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The Hunger Games - Book 1 - Review.
Dec. 21st, 2010 03:05 pmFinished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins last night, which had been heavily recommended by several people on livejournal - stating amongst other things that if you like strong female heroines, science-fiction, and were in any way a Buffy fan - you'd love this.
I had heard of the books prior to their recommendations of course. But was leery of them, yet another group of popular tween novels with a "love triangel" a la Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga. Or so I thought. Until they got rec'd on livejournal by friends of mine. So, I gave the first one a shot and it's not at all what I expected. If anything, it reminds me a great deal of the cult Japanese anti-war film Battle Royale based upon the novel of the same name, which Quentin Tartino and Joss Whedon have both borrowed images from, amongst others. Or to a degree the socio-political works of George Orwell, Shirley Jackson, and William Fielding.
In the author's note at the end of the novel - it states that Collins continues to explore how war, poverty and violence affect children in her saga the Hunger Games.
( very very vague spoilers )
Much like Adolus Huxley's novel Brave New World or for that matter Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Collins in her young adult novel takes on adult themes - of what we are willing to do to survive, and maintain an imperfect peace. And what cost entertainment, ours, has when it is at the cost of someone else's privacy and personal peace.
I had heard of the books prior to their recommendations of course. But was leery of them, yet another group of popular tween novels with a "love triangel" a la Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga. Or so I thought. Until they got rec'd on livejournal by friends of mine. So, I gave the first one a shot and it's not at all what I expected. If anything, it reminds me a great deal of the cult Japanese anti-war film Battle Royale based upon the novel of the same name, which Quentin Tartino and Joss Whedon have both borrowed images from, amongst others. Or to a degree the socio-political works of George Orwell, Shirley Jackson, and William Fielding.
In the author's note at the end of the novel - it states that Collins continues to explore how war, poverty and violence affect children in her saga the Hunger Games.
( very very vague spoilers )
Much like Adolus Huxley's novel Brave New World or for that matter Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Collins in her young adult novel takes on adult themes - of what we are willing to do to survive, and maintain an imperfect peace. And what cost entertainment, ours, has when it is at the cost of someone else's privacy and personal peace.