The Hunger Games on Roxana-Mălina Chirilă

Suzanne Collins' "Mockingjay" [Book Review]

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:24:35 +0000

Title: Mockingjay

Series: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins

Rating: 4.5/5

Is this book for me? If you liked the Hunger Games, yes. Definitely. This is where it gets wild(er).

Book three – and the final one – of the Hunger Games. It’s lovely.

The first two books seem in a way to be a prelude to the third, which is a full-scale war complete with media coverage, rebels, strategies and whatnot. If there’s a single thing I disliked about it, it was that Suzanne Collins didn’t go deeper into explaining the world she created and how it all fits together. Aside from that…

The main character (Katniss Everdeen) was very annoying at times, but in the best of ways. She’s not the usual style of hero, ready to give her all to the Cause from greatness of soul and self-sacrificing ardor. She isn’t even the antihero who goes off the beaten path and does borderline immoral, or even downright immoral things, for the Cause. Katniss is simply… normal. She’s very real. She’s a girl who doesn’t really want to be involved in a war which kills too many people. She wants to sit it out and sulk, she wants to get away from the madness of the Games, the madness of fighting, the madness of politics. But she can’t. And she is annoying because of this very realism. She isn’t born a hero, she doesn’t want to be the protagonist, but the role is shoved on her and she eventually, reluctantly, rises up to it. She’s a reminder that we’re human and that our most heroic-looking choices aren’t always the best, nor do they have the most amazing motivations behind them.__

As for the atmosphere of Mockingjay… A friend criticized Collins’ battle scenes as weak, but I think they have their own sort of „The Red Badge of Courage„-style quality to them. Well. Except „The Red Badge…” had nearly no plot and it mostly consisted of here-now descriptions of battles and confusion. Mockinjay, on the other hand, lets you see quite a lot of the war otherwise – from bits of things behind the scenes to media coverage and ruthlessness in strategies. It has surprising twists and turns and a powerful atmosphere. Collins keeps you wondering until the very end, and a bit after.

(Currently, Mockingjay is super-cheap on Amazon UK and on sale on Amazon US. Again, I’m not sure how much that will last. And there’s always free shipping on the Book Depository.)

Suzanne Collins' "Catching Fire" [Book Review]

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 14:47:51 +0000

Title: Catching Fire

Series: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins

Rating: 4/5

Is this book for me? If you liked the Hunger Games, yes. Definitely. If you didn’t read the Hunger Games, then go read it. If you didn’t like it, then no. Simple enough.

Book two of a trilogy. We already know the characters and the premise, but how does the second installment work?…

Well, it isn’t quite as interesting from start to finish as the first book. The beginning (or the first half, rather) is somewhat too long and drawn-out. I suppose the purpose of said length is to bring more tension to the story, to have an ominous calm before the storm. It just doesn’t work for me.

So. Our protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is in trouble. Deep, political trouble. Her family and friends are threatened by the president and she must play a certain role to save them. She’s a survivor, so she tries. But she’s also a crappy actress, so it isn’t certain she can play that role.

Still, the drawn-out beginning means we get to see more of the world of the Hunger Games – the Districts, the growing social restlessness, the society of the Capitol. Unfortunately, what we get is insufficient to really understand the implications of some of the facts that we’re given. A revolt is about to break out, but we don’t know the relative sizes and strengths of the revolting Districts versus the oppressing Capitol. We’ve seen the vast difference in technology between the oppressors and the oppressed, but how strong is the strongest tech? How much of it is there? The vagueness doesn’t work in the book’s favor.

The second half of the book, though, is where the pacing is restored. We go back to the arena, back to the 24 people who need to be in there, back to the idea of a sole survivor. Initially, I feared that Collins would recycle her ideas from the first book and give us the same thing over again, quirking just enough elements to have us be annoyed at the repetition. Not so. The arena doesn’t look very natural, as did the first book’s forest. Instead, it’s clearly a man-made construct, a mechanism with artificial rules to be figured out. And the dynamics between the contestants are almost entirely different. The seventy-fifth edition of the Hunger Games is just as exciting as the seventy-fourth.

All in all, Suzanne Collins manages to create something new, to spin the story in such a way as to avoid the pitfalls of having to reuse a unique idea in a sequel. The only thing that really draws it back is the first half, with its faults. But even so, it’s an interesting, fun, engaging book.

Currently, like the first Hunger games book, it’s on sale on Amazon UK and on Amazon US. Again, I’m not sure how much that will last. And there’s always free shipping on the Book Depository.

Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" [Book Review]

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 08:59:43 +0000

Title: The Hunger Games

Series: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins

Rating: 4.5/5

Is this book for me? Unless you’re averse to sci fi/fantasy, the answer is probably yes. Easy to read, but not lacking in deeper issues. Well-paced, action-filled, with believable characters. Gripping.

The book is essentially about this: 24 teens locked into a huge, forest-like arena with a bunch of deadly things ready to kill them – and only one gets out alive. It’s „Lord of the Flies” meets „Mortal Kombat”, with a dash of shooter video game and a liberal serving of plots, psychology and politics. That’s what the Hunger Games are: deadly, violent events where nearly everybody dies for all sorts of reasons.

Well, for all sorts of physical reasons, anyway. The underlying motive for the Hunger Games is a political one. It’s implied that most of the world went off and killed itself in some sort of disaster. Humanity has rebuilt itself into a new type of society a very long time before – unfortunately, not in a very egalitarian way. The leaders are in the Capitol and they live amazingly flimsy and hedonistic lives, while the ones doing all the work are in the Districts (One to Twelve), who live in constant deprivation and hunger. The Capitol looks very sci fi: there’s a lot of tech that’s so amazing it might as well be magic, people modify their bodies for fashion reasons etc. The Districts are nearly medieval. Naturally, at some time there was a revolt and, 74 years on, the Districts are still punished for it by sending two ’tributes’ to the arena every year.

Katniss Everdeen is from the mining District, Twelve. She poaches for food and is an amazingly good shot with a bow and arrow. Which is great, because she ends up as a „tribute” in the Hunger Games. Now, this is where I really appreciate Collins: her main character is very much to the point. Katniss isn’t the sort of girl who is interested in boys, or who’s more interested in looking good than in doing well. She’s a real girl, with actual issues, some interest in romance, but not too much. She isn’t always likable, but she’s realistic, strong and a survivor. She’s someone I think guys won’t have much problem reading.

What happens is a multi-layered story. There’s the obvious action/survivalist component: Katniss in the arena, with weapons and survival kits, trying to find a way to stay alive. Then there’s the political component, which we only get hints of through Katniss’s eyes and thoughts: the slightly suspicious way of acting of some of the people she comes in contact with, the warnings she gets from her mentor in the Games, the descriptions of people in the Capitol. It’s very subtle, but it’s there. Then, the psychological component, where Collins shines: the people Katniss comes in contact with are well-rounded – and when she means to make them mysterious and confusing for the purpose of the plot, she damned well manages it.

The style is simple and a pleasure to read, letting you sink into the story and live it vividly.

The only issues I can really find with it is that the world isn’t described in a bit more detail (I’d’ve been curious) and that __I’m not sure exactly how plausible the premise is.

All in all, very much recommended. Currently it’s on sale on Amazon UK and on Amazon US, but I’m not sure how much that will last. And, of course, there’s always the Book Depository for free shipping to all sorts of countries.