The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The young adult (YA) Sci-Fi genre is not my normal choice of fiction but I got this novel for Christmas so it seemed ungrateful not to read it. Here’s what it’s about and what I thought about  it.

The novel  is set in the not too distant future in Panem which used to be  North America.  The mining District 12 used to be Appalachia. Society as we know and love it (!)  has collapsed and all the power is now centred on a shiny hi-tech city called simply the Capitol.

Since the quelling of  a peoples’ revolt , the twelve defeated districts have been ruled by The Treaty of Treason. Travel between the districts is forbidden except for officially sanctioned duties. As a further reminder of who’s in charge, the annual Hunger Games are held – a battle to the death engineered and manipulated by the Capitol’s gamemakers for the entertainment of the masses. The games’ rules are explained in the first chapter :

” In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks , the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins”.

All this is shown live on TV Big Brother style with cameras tracking even the remotest corners and secret hideaways.  At the end of the games, the victor becomes rich and famous and the arenas become tourist attractions – theme parks to celebrate the spectacle of death.  (It comes as no real surprise to learn that Suzanne Collins got the idea for the novel when zapping between a reality show and actual war coverage. )

The selection process is called the ‘reaping’ and you can be chosen between the ages of 12 to 18. The focus of the novel is on the two Tributes from District 12 –  Katniss Everdeen, aged 16,  who takes the place of her 12 year old sister Primrose (Prim) and  a baker’s son Peeta Mellark.

Suzanne Collins

The endorsement by Twilight author , Stephenie Meyer (“The Hunger Games is amazing”) on the book’s cover and the spine makes it obvious that readers of reaping age are its target audience.  With a plot that manages to squeeze fashion, death and romance into a reality show scenario, Collins knows that YAs like a cool mix of the ‘awesome’ with the ‘gross’. A little bit of the pomp and cruelty of the Roman Empire is thrown in for good measure (the official announcer’s name is Claudius Templesmith and the TV personality who interviews the tributes is Caesar Flickerman).

Non-YAs  (like me for instance) are likely to be a bit frustrated by the sketchy way the villains who control the Capitol are depicted. You never really get a sense of the sadistic minds who dreamed up the Hunger Games as a form of punishment. That’s to say the evil at the heart of the system has no face.

The theme may be dark but the gruesomeness is kept within PG levels with more attention being devoted to a battle of wits and maintaining the will to survive than on upping the blood and gore factor. The ever present threat of death is powerful enough to cause nightmares in those of a sensitive disposition (I’m a big boy now so I slept soundly!).

The concept of the novel is strong with enough twists and turns in the plot to keep you hooked. The character of Katmiss in particular is very well drawn.

On the whole, I was impressed – hell, I might even go and see the movie. The tagline for this reads: ‘Twelve districts. One shining capitol. One survivor.’ As YAs would say, “Awesome!”

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