Book Review: The Hunger Games
Title: The Hunger Games Author: Suzanne Collins Genre: YA Distopian Length: 388 pages, 99,000 words Read: 2008 Summary: Intense! The book: I read it four years ago on the recommendation of a friend.
The beginning didn't totally wow me, but the second 2/3 certainly did.
It's written in a tight first person present, which for this kind of thing is my favorite tense/POV combo (I use it in my novel Untimed).
Collins expertly builds sympathy for the character of Katniss via her harsh circumstances, sympathetic voice, and self sacrifice.
This crucial "inciting event," the selection of Katniss' sister as tribute, occurs at the end of the first chapter, at the 5% mark.
First rate construction.
Our heroine's choice and the voyeuristic need to find out what happens in the arena drags us through the 30% of preparation and political mumbo-jumbo.
I had mixed feelings about this future world.
I liked certain elements.
I enjoyed the setup, the whole lottery thing with escalating danger of more copies of your name being added every year or in exchange for food.
But I just didn't buy the political scenario as a whole.
America is a big place, yet this district 12 felt like a small mining town where everyone knows each other.
Small towns are less than 15,000 people.
I would have bought it better if Katniss' town were one among many in a whole region that was district 12.
I know it sounds minor, but I'm a stickler for these kind of things.
The level of economic/technical imbalance between the capital and the provinces seemed too great.
How could this one little mining town really be that important? How could a whole continent be represented by one city? But none of that really mattered once you pop into the arena at the 40% mark.
Here Collins' set up combines with the tight visceral present voice to work some serious magic.
The action of young kids fighting and killing each other in a televised Lord of the Flies smackdown just worked.
It felt real.
It felt intense.
There is some great survival writing here and that is what - for me - this book is all about.
It's made richer by sympathetic and well painted characters and by Katniss' need to chose between her feelings and the practical requirements of survival (which includes the interest of her family).
Nothing like a helpless little sister to up the sympathy factor.
Great stuff.
A book doesn't have to succeed on every level.
This is one that hits 10/10 in perhaps 3/4 areas, and that is more than enough.
I can't say I felt the same about the sequel which languished for too long in political marshland.
But being a reader of real history, I have high standards with regards to politics.
The beginning didn't totally wow me, but the second 2/3 certainly did.
It's written in a tight first person present, which for this kind of thing is my favorite tense/POV combo (I use it in my novel Untimed).
Collins expertly builds sympathy for the character of Katniss via her harsh circumstances, sympathetic voice, and self sacrifice.
This crucial "inciting event," the selection of Katniss' sister as tribute, occurs at the end of the first chapter, at the 5% mark.
First rate construction.
Our heroine's choice and the voyeuristic need to find out what happens in the arena drags us through the 30% of preparation and political mumbo-jumbo.
I had mixed feelings about this future world.
I liked certain elements.
I enjoyed the setup, the whole lottery thing with escalating danger of more copies of your name being added every year or in exchange for food.
But I just didn't buy the political scenario as a whole.
America is a big place, yet this district 12 felt like a small mining town where everyone knows each other.
Small towns are less than 15,000 people.
I would have bought it better if Katniss' town were one among many in a whole region that was district 12.
I know it sounds minor, but I'm a stickler for these kind of things.
The level of economic/technical imbalance between the capital and the provinces seemed too great.
How could this one little mining town really be that important? How could a whole continent be represented by one city? But none of that really mattered once you pop into the arena at the 40% mark.
Here Collins' set up combines with the tight visceral present voice to work some serious magic.
The action of young kids fighting and killing each other in a televised Lord of the Flies smackdown just worked.
It felt real.
It felt intense.
There is some great survival writing here and that is what - for me - this book is all about.
It's made richer by sympathetic and well painted characters and by Katniss' need to chose between her feelings and the practical requirements of survival (which includes the interest of her family).
Nothing like a helpless little sister to up the sympathy factor.
Great stuff.
A book doesn't have to succeed on every level.
This is one that hits 10/10 in perhaps 3/4 areas, and that is more than enough.
I can't say I felt the same about the sequel which languished for too long in political marshland.
But being a reader of real history, I have high standards with regards to politics.
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