🟩 The Hunger Games (2008) Review - Gen Z's Harry Potter | Book Waffle

 

The Hunger Games (2008) written by Suzanne Collins

The late 2000s. Those were the days. Back when Ryan Higa ruled Youtube, and I ate boogers while bored in my Algebra I class.

Also notable at that time were the great YA Wars. Harry Potter was wrapping up, and publishers and studios were positively lusting for a new teen franchise to fill the vacuum left in its wake.

The Candidates

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer seemed poised to fill that gap. I saw more than my fair share of that book being traded around the library and halls at my school. And yet, I never did hear anyone claim that Twilight or its sequels were "good". It was just, inexplicably, the popular thing at the time.

I personally can't say for sure. Never read the things. You think middle school me was going to sit through a behemoth of edgy vampire romance? Hell no. And I think that's a sentiment a lot of boys my age had. Even now that sounds torturous. Granted the pervading sentiment now is that the Twilight hate was way overblown. 

Eh. That's a conversation for another day.

I was too busy reading the next contender: Percy Jackson & the Olympians. This one had more the feel of Harry Potter. A school for special kids. Magic adventures. A trio of misfits against a world-threatening force. And kids loved it. I loved it.

Can't count how many times kids in my grade proclaimed themselves "experts" on Greek mythology because they'd read the things. 

But then the extremely long titled Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) movie came out and buttfuck no one gave a damn. By the time they got around to adapting Sea of Monsters, the initiative had slipped from their grasp, and they shut the whole thing down. The OG Divergent.

I remember very distinctly picking up a copy of The Hunger Games from my middle school library. I'd heard no one talking about it. But it was one of a dozen books from the last year that had gotten some award or other, thus it was heavily featured. 

We had a rudimentary review catalog on my school district's computers. Students could write a paragraph or two describing their reading experience. There was a singular review for The Hunger Games when I checked it out. It read something along the lines of "This is the best book I've ever read."

High bar.

Or so I thought. But then I read it. And, holy shit, I had never before been so engrossed in a narrative. And, frankly, I've never recaptured that same sense of wonder since first time I entered the world of Panem.

You know the story after that. The 2012 movie comes out, and it's a smash hit. The Hunger Games becomes the new YA darling, and everyone wants a piece of that pie. Yes, even Veronica Roth. That's not to say the series wasn't a big thing before the films. Far from it. But that's what cemented it as a worthy successor to the Harry Potter legacy.

The Review

Okay. So that was a lot of faff. But what is my opinion after rereading this book again after so many years?

In case you've been living under a rock, The Hunger Games follows teenage girl Katniss Everdeen in a dystopian future North America named Panem. Society has broken down and been reforged into a dozen districts serving the tyrannical Capitol. Every year the Capitol "reaps" children from each of these districts to serve in a grand fight to the death that is televised for all to see. The eponymous Hunger Games.

I've been terrified of rereading this book.

I last read it in 2009 and fell absolutely in love with Katniss and the world Suzanne Collins had created. But it's been quite a few years since my school days, and I've always wondered if I would see the story with such admiration if I revisited it.

So that's what I did. 

And. Well. It's still fantastic.

Collins's writing style, despite being laden with heavy exposition, paints such a vivid picture. The worldbuilding is flamboyant. Extravagant. And, sometimes, heartbreaking. Themes of poverty, class, and authoritarianism abound. Exploitation and willful ignorance. And this is all made more potent by Katniss's outsider, underdog perspective.

I really want to drive home that class point. You can see the divide even between Katniss and her game partner, Peeta. Peeta is the son of a District 12 baker. He may not be part of the elite, but he's a middle-classer who knows how the game of wealth and influence is played. Katniss is lower class and unrefined (like coal!??!? WOOOAHAH). Lacking in manners. Dirty, even. She despises the pretense and showmanship as excessive even when the utility of it is obvious. And, really, who can blame her?

Honestly, I could do a whole breakdown on class. How Prim's goat is a lifeline that gives the Everdeens some standing on the economic ladder. The black market of the Hob and how the poor must turn to it to survive. How Gale seemingly is destined for the mines because the occupational mobility must be piss poor. Tons of stuff.

The writing does occasionally drag due to its mechanics. Exposition is exposition, after all. The book's beginning is famous in some writing circles because it does exactly the kind of exposition dumping that you are 100% not supposed to do.

And yet, it makes the best of a bad situation by always looking forward. Moving forward. Like there's always another point of delicious tension Collins teases as being just over the hill. That is to say, the plot never feels like it's stalling or trying to fill like I am doing as I write this.

Circling back to theming again, one could say the rather cold narration is a reflection of Katniss's own attitude. No nonsense. Aloof. Not here to play games. Just focusing on survival. 

And speaking of characters, let's sum them up right quick.

Katniss is badass. Gale is bae. Haymitch is relatable. Cinna is life. And Peeta... is there.

Sorry bread boy. You're still painfully boring.

My previous read took me weeks, but I flew through this because I was having so much fun. It was like reconnecting with an old friend for lunch till the workers shuffle you out the door at closing time.

A book worthy of being my generation's Harry Potter. Speaking of which I haven't read that book. Probably should one of these days if I'm going to throw around labels like that.

🟩 Rating: 9/10