book review The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins), a review

Note: I read the translated version of The Hunger Games, not the original English version.

First, I want to make it clear that I do think The Hunger Game(HG) is a well written story.

But I still think Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is better.

Once you had seen impressive things before, you simply won't be so easily thrilled by similar, tamer things.

In the fictional universe of The Hunger Games, America had long been ruled by a totalitarian government. Said government divided its subjects into two classes, citizens from the privileged Capital, where people enjoyed wealth and power. The 12 Districts, where most citizens were forced into hard labors and starvation. Since the 12 Districts, along with the destroyed 13th District had once allied together and tired to rebel against the Capital, once the rebellion was suppressed, the Capital brought up The Hunger Games as a punishment for the failed Districts. A game that forced every district to select two teenagers and took them to an isolated Stadium. The selected teenagers were trained and forced to kill one another until there was only one survivor left, while the entire nation watched on.

The heroine Katniss was a fatherless girl from the 12th District, when her younger sister was selected for the latest Hunger Game, she replaced her sister and went to the Capital with a boy, Peeta, who was also selected. During the training and preparation for the Game, Katniss formed a friendship with Peeta, who she must eventually kill along with the other teenagers if she wanted to stay alive and go home to her loved ones;and Haymitch, trainer of both Katniss and Peeta, also a former Winner of the Game.

The Hunger Games, first book of The Hunger Games series, is cleverly plotted and well written, main characters like Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch are people you can very well related to. The ending is just brilliant. The action is quite good for a YA novel too.

What I find lacking in The Hunger Games, probably is a bit of emotional depths and satire.

I don't mean to say HG has entirely no emotional depth, for example Katniss' loyalty to her sister and mother, and the friendship/trust between her, Peeta and Haymitch looks pretty realistic. But once the killing started, you can't help feeling like you're watching an episode of a very twisted, deadly and violent Survivor reality TV game show.

You just know that Katniss isn't going to die, and somehow she'd find a way to trick or kill her opponents no matter how strong or well trained those opponents might be. BECAUSE WE KNOW SHE'S THE HEROINE AND SHE CAN'T DIE TILL THE VERY END. So frankly it's a bit hard to feel TOO worry about her.

As to those opponents mentioned above, they look more like opponents or pawns in a game show than a bunch of real people. We know hardly anything about them, probably saves for the little girl from the 11th District whom Katniss befriended and tried to save. Those other kids from the other Districts hardly had any personality or emotion that we might recognize, so it became difficult to feel anything for them when they died or when Katniss or Peeta was forced to kill them.

We never got to feel much of the moral dilemma and guilt Katniss and Peeta had to endure when they were forced to kill other people, because those who died under their hands had basically nothing to do with them (again saves for the little girl from the 11th District). All of the tributes only first saw one another a few weeks before the Game starts after all of them were certain they must kill all of the other people in order to survive. The rule of the Hunger Game makes it crystal clear that they're supposed to be enemies, not friends and buddies.

That's when I want to bring up Battle Royale. In my opinion, it's clear that BR had gone into a more hideous, uncomfortable area than HG by making the teenagers who were forced to kill one another classmates. It's a bunch of students who had known each other for at least a few years, who were familiar with one another, someone you see everyday going to school and using the same classroom. Some of them had even became fast friends and/or lovers. And you got those students battling one another till the last one standing? Then you got some real satire, cruelty, moral dilemma and vivid human drama going on, instead of just an episode of reality game show which the goal is to survive and to 'take care' of those opponents whom no one really cares about.

More disturbing still, in BR the movie, they had the students' very own teacher to be the executive of such unimaginable ordeal, the satire on adults' violence became really heart-felt since teachers are supposed to be protectors of their students.

Back to HG, despite the well written story, the author offers us little space to explore the social, institutional violence and injustice that had allowed the Hunger Games to be operated for years. Maybe those issues are saved up for the latter books, I'm not sure.

My suggestion: It's a good book for teenagers or mature-enough kids; but for adults, it might be just a little too tamed. So do consider borrowing the book, you don't have to buy it.

Stay tune for the review of book 2!