Book Review :
The Hunger
Games
The Hunger
Games is
the first
book of
Suzanne Collins'
best selling
trilogy of
the same
name.
Almost everyone
in the
world has
read it
and the
people who
haven't have
seen the
movie. Should
you happen
to be
reading this
review but
so far
but have,
miraculously, neither
read or
seen either
I should
make it
clear that
there will
be spoilers.
You have
been warned.
The book
is roughly
divided into
three parts.
The first
part takes
place in
District 12,
the deprived
home territory of the main
character, Katniss
Evergreen and her
family. The
second is
set in
the Capitol,
the glitzy
city that
controls the
state of
Panem and
keeps the
outlying 12
districts in
brutal subjugation.
The third
part happens
inside the
vast set
of the
nation's most
popular and
savage TV
show, The
Hunger Games,
where 24
Tributes (2
from each
district) aged
between 12
and 18
must fight
to the
death. Additionally,
there is
also a
epiloguey fourth
bit which
occurs after
The Hunger
Games are
completed.
The first
part is
almost completely
successful. District
12, the
tough mining
area in
the Appalachian mountains whose inhabitants
struggle simply
to survive
and who
regularly succumb
to starvation
is impressively
realised. Sixteen
year old
Katniss Everdeen
is a
realistic product
of this
environment. After
the early
death of
her father
and the
subsequent slump
into depression
of her
mother, Katniss
is left
as sole
provider for
her mother
and her
younger sister,
Primrose (“Prim”). She
works with
her only
friend, Gale,
hunting illegally
outside the
fenced confines
of the
district to
kill animals
they can
eat or
trade. She
is alert,
cunning and
loath to
trust anyone
though extremely
loyal when
she does. Above
all, she
is a
survivor who, despite recognizing the injustice that blights the lives
of pretty much all inhabitants of District 12, knows the harsh realities of existence means she cannot afford much compassion for
those outside
her family
(save Gale).
However, Her devotion to her sister is unconditional and when Prim's name
is selected
at the Reaping to become one
of the
Tributes the older girl
immediately insists
on volunteering
in her
place. Prim
represents innocence
and Katniss
will die
to protect
it. Surprisingly,
I found
myself reminded
a little of the
relationship between
Holden Caulfied
and his
sister Phoebe
in The
Catcher in
The Rye. Like
Katniss, Holden's
dream was
to keep
his younger
sister and
her friends
safe and
ignorant of
the true
nature of
the world.
However, it
is in
the Reaping
where
Collins makes
her first
mis-step in
the book,
which is
the character
of Haymitch
Abernathy. Theoretically
as an
ex-victor of
the games
he is
supposed to
act as
a mentor
to the
District 12
tributes. However,
the murderous
actions he
was forced
to take
to win
the games
and his
subsequent mentoring
of numerous
losing (and
hence dying)
Tributes have
psychologically destroyed
him and
he is
now a
bitter alcoholic
who is initially contemptuous of Katniss
and her
fellow Tribute,
Peeta. This
in itself
is not
problematic. However,
his abrupt character change later in the
book when
he discovers
the two
District 12
tributes have
a chance
of victory
and suddenly becomes a shrewd
and supportive
mentor is
unconvincing. Katniss,
in a
bit of
uncharacteristic musing,
which hints
that Collins
herself was
very much
aware of
this difficulty,
suggests this
change in
Haymitch's character
was due
to all
the previous
District 12
Tributes having
no chance
and he
was driven
to drink
by watching
them die.
Katniss and
Peeta re-awaken
his interest
because they
can compete.
However, if
a writer
creates a
character who has
taken this
level of
mental punishment
and clearly demonstrates it had
almost destroyed
him then
to have
him just
snap out
of it
is poor and a little insulting to the reader.
The second part of the book takes place in the
Capitol. This was the least interesting section for me but was nevertheless far
from being a failure. Though some of the preparation for The Hunger Games parts
dragged – notably the design team who didn't really work at all being crude
lazily drawn stereotypes – it was more than defensible to build the tension for
The Games themselves and make them convincing as a mega-budget television show
where the hype and whipping up of the audience's anticipation is crucial.
Katniss' cool perspective on the preparations is excellent because Collins'
focusses explicitly on her hero as an experienced and sophisticated viewer of
the series – I particularly liked her
knowledge of the show's history and her references to the fact that in its
search for evermore cruel novelty it had not always satisfied the bloody
demands of its audience – the memory of the year when the Tributes had nothing
and so were too weak to fight and all ended up freezing and starving to death
was a nice touch. Collins admirably refuses to let Katniss feel sorry for
herself or become a victim in her own eyes whilst simultaneously making it
clear that she is fully aware she is almost certain to die. It is this remorseless, cold-eyed, unsentimental realism that makes Katniss' eventual
victory convincing.
It is also
during the Capitol sequence that Peeta reveals he loves Katniss. He has loved her since they were children
when he saved her from starvation by giving Katniss a loaf of
bread stolen from his father's bakery. Katniss has never really understood why
he did this. Again this is convincing. Katniss was poorer than Peeta and it was
a feat of endurance just to keep herself
and her family alive. Altruism was a luxury she could not comprehend so his
motivation mystifies her. Her suspicion of his initial televised declaration of love is also
credible. But as we move into The Hunger Games themselves Katniss questioning
of Peeta's motives become less and less satisfactory. Obviously, Collins
intends the reader to recognise the sincerity of Peeta's feelings well
before Katniss does and this begins effectively enough. In the end, however,
Collins keeps Katniss doubting Peeta for far too long and stretches the reader’s
credibility almost to breaking point. Katniss is simply too clever not to see
what is staring her in the face. What does work brilliantly, however, is
Katniss' use of Peeta's love (whether sincere or not) to create a narrative she
feels will appeal to the viewers and give her the best chance of surviving.
This is Katniss at her cunning and resourceful best.
Finally, we
come to The Hunger Games themselves. And Collins is faced with a big problem.
The obvious “villain” of the piece is the Capitol and its cruel demands for
human sacrifice. However, the Capitol is largely invisible in this sequence
which leaves a “villain void”. Collins solves this problem cleverly by creating
the Career Tributes. It is revealed that the richer districts such as 1 and 2
train Tributes from an early age to give them the best chance of winning and
receiving the rewards that the Capitol bestows on the victors. Therefore
effectively we have “good” Tributes
(those from the poorer districts) and “bad” Tributes (the Careers). But whilst a neat solution it is also a
cop-out as it means Collins dodges putting Katniss in any truly morally
difficult positions – she conveniently only has to kill “bad” Tributes.
This
unambitious decision by Collins is what makes the book in the final analysis no
more than a good thriller. The Career Tributes are just as much victims as
Katniss (one could even argue more so as they are destined to fight to the
death whereas she is simply unlucky). Despite their extensive training they are
nevertheless children fighting for their lives and while it would be wrong to expect
Katniss to show much concern for them – they are after all trying to kill her –
the author should have worked harder to make the reader reflect on this.
Instead Cato (the most dangerous Career) especially is depicted as a sort of robotic terminator invested
with such blood-lust that he is deemed worthy of no sympathy at all. By mistakenly
switching the reader's primary feeling to being anti-Careers rather than
anti-Capitol, Collins wins the battle but loses the war. What I mean by this is
that she succeeds in making The Games section a thrilling ride but by the time
it is over the reader is no longer that bothered about the wider issues and the
real “villain” - the Capitol.
To be fair
to Collins, she makes a valiant effort to undo this mistake with the final
epiloguey section and the appearance of President Snow but it is not
particularly successful – the reader exhausted after the climactic fight with
Cato is in no mood to redirect their sympathy once again and the book fizzles
out with the unsatisfactory ending having “there will be a sequel”
written all over it
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