The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins

As I posted in the sidebar on "The Streak" we listened to the audiobook of The Hunger Games coming and going on our vacation. It is very well done, and I highly recommend it.

Nonetheless, there comes a time when one is completely riveted by a book, that the audiobook just can't keep up with a reading speed of 150 pages an hour. I managed to hit that point at midnight, our first night home from the vacation. I have occasional insomnia, which is often inconvenient, but also provides a fabulous opportunity for undisturbed reading if work is not scheduled for the following day. My insomnia roared to life at midnight, and didn't relent until 4:30 a.m. By that time, I had finished book 1,




and read all of book 2, Catching Fire:




and 1/2 of the third book, Mockingjay:



Doing a series review is risky, because plot spoilers are almost inevitable, and I can't fully air my thoughts about this series without providing major spoilers. So, if you haven't read the trilogy, let me start by saying the following:

These books are worth reading. I am a huge fan of YA literature. It is my opinion that some of the best books being written today are in the YA genre. It is true that much trash is published in that genre as well, but someone who is looking for big themes and risk-taking in fiction shouldn't turn up their noses at YA. I previously gave John Green's A Fault In Our Stars a five-star review, and I genuinely loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone. The Hunger Games is an example of this phenomenon. These are brave books, that take a serious look at humanity, and don't shy away from bleakness. They define the reason that people read dystopian lit. Because when we look into the heart of darkness, we learn something about ourselves.

So, if you haven't read the trilogy, stop reading here. Go and buy the books. Read them. Then come back, if you are interested in what I thought.

***Spoilers . . . . Spoilers . . . . Spoilers . . . . Spoilers . . . . Spoilers ***

For purposes of this section of the post, I am going to assume that everyone reading has already read the entire trilogy. Therefore, I'm not bothering with a plot summary.

I really loved the first book. I loved the author's voice. I have read very few books written in the first person present, and even fewer that could actually pull it off. Suzanne Collins did this masterfully, and through the use of the first person present tense, drew the reader into Katniss Everdeen with devastating thoroughness. Because this is not an easy book to read in any respect. We start with the drama of The Reaping, and the slow, horrifying unfolding of the purpose of The Hunger Games, and then the volunteering of Katniss to take the place of her younger sister, Prim. This entire process is deeply affecting, in a nightmarish way. Panem is the stuff that nightmares of made of, where children are forced to become brutal assassins, to commit murder for public entertainment. Even the seemingly idyllic sections of the book -- Katniss and Gale hunting in the forest -- are based in a horror story where children become criminals if they ensure that families don't die of starvation.

Once Katniss gets to the Capitol the book becomes even more compelling. In the third book, Ms. Collins uses a phrase from Roman history to describe the people of The Capitol: Panem et Circuses, which is also where she gets the name of her fictional dystopian world. The reason behind that name becomes clear as the series develops. Because the people of The Capitol are utterly corrupt in their uselessness. Their absurd styles, their gluttony, their abject exploitation of the Districts, detail the most shallow and worthless humanity. The Hunger Games -- child murder as entertainment -- are merely the most obvious examples of their corruption. In reality, they have created a constant version of The Hunger Games in the lives in the citizens of the Districts, where people die of starvation, while surrounded by forests and fields teeming with food and life.

Book two of the series, Catching Fire is equally compelling. Katniss and Peeta have both survived The Hunger Games. Katniss's brilliant emotional manipulation at the end of the games both ensured their survival and has served as a rallying point for a rebellion in the Districts. The power structure of The Capitol, and particularly the reptilian and evil President Snow, is deeply angry with Katniss and intends to have their revenge. It is difficult, in this book, to remember that Katniss is really still a child of 17. She has been providing for her family, surviving under the worst of circumstances for half a decade at this point, and things are about to get even uglier in District 12.

Catching Fire, as the middle book of the trilogy, does a remarkable job of sustaining interest in the series. It doesn't fall victim to many of the middle book issues, and, while it doesn't stand on it's own, significantly advances the story. New characters are introduced, including one of my favorite characters in the trilogy, Finnick.

Katniss continues to serve as a rallying point for a rebellion against the excesses of The Capitol. Even some of those within the Capitol's power structure itself have come to recognize the inhumanity and emptiness that is the government of Panem, and a rebellion is empowered.

It is the final book, though, that gives the series it's genuine power. Mockingjay is not nearly as popular with readers, because it is a hard book to read. We see our favorite characters broken and, in many cases, outright killed. Because, as it turns out, the leader of the rebellion, and much of the movement itself is nothing more, or less, than The Capitol 2.0. Just as corrupt, just as inhumane, just as horrifying. And the rebels use Katniss as their symbol, with her willing participation, while entirely stripping her of any meaning or personhood. Mockingjay is a bleak indictment of humanity.

And, in the end, Katniss saves the world. Unsung, in an act of criminal rebellion for which she, were the book real, would have been executed. This is deeply symmetrical. Katniss has been forced to murder for her survival through her participation in not one, but two, versions of the Hunger Games. She is the perfect assassin -- able to execute someone in cold blood, simply because the ends can justify the means. She is what the Capitol has created, and what was exploited, and, in the end, her inherent understanding of what will happen should President Coin rise to power results in a decision to commit one more act of cold-blooded and premeditated murder where she saves, not herself, but the soul of her world.

Thankfully, Collins spares us the final horror that would be her execution. Her life is spared, and she ends the book sinking into relative obscurity with the one character who is just as broken as she is, and between the two of them, they try to find some way to live out their lives not entirely in darkness.

Finally, a word about the ubiquitous YA love triangle. Yes, I, too, am completely tired of the need to install a love triangle, with a single exceptional female being fought over by two extremely compelling males, into every single goddamned YA series being written. However, do not make the mistake of thinking that the love triangle in this series is the point. That is the least compelling aspect of the book to my mind, and it is easy to get sidetracked by the question of "who will she choose." Peeta is her rock, her friend and her protector, and he would be all of those things regardless of whether he ended the series as her husband. Gale is her best friend, but he is in love with fire and justice, and with the idea of Katniss -- the symbol, the survivor, the warrior -- much more than he is in love with Katniss the person.

Among the most touching moments in the book occurs at the end, when Peeta asks Katniss:

"You love me. Real or not real?" And Katniss responds. "Real." By that time, neither of them truly know what is real and what is not.

This was an incredibly brave series, and I appreciate the author not ending it easily. Lives are lost, including some very important and beloved characters, and the toll of war is acknowledged. Because, as Collins puts it: "something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its childrens lives to settle its difference."

There is much more that I could say about these books. The use of propaganda, the impact of dehumanization on a culture, the importance of symbols, and the toll of war. But this post is already incredibly long and I'm drained, thinking back through the experience that is the reading of this trilogy over the course of about a day. So, I'll simply end with a definition of Collin's beautiful metaphor:

Panem and Circuses: the abdication of political and civic responsibility in return for a life of frivolous irresponsibility. A message for our time, perhaps.