[Books] The Hunger Games - It's not Battle Royale for kids, damnit!

[Wahad]

So with the ''What are you reading?" thread filling up with more and more people who have read the series, and the movie coming out next week, I figure it was reason enough to make a thread, both for discussion and getting even more people to read it. Let's do it!

The book:

The Hunger Games​

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The story is set in a post-apocalyptic North America, which has been re-christened as Panem and divided into 12 districts, each with a specialized product like luxury products, clothing or coal mining, plus the Capitol, where the rich and powerful make their home. Our protagonist: Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl who lives in the poorest area of district 12, the coal mining district. With her sister Primrose and her mother she tries to eke out a living by hunting game outside the district fences (which is illegal) with her friend Gale, and selling the animals on the black market.​

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The driving force behind the plot is the Hunger Games, which is an event instated by the Capitol to keep the population under control after a civil war where a former district (13) got wiped off the map. Each year, one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen are selected as Tribute to participate in the Hunger Games. They are taken to the Capitol to prepare for a fight to the death in an arena where both the environment and the participants are their enemy. The Hunger Games are broadcasted around every district, to ensure that everyone sees what happens. Alongside another boy from her part of town called Peeta and under the guiding hand of her drunk mentor Haymitch, Katniss participates in the Hunger Games and so we have the events of the first book and the movie.​

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The book itself is a page-turner. Though Suzanne Collins' style can sometimes get a bit clunky, given that it's aimed at YA audiences, it lends itself excellently to action scenes which are almost without exception intense and gripping and sometimes may seem a bit too graphic for younger audiences. As the book is written from the perspective of Katniss, it may seem sometimes that there's a bit too much telling and not enough showing (golden rule of writing!), but I find that if you can put yourself past the style for a bit, the story turns from good to great.​

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There's two more books, namely Catching Fire and Mockingjay, which explore the events

Spoiler

after Katniss and Peeta win the Hunger Games together and Katniss finds herself at the foundation of a rebellion, spearheaded by the resistance based in the lost district 13

I spoilered that because I don't know how many of you have read all of the books yet and I don't want to step on any toes.​

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The movie:​

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Although it premiered last night, the actual release will be next week, on March 21/22/23. (depending on where you live)​

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A trailer:​

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A clip:​

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The cast:​

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Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone, X-men: First Class) as Katniss​

Josh Hutcherson (Bridge to Terabithia) as Peeta Mallark​

Liam Hemsworth (Neighbours, McLeod's Daughters) as Gale Hawthorne​

Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy​

Elizabeth Banks (Zack and Miri Make a Porno) as Effie Trinket, District Twelve's liaison from the Capitol.​

Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Katniss' and Peeta's stylist.​

For the complete cast, go here.​

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Early twitter reviews of the premiere:​

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Alright, that's a lot of words so I'll shut up for now. Let's talk Hunger Games everyone!​

 

[ThatNickGuy]

I finished Catching Fire just last night and immediately went right to Mockingjay. They're incredibly engrossing books, even with a lot of clunky writing. There are many awkward sentences that, when I read them, I think, "If you had just written it this way instead, it would've sounded less awkward." So, I don't know what it is about these books. It's not that they're badly written, but they're not as well-written as, say, Harry Potter. Though they're certainly much better written than Twilight. I don't know what it is about them that makes them so engrossing, but you can be sure I'll be done the third book by the end of the week.

As for the movie? Totally stoked. Everything about it looks great. Apparently, the producers haven't planned sequels until they see how well this one does. Guessing from the hype, I don't think that's going to be a problem.

 

[Espy]

The plot sounds like the author took "The Running Man" and "The Long Walk" by King and mashed them into a kid friendly book.

 

[Wahad]

The first book has shades of that, certainly, as well as the mentioned-in-title Battle Royale, though when the trilogy progresses in the second and third book it grows into something more.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Nick, I gotta say, I don't agree on the clunky writing thing. There is an occasional awkward sentence, and I think the on-purpose incomplete sentences would've been right with commas, but overall I found it very smooth prose.

I probably would've read the series a couple years ago if it wasn't for the whole "sounds just like Battle Royale", which it's not. I also don't think post-apocalyptic is the right term so much as dystopian. Post-apocalypse tends to act more as a total societal breakdown. There's a society here, but its relation between classes it totally fucked (just like real life! )

Wife and I will be seeing the movie opening weekend. I'm a bit concerned because, as I said in the reading thread, in a way we are the Capitol audience for the Games, and in the book Katniss often did things for reasons different than were outwardly apparent because she was faking things for the sake of the audience and getting benefits from them. Maybe they play up an ambiguity here, but if they just show her actions, the viewer gets the wrong idea, and if you show facial expressions and/or dialogue, it makes her look stupid.

But whatever; I enjoyed the book so if the movie doesn't live up to it, the book's still there.

 

[Hailey Knight]

The plot sounds like the author took "The Running Man" and "The Long Walk" by King and mashed them into a kid friendly book.

It's not really kid-friendly. That it's listed under "Children's Books" on Amazon is hilarious. Teen certainly, aka YA, but it's not for children under tween level. Putting it in the category "Children's Books" makes it sound like it's okay for 8-year-olds.