The Hunger Games : Book Series

I just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy  it only took me three days (a book each day) so I thought I'd leave my review of it on here.

There will be another blog later about such things as how I hope the films tackle such and such and all that but this is just my review of the book series.

The actual Hunger Games are an annual tournament involving teenagers aged 12-18, they get picked, one boy and one girl, from each of the 12 Districts and sent to the Capitol to compete. After a few weeks of training they get put into the arena (a new one every year) to kill each other. There can only be one winner.

***SPOILERS****


The Hunger Games

The books are based on the thoughts of Katniss Everdean, a young girl from District 12, a mining District. We join her the day of the seventy-fourth reaping for the Hunger Games. We are introduced to her best friend Gale, the way she survived such a poor district, her mother and younger sister Prim and given an insight on her District. Her father had died during a mining accident leaving Katniss in charge of her family, in the same accident Gale had lost his father and became the head of his family. They spend their free time hunting, illegally, in the woods and selling what they catch in the Hob.

Katniss's sister Prim is in her first reaping and the odds were not in her favor as she was picked as the female tribute for District 12. Panic'd Katniss volunteers in her place and along with the bakers son Peeta who has been picked as the male tribute they get whisked off to Capitol to get ready for the games. Armed with only a token her friend Madge gave her (a Mockingjay pin) Katniss is thrown into the hustle and bustle of the Capitol. She meets her stylists who clean her, rid her of all her body hair, and then she meets the only person she trusts in the Capitol her head stylist Cinna. Along with Katniss and Peeta are their overly fussy chaperone Effie and their mentor, the only victor so far from District 12, Haymitch. Who is a drunk.

Katniss becomes the girl on fire thanks to her designer Cinna, and Peeta and her become the stars of the Games, especially as Peeta announces his love for Katniss just before the games.

They get put into the arena were they have to kill everyone else including each other, and so the fun begins.

That is just a quick review on what is quite a detailed and sad story.

We see it through Katniss, the pain she feels, how she tries to be strong and ends up building too many walls.  The thing I love about Katniss is that she doesn't try to be perfect and she doesn't try and hide the fact that she is being the way she is. The way she thinks is understandable and even though we only see the world through her eyes you can get a good picture on what is happening without it being too biased.

She is always ready to believe the worst and you can see why, the Capitol breed these children on fear. She nearly starved to death after her father died, she had to learn to hunt so that she could save her and her sister, her mother had became depressed and couldn't face life so she had to do everything to stop them all from dying. But every year she had the fear of being sent to her death in the arena, and if she wasn't sent to her death then she had to sit at home and watch two people from her District die instead.

You understand how she feels she can trust Cinna and no one else. Effie is a typical Capitol resident who was raised thinking that the Hunger Games were a good thing and that the tributes would be pleased and honored to go to their deaths. Haymitch has been damaged beyond repair by his Hunger Games and is a drunk who is just as anti-social as her. Not to mention the fact she is here to kill Peeta, so why would she open up to him? Cinna is just a normal person who doesn't seem impressed by the Games and just wants to make Katniss happy. She soon realizes that she can turn to Peeta a little bit but stops herself. It is only after she's in the Games and the Gamemaker plays on the romance and announces that two tributes from the same District can win the game does she open to Peeta slowly. But as she has feelings for her friend Gale it is hard for her to open up completely with Peeta and she just ends up confused and playing the Game to win for her and Peeta.

I loved all the characters in the story. You don't really meet many of the bad characters, and the tributes who are purely horrible do tend to die in nice inventive ways.

My favorite characters have to be Haymitch and Peeta. Oh and of course little Rue from District 11. I loved Haymitch because even though Katniss never really dwelled on why he is the way he is the people reading could probably work it out and you always wonder about him and what exactly made him end up quite as bad as he was. Peeta you fall in love with purely because he is such an innocent character and such a lovely person. You know even from Katniss's eyes who thinks he is doing it to make people like him, that he is truthful in his love for Katniss. And Rue is just a sweet little 12 year old who got chosen in her first year of being in the reaping a bit like Prim.

The book is so emotional, when Katniss and Rue make an alliance and soon after little Rue gets killed so to defy the Capitol Katniss covers her in flowers and salutes her in the special District 12 way, it made me cry.

Also the death of Cato at the hands of the mutts that have the dead tributes eyes and hair styles is quite sad and made my stomach go all funny.

The great strength of the book is that even though you are Katniss and you don't really talk to or see any of the other tributes or characters you grow fond of certain people and you understand how certain characters act and how scared, or indoctrinated they must be to go along with things.

Every chapter leaves you wanting to carry on with the next, there is no easy place to put the book down and carry on. By the time they have left the arena and are on their way back to District 12 you are just waiting for more.

***Just to add before I go on mutts or muttations are basically what they sound like, mutations. The Capitol make them as a defense and they are usually deadly in many different horrific ways. The ones introduced in the first story, other than the dogs at the end, are Tracker Jackers. These are wasp like creatures that when they sting you leave you with hallucinations and induce fear. You also hear about Jabberjays, birds that could copy human speech, and when they become useless because people realized what they could do the Capitol sent them out to die. But instead of dying out they bred with Mockingbirds and their offspring are called Mockingjays.***

Catching Fire

What happened to the girl on fire when she left the arena and went home?

The second book in the trilogy focuses on the next year after the Games. Peeta and Katniss returned home and had new houses in the Victors Village with Haymitch. Katniss tried to return to normal, hunting with Gale and going about her business. Unfortunately life goes on, Gale is now down in the mines and she doesn't actually have to hunt.

The more she tries to return to normal the more she pushes people away.

But soon she is face to face with President Snow who is telling her that her trick in the Games (she beat them by trying to enact a double suicide with Peeta after the Gamemakers changed their mind on the two Victors ruling) has started uprisings in the Districts. He tells her that she has to stop this during her Victors tour with Peeta, unfortunately even a fake engagement doesn't work and her and Peeta are back in trouble.

Gale is further then ever, and then instead of leaving Katniss and her District alone President Snow sends over more and more Peacekeepers who stop the illegal hunting and whip Gale after he shows up with a turkey to trade. With the whole District being punished for crimes they didn't even realize they were committing  President Snow tells the whole of Panem what the Quarter Quells special rules will be. The Quarter Quell is held every 25 years of the Games and is always special. The fiftieth Games was Haymitch's year and it saw twice as many tributes entered. The seventy-fifth Games was announced, just after a photo shoot Katniss did for her wedding dress, and we find out that two tributes from each District will be chosen out of the Victors of past games. So no matter what as the only victor of 12 Katniss is going back into the arena.

Back in the Capitol her and Peeta, who took the place of Haymitch, meet older Victors including Finnick and Mags from District 4 and Johanne from District 7 (I think I could be wrong though).

Katniss wants Haymitch to make sure Peeta lives, but by the end of the book when Katniss is saved by the rebel forces they leave him behind.

The strongest thing about the second book is just how much it hits you with all these past Victors. Mags is in her 80s but volunteered because she didn't want Annie to go into the Games again. Annie is already traumatised by her time in the Games. You meet Beetee and Wiress from District.... 8? who are extremely smart. The are also morphlings (I think both from 10) who are so out of it on morphling that they don't really know what is going on. By the end of it though the ones that needed to be important to you are more then important to you. Mags going to her death because it would save Katniss and Peeta is heart wrenching. Wiress going made and being killed is really upsetting.

You learn so much more about the Districts and actually see more than just Haymitch and how they all have suffered.

For me I feel the part of this book based in the arena is too short, I know it was meant to be but it just felt force. Completely forced. Even though the book is really good and I love it as much as the first and I couldn't put it down like the first, it didn't feel as spaced out as the first one. The first one gave so much without being too long.

Katniss is slowly going mad it seems, she's pushing away and she's getting colder, but still the great thing about her is you understand why.

Peeta is still by far my favorite character, he is sweet and loyal and puts his foot in his mouth most of the time, but he is just adorable.

Haymitch has more of a back seat in this book as he's pulling strings you can't see.

The saddest moment though, even sadder then the ones above, is when Katniss gets into the tube to be taken into the arena, the glass comes down so she can't leave her plate but it doesn't transport her up, and right before her eyes Cinna is beaten and taken away to be tortured. Cinna as a character is wonderful and as much as he means to Katniss he means something to the reader and it hurts to see him go.

The Mockingjay

Katniss is in the rumored District 13, a District that was meant to be bombed and Katniss gets the first rumor of its survival from two run-a-ways in the second book.

The District is completely underground and is now the main headquarters for the rebellion. Haymitch is there and so is Finnick who was saved from the arena with Beetee, but Snow has Peeta and the Mockingjay (Katniss) is in no state for anything.

Still in her thoughts we see how she manages life in a garbled and confusing way. She has no fight in her, she wanted to save Peeta and didn't. She asked for Haymitch's help and he didn't save Peeta either.

Katniss is forced into becoming the Mockingjay and starts to see the destruction that is going on. After the last Games District 12 was bombed and only a few hundred escaped. She has Gale, she even gets her hunting back, but she isn't the same. They make Propos, propaganda films that they send out featuring Katniss.

The President of 13 doesn't like Katniss much and Katniss doesn't like her, though she has an effect on people close to her and soon they find out Peeta is alive. When they save Peeta he isn't the Peeta they know though, they've used Trackerjacker venom to "hijack" his mind. Now he can't think of anything more repulsive then the women he once loved and instead of having Peeta back Katniss now has to watch her back as Peeta wants to kill her.

The third book is more high tech and more military based. Before long Katniss is on the front lines, first in District 2 were she see's the destruction her side is causing first hand, and then to the Capitol.

I think out of all the books this is my least favorite. Other then the ending I'd say two was as good as one, but this one failed in a little way. For a start the ending went out with a whimper instead of a bang like, just for example, the Harry Potter series. It did have an epilogue that told us that Peeta and Katniss get married and have kids, but far from giving you an end to their story you feel like you want more.

The reason the review is kind of jumbled is because that is how it ends up in your head.

The story of Peeta is quite sad, and it is what brings the most tears during the book. I think Finnick and Annie is really sad as well but it is ruined by Annie not seeming to care as much in the end after Finnick had died as she did when he was alive. The fact that everything Peeta had left was taken from him just to attack Katniss is sad, and knowing that Katniss is confused and not really in love with either Gale or Peeta, but only just growing into having feelings with Peeta it really does make you want to cry. I was begging with the book to let Katniss give Peeta the pearl she carried with her, I'm not sure why she never did, it seems like the symbol that could have been used to make Peeta remember.

Haymitch is his usual self, but you go from thinking you'll get something out of him to him just being a paper thin character. For a character that is seen in all three books you get very little about him and its sad to see that. Finnick gives you a good idea of how the tributes were abused by the Capitol even after they were Victors by telling us about the time the Capitol pretty much pimped him out to the highest bidders.

You get really sad bits, like finding out the stylists that you've grown to love have been tortured in District 13, that Peeta had to witness torture to people he knew, the announcement that Peeta's stylists had all been executed the moment Peeta was rescued.

But there are two moments that really stand out.

First is one of the saddest deaths since Rue's. The death of Prim. The Capitol sent her out to help with the medics, the pretended to be the Capitol and sent down parachutes to children the Capitol had separated from the crowd. The parachutes then exploded, when Prim and the medics run in to help the children a second set of parachutes that hadn't gone off explode leaving Prim dead and Katniss scarred for life.

The second is more of a realization of how bad President Coin is.

President Snow tells us about the above attack being 13's and in Katniss's garbled way you kind of figure out he's probably telling the truth. Just before he is executed Coin calls all the past Victors into a meeting and tells them that they will either kill the whole of the Capitol or they want to have one last Hunger Games with the children of the Capitol.

That moment chills your blood as you realize that no matter how good someone wants to be human nature is human nature.



So the story as a whole?

It is a sad story, and even though sometimes it is difficult to understand what Katniss is going on about you understand everything they really feel.

To be honest in the end you feel more for some of the characters Katniss meets then you do for her, but she is the first to say that it is probably easier to love them then her.

Peeta is a wonderful character and the books are much richer for having a character that manages to keep his innocence no matter what he gets caught up in. You really want him to get what he always wanted.

I was never hoping for a happy ending, the one unrealistic thing ever about Harry Potter was that through all the fighting and all the death everyone managed to live happily ever after. Even though there is a happy ending to this story you still see the scars left by the whole thing which is very realistic. You wouldn't get over these things just because they were in your past.

I feel the book lacked in development for Haymitch, as I said above. He is the character that is with Peeta and Katniss all the way through and even though you have a sentence to explain maybe why he's as bad as he is, and you know why he should be, you never get a heart to heart moment with him. Maybe you weren't meant to, maybe that was his realistic thing, he wasn't meant to sit and have a heart to heart. But the lack of story made his character feel rather incomplete.

I would have liked things to be cleared up, and maybe words on the future of Panem at the end over just finding out that Peeta and Katniss got married and had kids. But that isn't really here or there, I just feel that they ended rather abrutly, and even though Katniss would have found out what happened or at least would have pieced information together, you never get to hear it. You have to live with the information that Katniss believed whilst she was going crazy.

I also didn't like the ending. I loved the story because of how it was the little people rising up to stop the Capitol but District 13 were another power house and after all the death leading up to Katniss getting to Snow it seems like there was never a pay off. Katniss gets knocked out and nearly dies after Prim does and the rebels do the rest. I think the writer got used to mass cull of characters each book and didn't want to disappoint. You're bound to get deaths in war but it felt too forced in the third book.

Katniss is a nice character, not nice as in actually nice to people, but nice as for a change its a character I can relate too. She acts like a real person would act. Her madness is the way her mind dealt with it. There was no moaning and dripping and feeling sorry for herself and if there was then she realized that it did no good or it was undeserved.

One thing the writer did really well was make you care. You cared about them winning, you cared about who lived and who didn't. You were sad at the sad bits and still had tears in your eyes when a joke was made.

For me there could have been so much more, but maybe the fact there wasn't so much more was what made things special. Would we have been upset as much if we knew that the Capitol was going to kill Prim? Would you cry if you had been inside of Peetas head as well?

I doubt it.

The Hunger Games is one of the best book trilogies I have ever read. It is worth the love it gets moreso then some other series.

5/5

A MUST read!