The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

I just recently read The Hunger Games series again, It’s one of my favourite series to read. It’s an easy read but it also contains so many lessons without it being dry and boring.

The book in short
Winning will make you famous.
Losing means certain death.
In a dark version of the near future, twelve boys and twelve girls ae forced to appear in a live TV show called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: Kill or be killed.
When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her sister’s place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature. So get a seat because this is going to be a very long review.

My Thoughts
We meet all our characters right away, Katniss, Gale, and Peeta are the most prominent characters. What I found interesting is that Katniss is very unhappy about the reaping and that Peeta is chosen as well. He had helped her years ago, she had lost her father and she and her family were starving. He was the baker’s son and on a rainy day burned the bread and threw it at her. This act of kindness gave her hope. Katniss doesn’t like owning people and from the start, she doesn’t want to hurt the person that gave her the hope she needed. I have always felt she liked him far before she knew it. This becomes very clear to me when they have just had the showing of their costumes and Peeta gives her a compliment about wearing the fire.

When Katniss is saying goodbye she talks to Gale, her best friend. He says something about hunting people and that it isn’t that different from hunting. Which Katniss doesn’t agree with. I think the rebellion that is sparked isn’t just Katniss but also Peeta and the strength he gives her to keep going.

After Katniss buries Rue, she gets a gift from District Eleven. This was such a sweet and thoughtful thing. I think it kind of let Katniss know that she did make a difference. She later on thinks about it and that she wants to tell Peeta. To me, this is a big sign that she does care for him, that she can’t let go of the fact that he is the boy with the bread.

On page 294 Katniss thinks about the boy from district one (Marvin). It was her first real kill. She thinks about the fact that Gale said that it couldn’t be much different than killing animals. This says a lot about her character again. She volunteered for her sister, got Rue as an ally, buried Rue, and felt upset when killing someone. I find Katniss to be a kind and sweet person. The thing is that Katniss was hurt quite a lot as a young girl when she lost her father so she doesn’t have this kindness for everyone. But the people she does like would do anything to make their lives better. Then she finds out both she and Peeta can win and her pure reaction, scream his name. This makes me think as well that she likes him so much more than she wants to accept herself. Even friendly feelings aren’t entertained. She simply doesn’t want to be in love with Peeta, because she can’t afford to think like that. She wants to protect herself, but just because you don’t want to doesn’t mean you don’t feel things.

Katniss thinks a lot about the other tributes in the arena, like Cato and what drives him. This was interesting to me because she seemed to understand others very well. When she pulls the stunt with the berries, which is widely put as how the rebellion started. It was but it also wasn’t because of love. I think it was because she truly couldn’t kill him. She liked him. She could at the end of the day not kill anyone she knew, anyone she liked. She is too kind for that. And that makes them so similar as well. Then they win and Peeta is being operated on. Katniss thinks back to the times when she saw men being worked on by her mother and thinks about why the wives, and families didn’t leave. She identifies with those people, Peeta at that point is part of her family, part of the group of people she wants to protect.

The reason she can’t give herself fully to Peeta isn’t because of Gale. I feel that it is because people want her to be a girl in love with Peeta. Katniss doesn’t like to get orders, she fights against the orders given. After her traumatic time in the games, she wants to forget everything that has to do with the Hunger Games, even Peeta. She is trying to protect him by not telling him what danger they are. She doesn’t want to tell him that she does want to be with him. The thing as well is that she keeps thinking of Gale. Katniss doesn’t want to hurt anyone, she finds it easier to just hurt herself.

Conclusion

Katniss and Peeta are so different yet very similar. Also if it wasn’t for them together the revolution wouldn’t have started. I also think that Katniss’s biggest problem is always thinking about others, and what other people want. She doesn’t take the time to reflect to look at what she wants, what makes her happy. I love this book, it’s full of love as well as drama and fighting. I think it’s a very good mix. I enjoyed reading this book so much it read very easily. ls

Lots of love,
Melissa