Book Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy

This review was written about four months ago and has sat in my drafts list for all that time waiting for it to feel 'finished'. After all this time I've never been able to pin down that unfinished feeling and so I've decided to go ahead and publish it- only after doing that was I able to figure out my missing piece... :) 
The only thing I might add is after reading spend a moment checking out these commendable sites:

www.lonesurvivorfoundation.org
www.stopsoldiersuicide.org
www.fisherhouse.org
www.mc-lef.org
www.uso.com

Early this summer if you asked any random kid, a friend, or the average man on the street what movie was the hot topic and thing to see they all would have answered the same: The Hunger Games.

As Christians approached this movie the predominate question they asked was "Is it an appropriate movie for me and my family to watch?" And then, "Is it an appropriate book for my kids to read?" It's a good question to ask about any movie that a Christian watches or book that they read- and this movie sparked a great deal of debate in many circles. People talked about depictions of violence and the dystopian setting and nature of the story. People saw redeeming value in the heroine's initial act of interposing herself in her sisters sure death conscription into "The Games" while some were unable to see beyond the horror of children being forced to kill one another. These books originally published in 2008/2009/2010 seemed now several years after their initial publication to have come to the fore front of the public consciousness and were creating a firestorm in hearts and minds- and when a firestorm erupts you never know where its sparks are going to land...

I debated the questions along with everyone else- but tried to do so with caution. From my perspective when we are faced with any cultural phenomena that isn't inherently, obviously evil and lands somewhere in the "That's new, what is it?" category it shouldn't be dismissed without deeper examination just because it is new and different. For me this was a question that was only answerable by going back to the book itself. As I neared the end of the first book in this trilogy I realized that I had underestimated the author as she had written a true trilogy where it is one story split into three books and continues and flows one into another. The story lines, and the way that things played out would not be resolved until the final book. In order to give a fair assessment of the book I would need to read the other two in the series as well.

If I thought it was going to take ages to get three books read (when I was having trouble reading all the other ones on my reading list) I really shouldn't have worried. Listening to the books on audio I blew through them in about two and a half weeks time!

For the uninitiated lets take a brief look at the plot line of the series/books:

(Here there be SPOILERS!)

Book One: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is 16 year old Katness Everdeen's worst nightmare. The Games are a brutal yearly event designed by The Capitol to remind the 12 districts in Panem the consequences of their rebellion 74 years ago. They are an event broadcast live to the entire nation. As the the sole provider for her mother and sister in the hard knocks, hard life world of District 12 (what used to be Appalachia) Katness has become a skilled hunter and survivor; when Katness' cherished younger sister is selected to be a contestant in the Hunger Games she volunteers to take her place knowing that only one contestant leaves the arena and she likely will never return home.

However, the Capitol has never seen a tribute like Katness and she quickly becomes the Capitol's worst nightmare as struggling to retain her individuality and identity she plays the game hunting and fighting as no other contestant has before.

Book Two: Catching Fire

Katness' bravery and out of the box thinking have allowed both her and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta to leave the Games alive- how much longer they will remain that way is debatable. The victor has a promised life of protection and plenty but that now hangs in the balance as their one simple act of survival has been read by the Capitol, President Snow, and the Districts as an act of rebellion whose sparks threaten to turn into a full blown firestorm that will plunge the nation of Panem into another rebellion and civil war.

Meanwhile, Katness deals with the personal fallout of all her choices in the first book even as she tries to once again protect those she loves.

Book Three: Mocking Jay

Games. Pawns. Control. In the final installment of Katness' story we find her freer than she has been before yet more trapped then ever before. Battered, broken, stripped of hope and unable to tell what is real and what is false she struggles with herself and her heart, struggles with the roles she is asked to play, struggles with the affects of war on her and those she loves, and struggles against those seen and unseen who still are playing games and who are using her as a pawn all to their own ends. In the end the question comes down to will Katness once again survive the game and will she be able to choose a future for herself?

Before I go too much further I feel now's the time to give my parental warnings.

1) This book is rated by the publisher as "13 and up" and I would agree with that. This book is not written for young children and does not depict things that are appropriate for the younger reader. Having said that I think that even at 13- and perhaps 14- a reader should be reading and discussing these books with a parent as they deal with weighty themes.

2) The most graphic element in any of the three books I feel comes at the end of the first book as the games come to a close. There is a very intense death scene that takes place (not at Katness or Peta's hands but at the will of the Gamemakers). Before this point in the book I had been thinking that a 11-12 year old could read these fine but this incident shocked me with its inhumanity and caused me to change my mind.

3) For those with inquiring minds- there is a romance throughout the story. Katness is a girl who plans never to marry and have children but she is confronted by the strong feelings of both her hunting partner and long time friend Gail, and the boy who helped her survive to become a provider and who becomes her partner in the games, Peeta. This romance is not really the main theme of the book, it merely is a fact of Katness' life- one that she doesn't much know what to do with. The most 'descriptive/intense' it gets is some long (non-graphic) kissing at one point during the Games. Also, after the Games both Katness and Peeta suffer from PTSD nightmares and as a result Peeta begins spending the night with Katness to wake her and care for her.    

4) Also for those with inquiring minds- there is some brief scenes of non-graphic nudity as Katness is 'prepped' (think a full spa day) for the Games/Capitol events. Also, there is a scene in book one during the Games where Katness bathes a severely injured and dying Peeta in an effort to assess and tend his wounds.
5) One of the main characters, Haymitch, a former tribute who now acts as the District 12 mentor drinks like a fish throughout the books to forget his time in the Games.

So now it's time to report...

I am the child of a sci-fi loving family. It's in my blood and it's one of my favorite genres as it allows for the deep exploration of social, cultural and personal issues, as well as worldviews and their consequences. It forces the consumer to examine their own beliefs and to take sides along the clearly defined lines of right and wrong while in a murky world or situation.

While I'm not prepared to characterize Suzanne Collins' trilogy as straight up sci-fi what I will characterize it as is a series that allows for the deep exploration of a society with a deeply rooted totalitarian government and how that government affects its people culturally and personally. It is a series that in turn confronts the readers worldview and forces them to compare Panem to their own world and make moral decisions and judgments based on that.

In my opinion it's one of the best things a book can do.

As I traveled through this series and was confronted with the intense themes and plots the book raised I was forced to examine many questions. Here's a smattering of them:

Should we resist oppressors/oppression? Is it ok to oppress people?- or to exact revenge on them? How far are we willing to go to protect the ones we love? Can there be compassion in war? Whose war do we fight and why? - for the good of others? ourselves? the greater good? Is it ok kill for self defense? -in the defense of others?

Should all people live equally? Is it right for some to be wasteful gluttons who have never known a day of poverty (much less what that is)- never lived a day of moderation or have thought of how their needs are met when others are impoverished? Is it right to deceive for the good of another? Is it ok/right to bring children into a world of oppression/suffering? Does history matter and what happens when we loose it/forget it/have it propagandized?

Where is the commercialism of today going to land us? What about the voyeuristic 'reality' programing of today- when has it gone to far? What do we do with/for our veterans? Can a warrior live a life of peace? Can they have a life of happiness after seeing/doing acts of war?

The list is a long one but it could be a longer one too... These books while having a great story to tell in terms of plot also have great themes that cause the reader to think. One of the things I argued in defense of the series pre-reading it was that perhaps it was a revolutionary series in the same spirit of the novels of Charles Dickens. Dickens' books were books that made people uncomfortable by confronting them with the poverty, oppression, and wickedness of other human beings. That comfortableness moved people do do something about the tragic circumstances that their fellow man were living in. In The Hunger Games series I find that though the time period is different the poverty, oppression and wickedness of man hasn't changed. The question it causes me to ask is where is that wickedness in my world and what change am I responsible for bring about? And what is my responsibility towards those that fight on my behalf?

Another observation that was much talked about when the movie came out was the overall flavor of ancient Rome. This is a very true point as the very heart of the first book is centered around something strikingly similar to the gory death matches of the Colosseum. It is also true that there are a number of things that are straight out of that time reminding the reader that 'there is nothing new under the sun', but the comparison goes beyond that to 'those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it'.  One of the secondary themes of the book is "panem et circenses' or 'bread and circuses'. 'Bread and Circuses' is a phrase coined by a Roman poet and was his reflection that all that was needed to create public approval of the government was to give the people free food and cheap entertainment (Annona and gladiatorial contests/Christian execution). This palliative was a great distractor resulting in them forgetting their civic duties and need to hold the  government accountable for its actions. At the same time, people gave great approval to the government because they were getting something from it with out needing to give anything back.
Sound like anything you've heard recently?
In the Hunger Games world this mindset is totally embraced by the pampered and prejudiced people of the Capitol while those in the districts pay the price and live to serve and fulfill the demand. The thing that we need to remember though is that the Hunger Games Trilogy is set in a 'not too distant' future version of North America after the fall of America. This underlying theme of the books came through loud and clear to me by the time I hit the middle of book three and comes with the deeper warning and reminder to the thinking Christian that there but by the grace of God go we.


Deciding whether you and your family should read and enjoy the Hunger Games Trilogy is a call you should make with all the facts before you. It is one on which I hope I have been able to shed some light. But before I conclude I want to offer one final thought. When I distill down the narrative and theme of this series what is important to know is that the Hunger Games is about war. It is about war and all that entails- the fear, the grief, the choices, the emotional and physical pain, the loss...the aftermath. As 'heavy' as the plot can get at times I think that if one so chooses this may be a good potential way to introduce and discuss the subject of war with the age group that the book targets. 

So here is my review in a nutshell:
The Hunger Games is not the story you imagine it to be before you begin. It is not the story you think it should be once you start. But in the end it is the story it needs to be.  
And for that you should read it.  

Once in every generation authors and books come along that give us engaging reads and make us think. Perhaps they are there in some ways to remind us of our duties- to our fellow man, to country, to God. They are books that change the mentalities and priorities of that generation. Perhaps they are books that remind us of who we really are...
And perhaps, every once and a while it's a good thing to catch fire...