What it's about
The Hunger Games centres around 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen who becomes a tribute (an offering) from her district to the Capitol - the oppressive governing body of what was formerly America. She and eleven other tributes are sent to the Capitol to take part in an annual televised death match. The winner, being the only one left alive, will walk back out again and thereby grant their district the grace of not going hungry for a year. The games is expressly for the enjoyment of the Capitol and acts as punishment for the twelve districts and their rebellion 74 years before. As Katniss fights for survival, little does she know the impact she's having on those watching outside of the games.
I'm going to write both about the movie and the book. I think they're such a brilliant complement to each other that one can actually consider them as a single unit. I might spend a little time on the other two books in the series: Catching Fire and Mockingjay.
The Hunger Games
The book is written in first-person from Katniss' point of view and really sets up the shock of what happens throughout the story. Katniss is stubborn and strong-willed with a survivalist instinct born from having to take care of her family. She can be cold and calculating and has difficulty really knowing her own feelings let alone expressing them. This makes her withdrawn and difficult to warm up to. This is a big problem in the Hunger Games as the survival of the tributes could depend on gifts sent to them during the games from sponsors. These gifts don't come often, but can be anything needed in a moment of crisis be it food, medicine, extra weapons, etc. Should the sponsors like you, they'd want to keep you alive. So capturing their attention may very well be in your best interest. Which means making yourself worth noting - something that Katniss only is good at the moment she forgets herself and does something out of instinct.
The movie, in many ways, shows the story from the perspective of those outside of the games and specifically from the perspective of the Capitol. It's reality tv in its gruesome finest. As the movie cannot show you Katniss' thoughts, insight is supplied by interviews and eager Capitol commentators talking about strategy, obstacles, and the 'excitement' of the games. The movie goes out of its way to contrast the decadence of the Capitol versus the desperation of the districts it oppresses.
As I've said, the movie is in many ways a complement to the book. It shows a different perspective on the same story and helps fill in the spaces that readers might not have immediately understood from the books. I specifically had that problem. When I finished the first book I was very neutral about it. I couldn't decide because I couldn't understand some of the choices Collins had made. I didn't understand why she went to some of the extremes she had gone to.It took Alyssa (a partner in crime) to sit and explain it; to point out the underlying message the Capitol was sending to the districts for me to first understand, then appreciate and finally marvel at how amazing the book actually was. I felt dumb not getting it the first time 'round. Soon after that, the movie came out and emphasised all the points she had made and again I felt dumb, but maybe I wasn't the only one. That's what I console myself with at least. In any event, the movie shone a light in the patches hidden within the pages of the book and so they really end up making a neat whole.
Katniss
There is this quote I heard as a teenager that has stuck with me ever since. "When we forget ourselves, we usually do something everyone else remembers." Katniss' story is very much about that. When she does what she's supposed to, when she controls herself as much as she can, then Katniss doesn't make much of an impression. However, the moment she just acts and reacts to her emotions, she blazes and captures everyone's attention.
I can't say I liked Katniss, but really now, this is me. Can we say we're really surprised that I didn't? Nope. Didn't think so. But I can't say I disliked her either. She is someone who has been shaped by very difficult circumstances to become she needs to be rather than just being who she is. She comes across distant and unapproachable; expressionless to some extent. I know Jennifer Lawrence has been faulted for playing Katniss too two-dimensionally, but in truth, the movie rendition of her is far more emotionally expressive than the book's.
Maybe it is the necessity, the role she has to play that makes me dislike Katniss. She has to be manipulative to have her best chance at surviving the games. It's very much like supposed real-life television where everything is bs and spectacle. She has to adapt and in doing so, I get put off. Yes, hypocritical and heartless of me I know. It has to be said though, of all the protagonists I've disliked, she's at the bottom of the list. Which means she's very close to 'okay', but not quite there yet. At least not at the end of the first book. By the second and moreso the third, I'll go as far as bumping her up to the bottom of my 'like list'.
I'm not going to go into the whole team Gale/Peeta thing.
Gale is hunky, Peeta is charming. Both are interesting in their own right and both are really not. But then we know I'm not the gushy love-puppy type. I think they act more as a way of pointing out the two sides to Katniss: the mind and the heart. They're instruments of hormones that Katniss very rarely has time for. Y'know, with the whole not-being-killed thing. They did cast the two characters really well in the movie, it has to be said.
Peeta comes across very flat both in the book and in the movie. He only starts showing his true depth in Catching Fire and then just fizzles out in Mockingjay. But the main reason he seems so 2D is because Peeta is all heart. He's very true to himself and that self just so happens to care about everything. As we know, a drawing is very bland without shading and that's very much how Peeta comes across. You feel for the guy. What he is admired for is also the his greatest weakness in the games. He is set up as a lamb for the slaughter and you're just waiting for the axe to fall.
Gale, on the other hand, is all wolf. He's a survivor, a hunter. He sets his mind to something and gets it done. He is also very dark and broody and can do an awesome Angel impression. He clearly cares for Katniss, but he isn't all heart. He comes out a lot more throughout the series and his rage against the Capitol knows no bounds.
The series
When you talk to people who've liked The Hunger Games and then read the series, get yourselves ready for two different reactions. The one group with tell you "For the love of all that is sacred, don't read the rest of the books!!" and the other will say "The other two books aren't as good as the first one, but I'd think they're worth reading."
I think I'm in both camps. If you want the two subsequent books to capture what the first book did, don't read them. You're going to be disappointed.
Catching Fire shows how Katniss is left in a very precarious position. She has survived the Hunger Games and managed to piss off people that can grind her home into dust. How do you bs your way through that? It's about realising the power of a small act and dealing with the possibility that everything can spiral out of control because of it.
Mockingjay in turn is about the power of a symbol, how people would do anything to manipulate such a symbol and how easily it is to become what one hates. In the last book, Katniss breaks free by doing exactly what she has done all along: forgetting herself and acting out on instinct.The series has some surprises in store and does bring things to a close. I can't call it satisfying but I don't feel like pulling out a bullhorn and warding people off from reading it. Collin's did state that the reason The Hunger Games became a series was because the story didn't feel done yet. By the end of the third one, it has definitely reached that feeling.
Conclusion
Whether you read the series or not, I'd still recommend giving The Hunger Games a shot. I enjoyed the book. I loved the movie and it is definitely something I want to purchase - the score is lovely. And it's something I wouldn't mind revisiting again in the near future. That itself is definitely a thumbs-up.
_LOTR Storybook update_
Gandalf and Strider are debating the mountains versus Moria. I still want to chew my wrists and the disc in my car reached its end. I'm in no way tempted to put the next one in.
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