COULD YOU SURVIVE ON YOUR OWN, IN THE WILD, WITH EVERYONE OUT TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LIVE TO SEE THE MORNING?
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual 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 steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before--and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she …
COULD YOU SURVIVE ON YOUR OWN, IN THE WILD, WITH EVERYONE OUT TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LIVE TO SEE THE MORNING?
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual 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 steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before--and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weight survival against humanity and life against love.
Review of 'The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is a romance.
And it's also every bit as good as people claimed it was, and I'm sorry I doubted them and put off reading it for so long.
This is a story about a girl out for survival and the protection of her family, and the boy down the street madly in love with her.
And something about a hunger games thing full of children out to kill each other. I know that the games is the driving plot, but honestly the romantic side of the story is what drew me in, and I can see how easily the people watching the games in-story shared my feelings. In fact, it's easy to sayI honestly cared more about Peeta and his feelings for Katniss than pretty much anything else going on in the novel.
The writing is smooth and while the present-tense threw me at first, after a few …
This is a romance.
And it's also every bit as good as people claimed it was, and I'm sorry I doubted them and put off reading it for so long.
This is a story about a girl out for survival and the protection of her family, and the boy down the street madly in love with her.
And something about a hunger games thing full of children out to kill each other. I know that the games is the driving plot, but honestly the romantic side of the story is what drew me in, and I can see how easily the people watching the games in-story shared my feelings. In fact, it's easy to sayI honestly cared more about Peeta and his feelings for Katniss than pretty much anything else going on in the novel.
The writing is smooth and while the present-tense threw me at first, after a few pages I eased into it and stopped noticing that anything was odd and before I knew it I had finished the book. Everything is detailed just enough, and the focus on food in particular really sets the moments. You can smell it and feel your stomach grumble along with the heroine. The violence, too, in particular wasn't all that bad--most of the deaths occur out of Katniss' sightline, so we only get to see a few (and even then they're not very detailed). I can't tell if I'm desensitized or not having seen much worse, but for a book about killing children it didn't seem all that violent. Then again, I read a lot of gory serial killer novels--so this really wasn't all that bad.
If I had any complaints about the story, it'd be Katniss. Character wise, she's sort of all over the place. She's strong when she needs to be, she's weepy when she needs to be, smart when she needs it, dumb when appropriate, ignorant of social rules or witty on cue both at the drop of the hat--and so forth. You do get a feel for who she is, but her only flaw seems to be not noticing Peeta's huge, gaping, authentic crush on her. And even that's sort of a plot point and wink to the audience.
But, any issues I have with Katniss are balanced out by Peeta--of whom pretty much stole all my fangirl giddiness the second he arrived. His heart is on his sleeve and it's obvious even through Katniss' point of view how much he adores her--even if she doesn't realize it herself. My favorite moment, that solidified his place as favorite character (After Effie, of course), was when he loses his cool during a session with Haymitch and shouts at Katniss about how capable she is and how even his own mother thinks she'll be the victor. The hurt at both his mother's words, and his own feelings playing against him are vivid and paint an amazing picture of him. Peeta's got his flaws, too, with his ignorance out in the arena itself and maybe being too open about himself, but his heart's in the right place.
Granted, I may be a bit biased when it comes to Peeta.
The rest of the cast is up to task as well, and I found myself liking just about everyone on screen. Katniss & Peeta's team were all fun and colorful characters. Cinna's too much fun (really he is.) The few tributes who got names were interesting, and I found myself attached the the Boy from District 3 even though his time in the book was ridiculously short--I think he left us all with a bang. wink Cato, especially, turned out to be quite the heavy-hitter and it was fun watching him go from brutal to flat out crazy with rage. And of course one can't forget little Rue, and Gale sitting back home waiting.
Good book. Good read. & Now, to brace myself for the depressing sequels (if what little I've looked into is any indication).
Literatura para chavales, entretenida pero no se le puede pedir demasiado. Personajes sencillos, narraci��n r��pida sin ninguna complejidad, apta para el veranito.
Review of 'The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I have to give this five stars, because in all honesty, I really couldn't put it down. It's a holding but easy read, and I got through it in the equivalent of a day, in between everything else I was doing.
I haven't seen the film yet, and I won't until I've read the entire set. However, I have heard there are holes in the film plot, things missing, and bits altered, as often is when the industry makes books or games into films.
I mostly love books for their originality, but as much as I loved this, the plot isn't even remotely original. It's more or less Battle Royale.
I had heard a lot about The Hunger Games. There are books, there is a film. After a while I became intrigued and purchased the e-book. At first it was difficult to get ‘into’ the story, as I could not entirely place it in its temporal context, but as soon as that was over (took me a while, I admit), the book became good, and more interesting as I progressed.
I find the background of the Hunger Games shocking. Think of a society that looks nice, advanced, refined, and then there are the Hunger Games. The background of the games is laid out very well in the story, and it’s done in a way that is not boring. The story moves along at a good pace and has a nice balance between introspection of the main character, Katniss, and what happens around her. The story also shows what can go …
I had heard a lot about The Hunger Games. There are books, there is a film. After a while I became intrigued and purchased the e-book. At first it was difficult to get ‘into’ the story, as I could not entirely place it in its temporal context, but as soon as that was over (took me a while, I admit), the book became good, and more interesting as I progressed.
I find the background of the Hunger Games shocking. Think of a society that looks nice, advanced, refined, and then there are the Hunger Games. The background of the games is laid out very well in the story, and it’s done in a way that is not boring. The story moves along at a good pace and has a nice balance between introspection of the main character, Katniss, and what happens around her. The story also shows what can go around inside the heads of people when they are thrown into an arena where literally they battle for life and death.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Hunger Games. I am not certain if I shall continue with the other two books in the series. Perhaps in time.
When I began reading this book, I thought it was in the same genre as [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328718447s/5470.jpg|153313] and [b:Brave New World|5129|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327865608s/5129.jpg|3204877]. It is set in a dystopian future, roughly in the area of the present USA, which in the book is called Panem, and is divided into twelve districts, each dedicated to one kind of economic activity. There had been thirteen districts, but one had been wiped out in a rebellion against the Capitol, a new capital city somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. To keep the districts in line each has to pay tribute in the form of a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18, who have to fight to the death in an arena, with the last survivor being the victor, and entitled to live a life of luxury from then on.
The "tributes" are chosen by lot, but Katniss Everdeen, …
When I began reading this book, I thought it was in the same genre as [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328718447s/5470.jpg|153313] and [b:Brave New World|5129|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327865608s/5129.jpg|3204877]. It is set in a dystopian future, roughly in the area of the present USA, which in the book is called Panem, and is divided into twelve districts, each dedicated to one kind of economic activity. There had been thirteen districts, but one had been wiped out in a rebellion against the Capitol, a new capital city somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. To keep the districts in line each has to pay tribute in the form of a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18, who have to fight to the death in an arena, with the last survivor being the victor, and entitled to live a life of luxury from then on.
The "tributes" are chosen by lot, but Katniss Everdeen, aged 16, volunteers to take her younger sister's place. She sets off for the Capitol with the local baker's son, who has occasionally been kind to her in the past, realising that they might have to kill each other.
Once they get into the arena, another genre crops up, [a:William Golding|306|William Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1198342496p2/306.jpg]'s [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512], which the scene in the arena resembles. I read other three books I have mentioned in my late teens, at the age at which I would have been eligible to have been chosen for the games had I been a subject of the fictional state of Panem. I've read all three of those books several times since, so it's a genre that I find appealing, and have for a long time.
Though [b:Brave New World|5129|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327865608s/5129.jpg|3204877] and [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328718447s/5470.jpg|153313] are set in the future (at least, in the case of 1984, at the time when it was written) they satirise present trends in society by extrapolating them into the future. In the case of [b:Brave New World|5129|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327865608s/5129.jpg|3204877] the main trend is mass production, and hedonistic pleasure seeking. In the case of [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328718447s/5470.jpg|153313] it is the surveillance society, and in both there is the bombardment of citizens by propaganda to enforce conformity to a totalitarian society. In the case of [b:Brave New World|5129|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327865608s/5129.jpg|3204877] this is done primarily by distracting people by the pursuit of pleasure and recreation. In the case of [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328718447s/5470.jpg|153313] it is done by fear and threat. And in [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775] it is done by both.
The present trend that is extrapolated into the future in [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775] is "reality" TV shows. One of the first of these, Big Brother, deliberately recalled [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328718447s/5470.jpg|153313]. In [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775] it is this that places it in the same genre.
I bought [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775] because people I knew had read it and blogged about it, and their comments made it sound interesting. And as I read [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775] I thought it was as good as, if not better than the others I have mentioned. I had noticed that it was the first of a trilogy, and when I was about half-way through I was thinking that it was a seriously good book, and had just about made up my mind to buy the otrher books in the series. I was preparing to give it four or five stars on Good Reads.
But in the end I gave it only three stars, because about two-thirds of the way into the story the author seemed to have fumbled the ball and lost the plot. The climax built up, the tension mounted, and then suddenly the whole thing just collapsed. Or so it seemed to me.
I won't say which point I think that was, for the sake of those who haven't read the book, and some might disagree with me on that point anyway. But in my blog, where I'll also post this, I'll invite people to say something about it in the comments, which those who haven't read the book can avoid reading if they think it might spoil the book for them.
I didn't know about that book until I saw the trailer for the movie at the movies - I thought this would be something I'd enjoy, and I wasn't disappointed. (And the movie is quite nice too.) Plotwise, in some future, the nation of Panem is divided into the Capitol, where life is shiny and bright and food is nice; and the twelve Districts that essentially starve and provide, each with their specialty: fishing, textile, electronics, mining... Every year, two "tributes" of each district, a boy and a girl, are chosen to participate to the Hunger Games: put 24 kids in an arena, let them fight to death, last standing wins, and put the whole thing on TV because you can. In the book, we follow what happens to Katniss, who represents District 12, the mining district. I liked the book a lot. I got a quite precise image of …
I didn't know about that book until I saw the trailer for the movie at the movies - I thought this would be something I'd enjoy, and I wasn't disappointed. (And the movie is quite nice too.) Plotwise, in some future, the nation of Panem is divided into the Capitol, where life is shiny and bright and food is nice; and the twelve Districts that essentially starve and provide, each with their specialty: fishing, textile, electronics, mining... Every year, two "tributes" of each district, a boy and a girl, are chosen to participate to the Hunger Games: put 24 kids in an arena, let them fight to death, last standing wins, and put the whole thing on TV because you can. In the book, we follow what happens to Katniss, who represents District 12, the mining district. I liked the book a lot. I got a quite precise image of the universe, without the description to feel annoying or artificial, which I like a lot. The characters were definitely likeable, especially Katniss. The whole story was pretty well-paced, keeping me wanting to keep reading. Of course, in such a book, you have to expect that horrible things will happen and that you will get a fair amount of gory details, but I thought it was the right amount of it - not playing it down to "carebear level", but not so much that you throw the book away in disgust. (Well at least I didn't). So, all in all, very enjoyable, recommended :)
Wanted to read the book before I saw the movie, because I do like dystopian stories, and I also like Jennifer Lawrence. And if they make a film version of a popular AND reportedly good (ugh Twilight) story, I think you get more out of the story if you read the book first you undoubtedly get more out of the story. I read this via audiobook, which was good because it allowed me to make time for it. Regardless of your opinion of audiobooks, I found myself rather addicted to the story, and the drama and good pace of it kept me entertained and interested during some boring or sleepless hours. Certainly one of the more enjoyable stories I've been told in a while.
Picked this up after seeing the movie. It's a fairly quick read but enjoyable, and explained a few details that were skimmed over in the movie. I do enjoy a strong, (mostly) sensible heroine.
Much of this is pedestrian YA, but the part that really struck me was the reality TV aspect. Collins excels in this area - exploring what it is like for her characters to be in life or death situations, but have to focus on how the TV audience will react and how that affects the situation. The concept is novel and really has room for exploring private vs. public self. I'm definitely going to finish off the series
When my wife first read this a while back, I read the first paragraph over her shoulder and couldn't resist making fun of it. The phrase "the reaping," smacked of cheap sci-fi melodrama. Later, after The Hunger Games blew up and everyone was hysterical over the movie, I tried reading the book again, but again couldn't get past a few pages. The sentences were too short, lifeless, devoid of meaning.
When I discussed this with my wife, she advocated for the "truncated" sentences as having more power due to the circumstances of the character in the story. This idea of the power of truncated sentences made me think immediately of Hemingway. And that's when I found out that she had never read Hemingway!
So I made her a deal. I would read this pop culture phenomenon of a book if she would read A Farewell to Arms.
I finished reading …
When my wife first read this a while back, I read the first paragraph over her shoulder and couldn't resist making fun of it. The phrase "the reaping," smacked of cheap sci-fi melodrama. Later, after The Hunger Games blew up and everyone was hysterical over the movie, I tried reading the book again, but again couldn't get past a few pages. The sentences were too short, lifeless, devoid of meaning.
When I discussed this with my wife, she advocated for the "truncated" sentences as having more power due to the circumstances of the character in the story. This idea of the power of truncated sentences made me think immediately of Hemingway. And that's when I found out that she had never read Hemingway!
So I made her a deal. I would read this pop culture phenomenon of a book if she would read A Farewell to Arms.
I finished reading the first book of The Hunger Games this morning, and I admit to enjoying it much more than I thought I would, given my initial reaction. Sticking militantly to her short sentences, the author creates a fantasy world of warfare, romance, and survival that reads like an updated, media-driven cross between The Most Dangerous Game and The Lord of the Flies. The fact that Collins' sentences are short and slick ends up contributing to the overall theme of all actions and words being tuned to the everpresent eye of the camera and an audience hungry for cheap action and thrills. The story is thus imbued with some sense of self-awareness and deeper critique of human society, though I do wonder whether the book thus ends up falling under it's own subversive critique.
In other words, it may be just a little too action driven and slick for its own good. I understand that it is a book marketed, ostensibly, for teen girls, and I also get that the entire realm of deeper thought and critique of society is left up to the reader to develop. And I do appreciate that the main character is a girl who is strong and who resonates with values of the working class and the poor. But I wonder about the shallow world, lacking any sense of real history, that Collins has created, and about the true powerlessness that her characters have if that world is taken as one of reality. There is no hope in such a world, no matter the outcome. Such worlds can indeed be effective settings for deeper explorations of humanity, such as Cormac McCarthy weaves in The Road and Blood Meridian.
I question whether the depth of feeling we are ultimately made to feel for Katniss, Peeta, and Rue is fully earned, and furthermore, the critique that then comes as a result of that questioning must be confined to pointless comparisons of our own society. I say pointless, because beyond some obvious parallels to the patrician society of Rome, there's nothing enough to add up as a substantial critique, beyond our own infatuation with sensationalist media and our own ease in being led towards projecting emotion for characters that stand unmoored from any history or depth of context and relationships.
It either speaks to the power of the author that this is indeed her very point, or it speaks to our credulousness as consumers. I guess I'll just have to let you be the ultimate judge on that point.
At the end of the day, the most we can say, perhaps, is that we enjoyed the experience.
Review of 'The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Entertaining? Yes. Was I expecting more? Yes.
So I'm a bit late to this series, but I wanted to read it before seeing the movie. If you are looking for a good "vacation" read, this will definitely satisfy.
However, I had one fundamental issue/nitpick/complaint about this book: It reads like one long run-on sentence. Seriously! There is absolutely no pacing and no sense of time. Apparently the actual "Game" itself lasted weeks! But there is zero sense of that time passing when you read it. I imagine Katniss as the narrator telling this story in complete monotone and never once stopping for breath.
Glad I finally got around to read it, but sincerely wished it was better.
