the land, all that's left is Panem--a country ruled by the Capitol, a city of wealth and plenty, where the people look on while the inhabitants of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol starve to death.  Years ago, the districts rose up in rebellion.  But the Capitol defeated them, and now they are worse off than before.  For now, on top of the poverty and hunger, they have the Hunger Games: the Capitol's form of punishment for the rebellion.  The rules of the Hunger Games are simple.  Two "tributes", one boy and one girl, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, are selected from each district.  They are taken to the Capitol and forced to fight to the death in an enormous arena, while camera crews film every minute for the inhabitants of the Capitol to watch for entertainment.
     Katniss Everdeen is a sixteen-year-old from District Twelve, one of the poorest districts.  She's already a survivor--the death of her father when she was eleven has forced her to be--but when she finds herself in the Hunger Games, surviving becomes a lot harder.  She's going to have to use every one of her skills if she wants to stay alive.  And even that might not be enough.  Because this is, after all, the Hunger Games, and the odds are not always in your favour.