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The Hunger Games (Book 1)
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Original price was: $14.99.$8.98Current price is: $8.98.
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In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games,” a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.
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Categories: Travel
Product name:
The Hunger Games (Book 1)
Price:
Original price was: $14.99.$8.98Current price is: $8.98.
Hannibal0020 –
Summarizing my thoughts on the Hunger Games is probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do, simply because I’ve never felt such an emotional connection to any piece of fiction before and I highly doubt my written review will be doing it justice.
North America has been completely eradicated and reborn as Panem, a bleak and twisted shadow of the nations it once comprised. Under the totalitarian regime of the Capitol, citizens are segregated into one of twelve districts, making equality and personal freedom a thing of the past. To further exude their absolute authority over the masses, the Capitol holds a spectacle of blood every year known as the Hunger Games. Every year, one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve to eighteen are picked randomly from each district to become tributes. They’re then sent to the Capitol to be placed in a massive outdoor arena to fight to the death for the entertainment of all of Panem, and for the glory and benefit of the victor’s district. For the denizens of District 12, poverty and the struggle for survival is their entire existence, no one understands this more than sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen. Ever since the tragic passing of her father, Katniss has tasked herself with the duty of supporting her mother and younger sister Prim. She does this by hunting on the forbidden grounds beyond District 12, and by trading her kills for other necessities. All of this changes when Prim is chosen against all odds to become a tribute for the Hunger Games. To save her sister, Katniss voluntarily becomes the tribute in her place. From there, she’s whisked off to the Capitol alongside her fellow tribute and childhood acquaintance, Peeta. To survive the Hunger Games, it will take every ounce of skill, instinct, and intellect she can muster.
Suzanne Collins has a very distinct style that I’ve never quite seen realized before in fiction writing. Apart from her superb skill at world-building and strong characterization, it’s her ability to emotionally connect the reader to the protagonist in the story. She understands how human beings naturally tend to sympathize with and form emotional attachments with people who are in a great deal of emotional trauma or physical pain. It’s this intangible emotional bond with Katniss that Collins uses to effectively, and at times maliciously, pull you into her dreadful dystopia. I actually found reading the first few chapters of the Hunger Games to be difficult, not because it was bad god forbid, but because I found it to be emotionally disturbing. It’s done so sadistically well that reading the Hunger Games becomes less of a desire and more of a necessity, you need to find out what happens next.
Of course this emotional connection wouldn’t be possible if the protagonist wasn’t likable, fortunately that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Katniss as a whole essentially personifies every character trait that teen novelists almost always try to avoid. She isn’t some frail flower who requires a man to define herself as an individual. Nor is she bogged down to the now very cliché snarky heroine persona that we’ve seen a thousand times before. Yet she still manages to have a delightfully subtle sense of humor to prevent the book from becoming completely morose in its tone. But her greatest trait that I admire is her indomitable spirit. Even when suffering through a series of physical and psychological horrors induced upon her by the Capitol, she never loses her fire.
Upon being dropped into the arena, the book drastically shifts in direction. No longer focusing on the contrived spectacle of the games and instead on the games itself. Gone are the pretty dresses, make-up, and gourmet dinners. It’s a gritty, primal, and relentless struggle for survival. Collins really knows how to make a very fast paced narrative and it truly shows here. It also works in Collin’s favor that Katniss isn’t characterized as a cliche Hollywood bad-ass. We know she has the ingenuity, instincts, and skill-set to stand a chance at winning but she doesn’t possess the mentality of a killer. This makes the notion of her becoming the victor not so far-fetched. But at the same time she always feel vulnerable thus adding precious tension and drawing us ever more into the urgent narrative that Collins so expertly weaves.
Most people will without a doubt compare this novel to other books with similar plots like The Running Man and Battle Royale. But I personally like to compare this book to George Orwell’s 1984, a book that also imagined a futuristic totalitarian dystopia. He succeeded in fully realizing his horrific vision of the future, but in my opinion it fell short due to the completely flat characters and boring plot. Never once did I ever feel like a part of his world, nor did I cringe at the thought of Big Brother’s gaze shadowing my every move. I was an observer, not an inhabitant and thus the shock-value that was intended was lessened in its affect. The Hunger Game’s dystopian future is much more immersive due to the aforementioned emotional connection the reader shares with Katniss, something I feel 1984 could never hope to achieve. It makes the ludicrous premise of the actual Hunger Games much more believable, and thus more despicable.
There is also a romance sub-plot involving Katniss and Peeta. I had apprehension to this at first due to romances in teen novels portraying completely forced relationships between characters. Yet the Hunger Games not only avoids this pitfall, it actually manages to satire this stereotype in my eyes. In an interesting ploy, Peeta stages a romance with Katniss in the hopes of gaining the populace’s favor in the Hunger Games. They’ve literally used the Capitol’s regime of totalitarianism to deceive the masses and gain their favor. It’s literally a contrived romance, yet at the same time this causes Katniss to ponder how much of it is truly deception, and if there’s any sense of honesty to their relationship. But more importantly, if she can truly trust the boy who she is supposed to kill to survive. It’s a very welcome change of pace from the typical love-struck schoolchildren succumbing to sheer sexual desire instead of a strong character-driven relationship. It’s emotionally endearing unlike the typical cringe-worthy schlock written for the target teenage demographic.
This is the first book that I’ve ever read out of hundreds that will truly stay in your thoughts and pull on your conscience. It’s the exceptionally paced narrative, believable world-building in conjunction with such wonderfully realized characters that’ll invest you in Katniss’s painful tale. Like I said at the beginning, I’ve never read any book in my life that upon completion has had such an emotional effect on me, and I’m sure my words aren’t doing it justice. I’ll just finish this by saying Suzanne Collins has created a book that has left me entranced long after I’d reached the final page. It will truly consume you.
Kenneth Mugi –
REASON FOR BOOK CHOICE
I am an aggressive reader now, for sure, but I didn’t used to be. As such I found out about Hunger Games via a trailer on Apple.com. It looked intriguing and the main character had a lean and angry feel to her that I hadn’t seen in a while. I like kick ass female heroines and the story seemed to tick all my desirability boxes.
Then a few reviewers said the movie wasn’t as great as it could be, so I passed and decided to wait for the DVD release. However, a couple of weeks ago I was trawling for a good book and I thought: Hunger Games, why not? I’m currently writing my own YA book and I thought that I should be pragmatic and check out the competition. I didn’t expect it to be good, I certainly expect it to be great. It was just the new Twilight that I had to read because the world demanded it.
COVER
The cover for the Kindle version I purchased is the movie tie-in edition. I’m not sure what to think of that. I know that keeping your marketing material the same is a good idea, but would it be such an ask to have a unique Kindle cover that really takes advantage of its grey scale processing? We’re not talking a single independent writer here, this is a professional squad. Surely they could design something that grabs you straight off from the get go.
The cover itself is fine. It’s Katniss’ mockingbird on fire and I already knew it looked great in print at the local bookshop. In greyscale, however, not so much. All the vividness and contrast has been drained out of the picture; therefore, even though it’s in super high definition, it doesn’t grab me on the Kindle.
It’s also strange that the cover suffers from the ‘blank space’ issue a lot of books have around its left and right sides. I went off at Alan Parr last week about and I haven’t changed my opinion. This is really lazy work and whoever put the book together for the Kindle should be spoken to about it. Yes, they would have to modify the file but it would be worth it.
BOOK LAYOUT
Even though the book still starts right into the novel (please, can we not do that?), I found it had all the essentials: TOC, chapter headings, acknowledgments and a really great way of promoting the next book. Unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan of the way the TOC had been laid out and although I understand it’s not the Kindle version creator’s fault (because he / she was staying true to the source material) it really reeks of sloppiness.
I can comprehend that fans of the novel would want it changed as little as possible from one version to another, but I’m not sure they would complain about aesthetic changes like chapter headings. I say this because the TOC chapter listings are 1, 2, 3 and so on. It works when you create a printed book because you can make those numbers really large but as TOC headings, it looks like an eighth grader put the table of contents together. Surely they could have changed them to One, Two, Three and kept the spirit of the book.
One thing I love about the layout is their marketing. At the very end of the novel is a picture promoting the new novel: Catching Fire, and it’s great. It let’s you know that the other book is available, what it’s called and it’s not trying to force you to read anymore. I’m already thinking for picking it up in the Christmas period (or when I have holidays) to add to my list of reading material.
STORY
The story is pretty well known by now: Katniss has voluntarily put herself forward to compete in the Hunger Games so that she can save her sister from a likely death. This games are a survival tournament between the 12 different districts that is held in the Capitol and features participants from the ages of 13 (?) to 18.
The main story: survival, is added to with the possibility of romance, audience manipulation and defiance against an oppressive regime. I loved it. I really loved it. The story arc is tightly wound and just goes up and up in its tension as the book progresses.
I found Suzanne Collins totally ruthless as an author (for this kind of book she needs to be) and that was overwhelmingly refreshing for me as a reader. No-one is spared. Friendships are made because of the need to survive and then characters are dispatched as if the Hunger Games was happening in reality right now. There’s no sentimentality in this book or inauthentic moments and that’s what makes the story work because it feels as if you’re right there every step of the way with Katniss and the other competitors.
Also, the book ends. The Hunger Games end and that makes it a compelling (and fulfilling) read.
CHARACTERS
It’s been a long time since I’ve read characters who I’ve cared about so deeply. I love Katniss and her strength, her confusion, her struggle with humanity versus survival. It’s powerful, it’s evocative and it made my heart jump more than once. She’s a character that hasn’t just turned up with a bow because that’s what the author wants, she’s a character who grew to use a bow because of her fierce determination to survive. I feel that things are going to go badly for her in the next two novels but you can’t help but hope she makes it somehow.
There’s a great mentor in Haymitch who I hope will be fleshed out more in the second book, a complex and volatile love interest in Peeta, an uncertain ally in Cinna and a fascinating interviewer in Caesar. I think what I loved about all these characters was the fact that they arrive as real people. They have histories, secrets and their own goals Suzanne hasn’t told us about yet. Nothing feels deliberately hidden in the book but you can feel it lurking beneath the surface and just waiting to explode.
I think Cinna was probably my favourite outside of Katniss and I’m looking forward to seeing if he gets more space in the next novel.
WRITING
Wow. This is incredibly written. The end of the book says that Suzanne Collins explores the effects of war in her novels and you can feel that. She writes with a purpose and drive that I did not feel in Twilight or Switched. Everything feels stripped back, every word feels as if it should belong on the page and there’s no fancy literary games to be played with the author. I felt as if Katniss was speaking to me directly all the way through.
It’s written in the first person perspective and in the present tense. I think the narrator is a little unreliable (she’s only 18) but has a unique and strong voice that you can hear in each sentence on the page. After reading the big ones: Switched and Twilight, I’m pretty comfortable saying this is in a whole different league. There was nothing wrong with Stephanie Meyer or Amanda Hocking’s writing ability in those books, but they were not at this level. Not this gripping, not with this strength of tone and force behind each word. It was like being kicked in the teeth and then pulled behind a chariot for three thousand metres.
CONCLUSION
Is it worth five dollars? Yes. Hell yes.
I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was for me to read Hunger Games. I really struggled through the last two books and thought that maybe I had lost my ability to enjoy well written novels because I was writing more myself. I wasn’t. The last two books just weren’t that good.
Hunger Games grabbed me from the first page and held me until its bittersweet end. I started it at ten o’clock at night and finished the novel the next morning. It’s about 80,000 words but it didn’t feel like it. It felt so much smaller than the other two novels I had just read. I loved Hunger Games and it made me believe that there was some more Young Adult fiction out there for me.
You don’t need to like YA to enjoy Hunger Games, you don’t need to like vampires, love torn women or any of the tropes of the genre. This is fiction at its finest with an immediacy that would have made George Orwell proud.
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¡Excelente película! –
Muy interesante
Miguel –
Para un regalo gran libro
Andrei Matveev –
High quality book, nice to read.
van dorst sabrina –
came a little bit damaged
Vikram rathod –
I am 23 years old, before hunger games I was not into reading novels, or any kind of books other than academic reading.
Earlier I was thinking that reading novels is waste you get nothing out of it, but hunger games showed me reality.
After first movie of hunger games, I thought let’s try book.
Next day I purchased book and in a week i completed all three books it was soo good story for me, I cried when “Finnic” died.
All books were over and I felt same vibration in my body as I was child and playing cricket in field and my summer vacation was near end,
A feeling that after two days there will be schools and I won’t be able to play in field anymore.
When I read THE END, i felt that from tomorrow there will be no more of Katniss, there will be no more to read about HUNGER GAMES.
And in real life after that feeling, my family moved from village to city and I was not able to feel that vibration again until I read HUNGER GAMES.
Thanks Suzanne for bringing HUNGER GAMES in my life.