The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins
Stars: 2
Review by: Littérateur
Destination: fictional future country of Panem

Maybe it's because this is at its essence a book for kids. Maybe it's because I couldn't look at this book as a novel concept, given that the Japanese cult classic, Battle Royale, is a favorite film of mine. To be quite honest, I still have a hard time believing author Collins came up with the idea for the book on her own, given that Takami Koushun's novel was published over a decade ago, and its film adaptation has garnered international acclaim. Overall, I was not a fan of this book.

The greatest weakness that I perceived in Collins's novel is her inability to properly complement the dark themes of the gladiator competition with the characters of her protagonists and their Capitol audience. I imagine the author might argue that it was her intention to portray ignorance and bloodthirstiness in her reality-TV audience, but most of the Capitol's characters felt unrealistically one-dimensional and downright silly. The Games' participants, as well, similarly lacked a sense of depth as characters (surprisingly, given the enormity of the difficulties they faced).

Finally, I believe that the story suffered from predictability. Just like the young protagonists of Harry Potter, heroine Katniss Everdeen runs into a multitude of lucky situations that take the Games far beyond their standard run. At the beginning of the Games, we understand that there are some very difficult actions that each participant will have to take if they want to survive, yet Collins enables Katniss to happily progress through the tournament while avoiding the most heart-wrenching and morally ambiguous possibilities.