Country: USA
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopia
Pages: 374
Describing The Hunger Games is going to be harder than I thought. I would have destroyed it last Thursday, for insulting my intelligence, but I gave myself a few days to think. It's not a shit novel. I didn't hate it from start to finish. The characters weren't superficial and their problems weren't insipid. But yet, I felt angry when I finished it, like somebody had pissed in my Cornflakes. Then it hit me. It's always more difficult to accept when somebody disappoints you than when you're being alienated from the start. I started The Hunger Games with a vague, mostly unfounded prejudice against Young Adult fiction, then I got conquered by Suzanne Collins' writing after fifty something pages. But she fucked up on me. She took my trust and drove it into a brick wall.
Since I have learned about The Hunger Games and decided to read it because of the blogosphere reviews, I take for granted that you know the story. The nation of Panem was built from the ruins of North America and twelve districts live in fear of a central governing region called Capitol. Every year, the government take two kids (one boy, one girl) from each district and make them fight to death for entertainment purposes. It's also a way to affirm their dominance over the districts. Very Battle Royale, I know. I'm not too sure how that is, but they're richer and all (anyway, this is a minor hitch). So Katniss Everdeen was not supposed to participate to The Hunger Games. Her little sister Primrose was chosen. But since Katniss is a genuinely nice person and a caregiver of nature, she volunteered to take her place. Oh yeah, there's also a male tribute from her district (district twelve that is), dude is named Peeta and she kind of likes him. But that's the least of her worries.
Here we go. Katniss Everdeen is a great character. She is a strong-willed, independent young girl and she supports her family by hunting in the woods with her friend Gale (who is, by the way, too awesome for the little page time he has). While she participates to The Hunger Games, you can see (and admire...at least I did) what she's made of. Put under the most difficult circumstances, she keeps her cool and most important, her humanity. She doesn't change into a merciless predator and kill her way out of the competition. No, her caregiver nature takes over and she takes on herself to team up with Rue, a little girl from district eleven who's been unlucky enough to have been chosen in this competition at twelve years old. The Hunger Games (at least for a while) is not about the gruesome kills, like its Japanese spiritual predecessor, it's about survival and keeping your humanity under extreme tension.
BUT....
Somewhere around page 240, Suzanne Collins decided to take her novel and poop on it.
So far, it was a decent novel that played by the rules. It had a dramatic arc and a pretty good one. But there was something missing. Katniss didn't have a boyfriend. Suzanne Collins couldn't wait until the games were done and get Katniss a badass hunter boyfriend (who was a logical fit for her ANYWAY) and she stopped being that nice person, so she could take care of that ball-and-chain of a co-tribute, Peeta, the bakery boy (isn't it ironic? A baker's son named Peeta?). I got nothing against the idea that a girl becomes purveyor for her boyfriend. But it's not sexually progressive or anything. I mean, if Katniss was a boy and Peeta was a girl, it would be a sexist novel. Peeta Mellarck (or whatever his name is) is the equivalent of that silly-love-interest-girl who's tied to the train tracks in Westerns.
What killed it is how serious Suzanne Collins takes this relationship. A lot more serious that any other elements of the book. There are lengthy scenes were Katniss and Peeta have locked themselves inside a cave and there's not a whole lot going on, except those two love birds, cuddling and hoping the other won't die. The worse part is that Collins first used romance as a very interesting elements. For the first two hundred pages, you didn't know if Peeta was sincere or full of shit. It was a political card. But awesomely enough Katniss has more pressing issues to deal with.
So, The Hunger Games is one of those stories that do a 180 degrees turn. One minute, you're reading something and the other, you're reading something else. I was so angry by how corny, predictable and FORCED it ended that the first thing I did was to go on Wikipedia and read the spoilers, so I wouldn't have to read the next two books. I'm going to use it as an example in the future, about how you don't NEED romance in a friggin' book and that girl protagonists should free themselves from romance stories, which they are always associated with. You can't do a lot worse than leave the foundation of your very self to take care of an incapable, impotent and uninteresting character. Oh wait? You can leave your two main characters off the main developments of the story THEIR VERY LIVES DEPEND ON, because they're too busy kissing and all. I would have given The Hunger Games a positive review if it had a hundred less pages. Now it's impossible. I can't unread that last part. Fire away if you disagree.
Since I have learned about The Hunger Games and decided to read it because of the blogosphere reviews, I take for granted that you know the story. The nation of Panem was built from the ruins of North America and twelve districts live in fear of a central governing region called Capitol. Every year, the government take two kids (one boy, one girl) from each district and make them fight to death for entertainment purposes. It's also a way to affirm their dominance over the districts. Very Battle Royale, I know. I'm not too sure how that is, but they're richer and all (anyway, this is a minor hitch). So Katniss Everdeen was not supposed to participate to The Hunger Games. Her little sister Primrose was chosen. But since Katniss is a genuinely nice person and a caregiver of nature, she volunteered to take her place. Oh yeah, there's also a male tribute from her district (district twelve that is), dude is named Peeta and she kind of likes him. But that's the least of her worries.
Here we go. Katniss Everdeen is a great character. She is a strong-willed, independent young girl and she supports her family by hunting in the woods with her friend Gale (who is, by the way, too awesome for the little page time he has). While she participates to The Hunger Games, you can see (and admire...at least I did) what she's made of. Put under the most difficult circumstances, she keeps her cool and most important, her humanity. She doesn't change into a merciless predator and kill her way out of the competition. No, her caregiver nature takes over and she takes on herself to team up with Rue, a little girl from district eleven who's been unlucky enough to have been chosen in this competition at twelve years old. The Hunger Games (at least for a while) is not about the gruesome kills, like its Japanese spiritual predecessor, it's about survival and keeping your humanity under extreme tension.
BUT....
Somewhere around page 240, Suzanne Collins decided to take her novel and poop on it.
So far, it was a decent novel that played by the rules. It had a dramatic arc and a pretty good one. But there was something missing. Katniss didn't have a boyfriend. Suzanne Collins couldn't wait until the games were done and get Katniss a badass hunter boyfriend (who was a logical fit for her ANYWAY) and she stopped being that nice person, so she could take care of that ball-and-chain of a co-tribute, Peeta, the bakery boy (isn't it ironic? A baker's son named Peeta?). I got nothing against the idea that a girl becomes purveyor for her boyfriend. But it's not sexually progressive or anything. I mean, if Katniss was a boy and Peeta was a girl, it would be a sexist novel. Peeta Mellarck (or whatever his name is) is the equivalent of that silly-love-interest-girl who's tied to the train tracks in Westerns.
What killed it is how serious Suzanne Collins takes this relationship. A lot more serious that any other elements of the book. There are lengthy scenes were Katniss and Peeta have locked themselves inside a cave and there's not a whole lot going on, except those two love birds, cuddling and hoping the other won't die. The worse part is that Collins first used romance as a very interesting elements. For the first two hundred pages, you didn't know if Peeta was sincere or full of shit. It was a political card. But awesomely enough Katniss has more pressing issues to deal with.
So, The Hunger Games is one of those stories that do a 180 degrees turn. One minute, you're reading something and the other, you're reading something else. I was so angry by how corny, predictable and FORCED it ended that the first thing I did was to go on Wikipedia and read the spoilers, so I wouldn't have to read the next two books. I'm going to use it as an example in the future, about how you don't NEED romance in a friggin' book and that girl protagonists should free themselves from romance stories, which they are always associated with. You can't do a lot worse than leave the foundation of your very self to take care of an incapable, impotent and uninteresting character. Oh wait? You can leave your two main characters off the main developments of the story THEIR VERY LIVES DEPEND ON, because they're too busy kissing and all. I would have given The Hunger Games a positive review if it had a hundred less pages. Now it's impossible. I can't unread that last part. Fire away if you disagree.