The Hunger Games Book Review

After Fifty Shades, here I am again writing a book review on a best-selling series. It’s time for The Hunger Games! And since it’s only my second time to make a review on such a huge novel, I want to remind you that what you are about to read is written by no expert. I may be talkative when I write reviews on Wattpad books because that’s from Wattpad. There are so many obvious criticisms to tell there. However, The Hunger Games is a completely different thing. It is written by a professional novelist, Suzanne Collins, who is also the author of another The New York Times best selling series, The Underland Chronicles. Now, can you see? A noob, named Ane King, is going to write a review on one of the works of a professional, named Suzanne Collins. But instead of feeling humiliated, I feel challenged. I’m scared, too. Anyway, I’ll just write what a normal reader views about it.

It’s my second time to read The Hunger Games. I first read it five years ago and I still didn’t have this blog back then, which explains why I created the review just now. Well, the story is timeless so it will never be late even if I write my review a decade from now. In fact, people are rereading it just like what I did. And for sure, they will flip through it again just like what I plan to do.

I actually have a step-by-step process in seeing the trilogy. Firstly, I take the first book, The Hunger Games and watch its film. Secondly, I read then watch Catching Fire. And lastly, I take the Mockingjay and watch its two-part film. Its movie versions may not have enough details but the emotions that it brings are stronger when there are visuals so I decided to have that read-and-watch process.

In the first book, The Hunger Games, I got more realizations than comments. Through the life of Katniss Everdeen, I perceived how poor the poor are and believed that they really exist even in the richest countries of the world. Sadness filled my heart as the author tells a story of poverty. But when I flipped into the page which conceals the words, The Games, the sadness turned into fear. It’s as if the two-word text has a magic that makes it’s readers nervous. I even asked myself if I’m ready to see what’s behind that page although I already read the book a few years ago. It still feels like the first time. I had the same sadness and the same fear. And also, I had the same romantic excitement whenever Katniss and Peeta are together. Yes! Peeta Mellark may be annoying at times but I love him for Katniss. Shocks! I’m now a fan of their love team.

As I finished the first book, I found its ending weak because I was expecting a greater fight between Cato and Katniss than what really happened. However, I can’t deny the fact that the whole story is extraordinary. I immediately grabbed Catching Fire because aside from the Katniss’ rebellion, I’m excited to continue the unfinished love story of Katniss and Peeta. It’s not that I’m more interested to their love story than the story itself. It’s just that their romance totally caught my heart. And you have to agree that this lovely side of Hunger Games is an asset to the whole. Hunger Games won’t be Hunger Games without the love story of Katniss and Peeta.

Anyway, going back to the second book, the first part of Catching Fire seems uninteresting. The author just keep on narrating about the coming uprising in district in different ways. It’s a good thing that Bonnie and Twill came into the story and brought the news about the possibility of having district 13 back. I was almost asleep but this chapter alarmed me. From here on, I could feel the intensity of the events until I met the book’s biggest twist. Did you know that I froze a bit when I learned about the Third Quarter Quell? I had a no-way!-my-beloved-couple-won’t-go-back-to-that-arena! face. But then, they went back and the story of my favorite book out of the three went on.

I admire how the author formulated everything in that book. Everything was just smartly made and properly sequenced – from the clock, the electrical talent of Beetee, the fashion works of Cinna, the idea of getting Katniss and Peeta back into the arena, the way how the other tributes grouped themselves, the reason why the other tributes protect Katniss and Peeta, the line, “remember who the enemy is” up to the time when Katniss hit the force field. For me, Catching Fire is the best among the three.

However, I didn’t appreciated the third book as much as the second. The Mockingjay just tells how they adjusted their lives to their new district, how the rebels prepared for the assassination, how Katniss acted as the Mockingjay, how they turned the hijacked Peeta to the sweet Peeta and so on. Honestly, I found some parts boring which made me want to skip them but I didn’t because I might miss the important ones. Besides, the ending of each chapter didn’t allow me to do that because it always kept me hanging and left me wondering. Apart from that, there’s another reason why I kept reading. I want Peeta back! Well, that was just for me.

The Hunger Games Trilogy is absolutely beautiful and meaningful. At first, I thought that was just another adventure story which aims to save the protagonist lives by himself. But this is more than that. They’re fighting for the district’s justice. They’re dealing with violence against people. I love that it does not merely show science fiction, adventure and action, but it speaks a lot about poverty, starvation, oppression and the effects of war. And I can see that the three books are interconnected very well with these themes.