With summer upon us, I hope to get more time to read than I do in the school year (despite the pretty substantial to-do list that I’ve compiled for myself), and today I knocked out my first book of the season. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about Suzanne Collins‘ The Hunger Games, mostly going back and forth over how great it was, but very little information about the actual plot. Finally, on the recommendation of Erin and a couple of other friends, I took the plunge into the first volume of the trilogy.
Set in a war-torn future where control of the North American continent has fallen to a single, oppressive “Panem” government, this novel tells of a young woman forced to compete in the deadliest competition in her world. As punishment for a long-ago uprising against the Capitol, each year the 12 districts of Panem select two “tributes” — a teenage boy and a teenage girl — to send into the Hunger Games, a brutal tournament of hunting and death, from which only one person a year can return alive. Katniss Everdeen, our heroine, is the tribute from District 12, the poorest and most put-upon of the nation’s twelve districts. Although an accomplished hunter, Katniss will have to face people who have spent their lives preparing for the Games, for whom bringing home the glory of victory is their own purpose in life, as well as a set of clever and cunning Gamemakers intent on changing the games whenever necessary to keep it interesting.
The whole idea of being forced into a competition to the death isn’t new at all. We can go back at least to the gladiator days of ancient Rome for that one (probably longer) and we see popular examples as recently as 1999′s Battle Royale. What really sets this book apart, I think, is Collins’ remarkable skill at not only constructing an interesting world, but then using that world as an active participant in the story, not just a backdrop. The way Katniss enters the games, for example, defies any sort of stereotype or cliche you would expect in a story of this nature.
Once inside the arena, Katniss is constantly aware that everything she does is being filmed and broadcast to the rest of Panem. That becomes important when you consider that wealthy sponsors on the outside are allowed to buy and send the participants gifts like food, medicine, and supplies, and if they don’t like what they’re seeing, the gifts don’t come. Because of this Katniss is never entirely sure about the motivations of her allies inside the games, and neither are the readers. We know when Katniss is being honest and when she’s just playing it up for the cameras, but what about Peeta? What about Rue? The constant uncertainty makes the plot infinitely more compelling than a standard story of this type, where you’d just have those kids out to kill each other against those hoping to defy the system that forced them into the Game. (There is still a degree of that, it’s unavoidable, but it’s not nearly as prevalent as in Battle Royale, to stick with that example.)
In truth, I find I’m actually very sorry that I didn’t try this series until the third and final book has already been published. In other series I’ve followed — Harry Potter being the best example — half the fun of being a fan comes after you read each new installment, talking with other fans and speculating about what’s coming up next for our heroes. Sadly, I’ve already missed all that and must simply attempt to remain spoiler-free until I read the other two books in the series. But rest assured, I’m going to do that soon, because the story is incredibly well-told, I really have no idea where Collins can take this story in the second two books, and I’m very excited to find out.
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