After a very long hiatus, I thought I'd start 2011 with a review on most certainly one of the greatest young-adult series in recent history.
Suzanne Collins is a favorite author of mine. Her first popular book, Gregor the Overlander, is one of the best I have read, and the next four in the series are worthy successors to such a great beginning (see "The Underland Chronicles"). However, when this series came to a close, Collins diverted her attention to a new trilogy of books that has become very popular in mainstream literary critical circles, both for children and adults.
The Hunger Games is the acclaimed first book in the trilogy. It takes place in a post-revolutionary America centuries in the future. America, now called Panem, is composed of the central Capitol and 12 districts, the thirteenth destroyed in the war 74 years earlier. Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old in the impoverished District 12, is the novel's resourceful and skilled protagonist. An intelligent young woman, she brandishes a bow as fearlessly as any man and cares for her family after the untimely death of her father, a miner.
Every year in Panem, a Hunger Games is put on by the Capitol as a reminder to the districts of who is really in charge. A 12- to 18-year-old boy and girl from each of the 12 districts are taken from their homes. They are paraded on national television (mandatory viewing for every denizen of Panem) in gorgeous attire, trained for weeks in fighting (skills, strength, and strategy), and then put in a massive arena, a sort of miniature world for the children for the duration of the Games. There they are to fight until only one child is left living.
After Katniss's sister's name gets called, Katniss quickly volunteers to take her sister's place in the brawl. She and an acquaintance, Peeta Mellark, are to be District 12's representatives in the 74th Hunger Games. As the Games draw near, they are trained by District 12's only previous champion, Haymitch Abernathy, an inveterate drunk. In the Hunger Games, Katniss must struggle with self-preservation, disapproval of murder, and the desire to show the Capitol that nobody can control Katniss Everdeen.
While being to some degree a children's book, it is quite violent and traumatic in many places. The Hunger Games is just what it sounds like: a bloody, fight-to-the-death gladiator battle. Though Collins is certainly not as great of a writer as, say, Salinger, Steinbeck, or Twain, she more than makes up for it with a balance of fast-paced action and feminine sentimentality that easily appeals to adults as well as younger ones (or at least those who have the stomach for it).
Without giving too much away of the events of the trilogy, I will just express my love for the second and third books in the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, respectively. Catching Fire takes place a year later and revolves around the events of the 75th Hunger Games, while the final novel has Panem's revolution against the Capitol manifest itself after three-quarters of a century of waiting. Though the first book is the best in my opinion, Cathcing Fire is almost as good, and Mockingjay, though slightly more far-fetched than the previous (what can be far-fetched about a postapocalyptic America where children kill each other for national enjoyment?), is a worthy conclusion to the fine trilogy. It is an action-adventure series that, at its heart, is a coming-of-age story in the face of violence and mortality. Now we all eagerly await another series by Suzanne Collins, the queen of young-adult literature.
Grade (The Hunger Games): 9
Grade (Cathcing Fire): 8.5
Grade (Mockingjay): 8
http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Trilogy-Boxset-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0545265355/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1295749536&sr=8-5
Suzanne Collins is a favorite author of mine. Her first popular book, Gregor the Overlander, is one of the best I have read, and the next four in the series are worthy successors to such a great beginning (see "The Underland Chronicles"). However, when this series came to a close, Collins diverted her attention to a new trilogy of books that has become very popular in mainstream literary critical circles, both for children and adults.
The Hunger Games is the acclaimed first book in the trilogy. It takes place in a post-revolutionary America centuries in the future. America, now called Panem, is composed of the central Capitol and 12 districts, the thirteenth destroyed in the war 74 years earlier. Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old in the impoverished District 12, is the novel's resourceful and skilled protagonist. An intelligent young woman, she brandishes a bow as fearlessly as any man and cares for her family after the untimely death of her father, a miner.
Every year in Panem, a Hunger Games is put on by the Capitol as a reminder to the districts of who is really in charge. A 12- to 18-year-old boy and girl from each of the 12 districts are taken from their homes. They are paraded on national television (mandatory viewing for every denizen of Panem) in gorgeous attire, trained for weeks in fighting (skills, strength, and strategy), and then put in a massive arena, a sort of miniature world for the children for the duration of the Games. There they are to fight until only one child is left living.
After Katniss's sister's name gets called, Katniss quickly volunteers to take her sister's place in the brawl. She and an acquaintance, Peeta Mellark, are to be District 12's representatives in the 74th Hunger Games. As the Games draw near, they are trained by District 12's only previous champion, Haymitch Abernathy, an inveterate drunk. In the Hunger Games, Katniss must struggle with self-preservation, disapproval of murder, and the desire to show the Capitol that nobody can control Katniss Everdeen.
While being to some degree a children's book, it is quite violent and traumatic in many places. The Hunger Games is just what it sounds like: a bloody, fight-to-the-death gladiator battle. Though Collins is certainly not as great of a writer as, say, Salinger, Steinbeck, or Twain, she more than makes up for it with a balance of fast-paced action and feminine sentimentality that easily appeals to adults as well as younger ones (or at least those who have the stomach for it).
Without giving too much away of the events of the trilogy, I will just express my love for the second and third books in the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, respectively. Catching Fire takes place a year later and revolves around the events of the 75th Hunger Games, while the final novel has Panem's revolution against the Capitol manifest itself after three-quarters of a century of waiting. Though the first book is the best in my opinion, Cathcing Fire is almost as good, and Mockingjay, though slightly more far-fetched than the previous (what can be far-fetched about a postapocalyptic America where children kill each other for national enjoyment?), is a worthy conclusion to the fine trilogy. It is an action-adventure series that, at its heart, is a coming-of-age story in the face of violence and mortality. Now we all eagerly await another series by Suzanne Collins, the queen of young-adult literature.
Grade (The Hunger Games): 9
Grade (Cathcing Fire): 8.5
Grade (Mockingjay): 8
http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Trilogy-Boxset-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0545265355/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1295749536&sr=8-5
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