The Hunger Games

I read this like I was starved for oxygen. 454 pages read in big gulps over less than 24 hours, with reluctant sleep in between. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the first in a trilogy with the second, Catching Fire, thankfully being published in a few weeks. I was a little slow getting around to this but with frequent mention in the blogosphere and a personal recommendation from a friend, I knew that I had to read it, and now that I have read it, I am grateful that I did. Although I have read some great literature recently, it's not often that I find a book so compelling that I postpone sleeping until I've read one more chapter, then another, and then another... The Hunger Games is definitely an addictive Young Adult novel and I enjoyed every second of it.

The Hunger Games seems to be one of those books that gives you the impression that you are the last person to read it, when I know that isn't true (if, however, you are one of the last to read it then do plan to read is promptly). Stephen King "couldn't stop reading" either, according to the book's front cover, and I'm not being ironic when I say that this was incentive enough for me to read it; Stephen King is such a builder of suspense and I went through a phase as a young teenager of devouring his books (isn't it curious that as a young adult I read adult novels and now as an adult I love young adult ones?)

Set in a post-apocalyptic North America, where the country Panem rose from its ashes, twelve districts surround the Capitol and are completely at its mercy. As punishment for the Dark Days decades before, in which the districts rose up against the Capitol, were defeated and the thirteenth district obliterated, the Capitol hold the Hunger Games every year.

The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. 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.

The continuation of the Hunger Games is to quell any future rebellion; the Capitol are rich and the districts poor and the Hunger Games are about power. Every child between the ages of 12-18 are entered into the reaping, once for every year they are eligible and countless entries on behalf of themselves and their family for a tesserae, a meagre, individual supply of grain and oil; with provisions in such scarce supply and families starving, the poorer residents of districts are at more risk of being offered as tribute and the divide between rich and poor intensifies. The Capitol are corrupt and control the Districts through fear of the Hunger Games and in the battle against hunger in their everyday lives.

When Katniss Everdeen's younger sister, Prim, is drawn as a tribute, Katniss takes her place. Katniss has been providing for her family since her father died and is a competent hunter with her wits about her but she doesn't expect to survive the Hunger Games. However, Kathniss is a strong, female character with a rebellious nature and she surprises the Hunger Gamemakers, the audience (the Hunger Games is a reality show), and the other tributes, with a determined ability to survive. Where child is pitted against child, in a kill or be killed game (that is anything but a game), unexpected alliances and loyalties develop, especially with Peeta, her fellow tribute from District 12. Katniss is conflicted in her growing feelings for Peeta because of her friend, and fellow hunter at home, Gale, but out of their fight for survival grows a love story... but is it real?

Dystopian science fiction, The Hunger Games is a perversion of modern pageantry, talent and reality shows. It has echoes of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackon (reviewed here) and of Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, which I would love to read for the Japanese Literature Challenge. It also reminds me of Roman arenas where Gladiators fought to the death and I am intrigued what literature, myth, and history Collins may borrow from for the next in the trilogy... but only nineteen days to go until I find out.