About a month ago, I started reading The Hunger Games. I knew there was a movie about to come out, and several of my friends read the books and couldn't stop talking about it. It was the first series that I have ever read. I just finished the last book, Mockingjay, a couple nights ago. Each book had an excellent story line, but a story that was extremely complex.
(There may be spoilers. I tried to be vague, but I don't know if it worked.)
The people in the book live in a place called Panem, formally known as North America. Panem is made of 12 districts. Each district has it's own specialty like Coal Mining, Luxury items, Masonry, technology, fishing, power (electricity), transportation, lumber, textiles (clothes, etc), grain, livestock and agriculture. The districts supply the Capitol with whatever they need. There was a District 13 before the Capitol destroyed it to show citizens that they have control and can do whatever they want. And The Hunger Games are put together to remind people they have ultimate power. The Hunger Games happen annually, where two kids (one male, one female) between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen to fight to the death until one victor is standing in the specially designed arena.
Now I only know of a couple people who read the book and didn't care for it. People who don't like the movie because they don't see kids fighting to the death as entertainment.
If you think that, then you're completely missing the point. Or actually, maybe that is the point. It's so much more complicated than that. Kids killing other kids shouldn't be a form of entertainment, yet it is for The Capitol. If you're chosen as a tribute, you should be honored to serve your district in the Games. This isn't the case for the majority of those who take part in The Hunger Games (obviously). It's disgusting that this is the main form of entertainment every year.
There was a little bit of a love triangle going on between Katniss, Gale and Peeta, but that wasn't a huge part or at least it wasn't the main story line when I was reading. It definitely added complication to the story. And as much as some of you might hate to see me write this, if Katniss didn't end up with either of them, I think I would be alright with that. I think Gale was her soul mate. Maybe not in the sense that they should have been together though. They were a lot alike, understood each other, were the best of friends and Gale was extremely selfless. Peeta, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of Katniss. They complemented each other though. He kept her level-headed and was always there for her. He wasn't afraid to say what was going on through his head, which was one of the few things they actually had in common.
While the movie wasn't as good as the book (of course), it was still really good. One of the things that stuck out was how fantastic of a job of portraying how the Capitol gets excited for the Games. While the Games are going on, there are announcers. And all I could think of when the announcers were on the screen was: Parades. Whenever we watch a parade (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Rose), the announcers talk about the floats, bands and different aspects of the what is going on. This is just what those talking about the Hungers Games did. It was really... creepy.
Other than the writing style, I couldn't believe these books were written for young adults. They were intense, violent and graphic, focusing on government with a complicated love triangle thrown in. I'd definitely recommend reading the book before seeing the movie because I'm pretty sure it will fill in some holes for you. While watching the movie, I kept thinking that the things the characters did wouldn't have meant as much if I didn't read the book first.
