So the book has nothing to do with chicken wings, I just feel like eating wings today. But the book IS called The Hunger Games, so maybe food is relevant.
I picked up The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins because I had downloaded Adobe Digital Editions and then got all excited and downloaded a bunch of books, many of which were the Wild Card books of George R R Martin. I mention this because, well, the Wild Card books are very much a guilty pleasure (although the recent ones are actually good and all of it deals with the usual superpowered-people issues - discrimination and lack of acceptance by people who don't want to accidentally have their arms chopped off by the friendly neighbourhood precocious kid).
And so I expected The Hunger Games, which have been generating a huge buzz due from its possible film due to its popularity, to be more or less like that - or even worse, like a sparkly, apocalyptic version of Twilight.
Luckily I was wrong on every count, and after the fifth page I almost cried because it had been so long since I have read a well written book where I do not know the author personally (Ahaha. I'm looking at you Neil. And Greg).
The Hunger Games is set - in North America, I think - in a post-apocalyptic world, where the populace is divided into numbered districts that cater to a specific economic area (eg District 7 does lumber, District 11 is agriculture). They are more or less ruled (or dictatored? tyrannised?opressed?) by the Capitol, who feeds off all of the Districts to fuel the decadent lifestyles of their residents. Just to remind everyone who the big shit is, the Capitol holds the annual Hunger Games, where two child participants from each district (there are 12) are thrown into an 'arena' to fight, scheme or manipulate others until all die except one.
Our protagonist, Katniss, is from District 12, the poorest of all districts. I liked the book because I liked Katniss. She wasn't particularly nice, she was kind of moronic at times, she did what she had to and I felt like she did a minimum amount of whining in comparison to other YA heroines.
So Katniss, through a sad twist of fate, ends up in the Hunger Games with Peeta Mellark, who I am kind of in love with. Because he is just that lovable. At first they are adversaries in teh ring, but due to a twist in the rules that allow two candidates from the same district to win (thanks somewhat to Peeta's brilliant PR manipulation), they end up working together.
Along the way, Katniss does several things that the Capitol percieves as rebellious. And they do not like rebels. They are the Big Shit, and they murder children for fun, so no one is allowed to have a difference of opinion lest they come and destroy your pet goat in the middle of the night. And she eventually realises that she has become something of a rebel symbol because of her knack of doing things in ways that the Capitol would not expect.
GOATS BEWARE
The Hunger Games are like the hugest deal each year in the Capitol, so there are a lot of people around to ensure there are no fuckups. Which means everyone should die, and in the most dranatic way if possible. Throughout their stint in the arena, the Tributes have cameras following them constantly. And this is how the people's reaction to Peeta and Katniss is manipulated, to the point that in the end, the Capitol has to rescind its order to allow both tributes from a single district to live - because the dynamic duo have become too dangerous.
wtf.
Blah blah. I liked the book because it engaged my feelings - I felt for Peeta, and Katniss and even that other guy whose name I can't recall. I didn't cry reading this or any of the other HG books, despite avowals by other readers that only people with hearts of grotty ceramic will not collapse in a storm of tears at this or this page. But I was moved, and I felt an urgency despite knowing that there are 2 other books to this. There were even CONSEQUENCES! I always feel like the book is a sham the moment the characters never have to deal with consequences. I was worried if Peeta and Katniss would survive (preferably Peeta), and I could believe that the HG could be used as a device for the rebellion forces.
The book isn't perfect of course. Katniss, despite being an all around female dick, turns out to have a voice that silences the birds. Fortunately this only comes out once or twice, and maybe I'm just cynical about heroines who have that one great talent that blows everyone out of the water - especially prissy stuff like singing, or painting, or being irresistable to everyone (is that even a talent?). And also, Peeta keeps saying 'You don't understand the effect you have on people,". I'm like WHAT EFFECT?? That of an (understandably) unhappy, disagreeable teenage girl? It's also never explained and gets irritating in the later books. But that's all, I think.
Maybe I am still in shock that this book exceeded my expectations of a regular, cliche I Am Number Four type of novel and even dealt with some pretty gory stuff, but I would totally recommend this book. It was well written, with interesting characters and CONSEQUENCES (yay).
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