"Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with every one 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 will weigh survival against humanity and life against love."
I hate how hard it is to write this review. I hate how every time I try to type something explaining what I feel about this, the backspace button is automatically pushed and I have to start all over again. I hate how much I think about these books, day and night, dream and wake, the deeper message haunting my dreams ever since I first picked it up.
Because it's just that damn good.
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins was one of the special few series that make you think. They are anything but cliche, and maybe it's because this is set in a post-apocalyptic world and not some alternate universe that we've heard nothing about, but it seems so real. So true. So completely and utterly prophetic.
Katniss is a character that I had no choice but to admire because she is just so brave and strong and independent. It's hard not to look up to her. In the books, it is clearly shown that she has some natural power over people that draws them to her, so maybe that is why I like her character so much. Maybe it's the way she thinks -- selfish and unafraid to admit it. Sure, she makes stupid decisions sometimes but everyone does. Difference is, in The Hunger Games trilogy, I really didn't mind as much as I usually do.
First thing's first, this series gets a straight 4.9999999999 out of 5 -- an almost perfect score! But why not exactly perfect? Well, let me tell you.
The first book, The Hunger Games, was amazing. I devoured it in a day, it was that good! Read all through the night -- with school waiting for me the next morning, but let's not get technical. When my BFF lent it to me, I won't lie and say I didn't question her taste.
"Will I like this? Is it good? It seems kind of weird. It's not like the books I usually read." Those were my questions.
But to whoever is reading this review and decide that maybe they won't check it out just because they think it's not any good --
*SLAP!*
Go to the bookstore! Make a library card! Borrow it from a friend or whatever, just don't dismiss these books as something you'll get to eventually, because they revolve around things that we have to think about now. About problems that are strikingly familiar to our own, about the selfishness in ourselves that may just one day be the end of us. The Hunger Games series dives deep into these pressing matters and more.
The Games are a cruel, cruel joke of a punishment. I hated every second of it, and by the way Katniss describes the events that had occurred in past Games, by the events that happened in her Games, I had learned to hate it even more. Forcing kids to fight to the death in a genetically altered area in front of national television just to prove that they can is just... There are really no words to explain it. Except there are.
Collins made it so.
Catching Fire was an amazing sequel. With the way that everything was progressing, it just had to be, and I found myself holding my breath (or trying to) for the most part, so intrigued with the riveting plot that my older sister had to literally rip the book from my hands to force me to go to the dinner table, and even then I kept it open on my lap, glancing down between mouthfuls.
The arena amazed me. It was so... well thought out? Complex? Again, I am at a loss for words for describing anything to do with this series, because even though Collins' writing still has room for improvement and at times I find her to be too vague, she has a special skill that sucks you in, hook, line, and sinker to the core of her book. This sequel didn't disappoint.
Then, to Mockingjay, the third and final book in the trilogy and the sole reason for this review. I had counted down the days in the summer until it came out, and was thrilled to finally receive a copy and and finished it within a day. I was just so excited to read it!
It started off a bit slow -- then again, the first two were also very specific in their introductions, and to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way. Although I usually re-read a book before moving onto the next one in a series, I always like it when there's a slight recap at the beginning to plunge you back into their fictional world before leading it astray.
But as the story progressed, I was a goner. Katniss was back with more spunk than ever. Gale -- whom I still prefer as her love interest against Peeta, because he was her best friend and hunting partner for too many years to just be abandoned -- played a major part in this third book, which always made me squeal. In the first two, he was only a minor character in the back of her mind. Mockingjay throws him right in the middle.
Which was perfect at fueling a fangirl's desires.
Maybe that was why I was a little disappointed with the ending. Don't get me wrong, the plot was still amazing and I felt regret and torment for almost every single character that died. And there were a lot of deaths, so many that I had started to think Collins was picking them off one by one just for the sake of killing.
But she has to be right. After all, in true war, most people do die.
That just adds to the reality of it.
Still, I'll admit I was frustrated at first, how Katniss was just dismissed and sent back to District 12 after everything was done -- after everything she did -- without any rewards or recognition. How Gale just left her after everything they went through to work some fancy job in District 2; how Peeta was never actually cured and still had some visions caused by the poison that brought his mind to fight for belief in Katniss.
But after thinking it through, I realized that Suzanne Collins was just continuing to follow through her realistic statement. In real life, the face that started a rebellion then shot a president would not be rewarded greatly. In real life, all her problems and nightmares wouldn't just go away. In real life, Katniss would be one of the strongest girls alive because I could never imagine myself in her position, experiencing the horrifying things she did, and still managing to keep a straight head.
In real life, war doesn't go away without sacrifice. Maybe that's a lesson we have all yet to learn.
So the reason for the 0.0000000001 off of a perfect rating is merely this:
The omission of the grief and remorse for all of the loss throughout the books. Prim. Finnick. Boggs. Madge. Everyone. All the lives lost and friends forever gone that I feel Katniss didn't take the time to mourn for. It's a little unfair, seeing as she probably does think of them all the time and we're just not there in her head to hear of it, but I wish there could have been a little more closure in the books so the readers could have the time to get over the deaths as well. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that I had grown attached to most of the characters -- minor to major -- and was sad to see so many of them go.
The Hunger Games series was really amazing, and no one can deny it. Anyone who hasn't read this series should definitely start, because it is a trilogy that I guarantee will take your breath away.
-Kaylee
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