I finally finished reading Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins. I had a
few difficulties while getting a hold of these books, but now finally I
finished them. It took me while to sit down and write my impressions after
going through everything (I’m one of those people who identify with characters
or at least pretend to live in the same world they are living in). There is the
first part of the third book coming out as a movie and I refused to watch any
of the movies until I read the books. Now that I read them, I can watch movies
too.
The story follows Katniss Everdeen, sixteen years old
girl who provides for her family ever since her father died. She’s the one that
takes care of her mother and younger sister. They live in dystopian world, they
are poor and the only thing that keeps them alive is Katniss’s abilities to
hunt. Their country organizes so called Hunger Games which are basically a
reality show where teenager fight till only one of them is alive, simply to
warn and entertain their citizens every year.
This year, Katniss takes place in Hunger Games to
replace her sister, for her to avoid danger. Books follow Katniss on the
journey where she first struggles to survive Hunger Games where odds aren’t
really in her favor, but also a civil war in her country where citizens aren’t
really happy with the lifestyle.
When you think about it, 12 districts, every
specialized in certain area of production to keep their country running. Some
of them are richer thanks to their relationship with Capitol, while some are so
poor that if they haven’t had black market of food people would die of hunger.
The borders between districts are pretty unbreakable, I got the impression that
you can’t really move from one district to another, especially since they learn
in school about the main discipline of their district so if you’d move, you
wouldn’t be educated to survive in another district. Anyway, that’s just
something I thought about on the side.
Katniss is difficult character. If she was a real
world person, she’d be antisocial, stubborn, caring and loving for people
around her, ready to do anything to protect them and fight anyone. It would not
have been easy to get along with her, maybe not even like her because you
wouldn’t be able to understand her. However, in the book, you look at things
from her perspective what make it a bit easier to understand her.
Since she’s the one carrying out the plot, it makes it
that much interesting. She is strong, she doesn’t care about fashion (one of
the reasons I wasn’t able to identify with her) but that’s because her whole
life was struggle to survive. She doesn’t like to be controlled or told what to
do. Imagine just what would you do if you were in her shoes.
The plot is something new for me, very interesting,
diverse and dynamic. I like how there is romantic aspect to it all, but it’s by
no means too dominant, it’s just there to accompany the rest of the story which
revolves about survival and twisted government policy.
Every next book is better than previous one and each
is kind of different. I’m not sure how to explain it thoroughly so I’ll just
leave it at that.
I’m positively surprised with these books. I don’t
want to spoil experience for others so I won’t be going in further details;
although there are so many interesting points that even if I wanted I wouldn’t
know where to start. I should probably find some book club to join so I can
discuss these things.
I hope movies are just as good, but I’m not ready to
watch yet. I need time for things to settle within me, to be sure in the
original impression before I join it with the movie impression.
Have you read these books and/or watched the movies?
What do you think about them? What’s your favorite part?
Be my book club please :)
Love, A.
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