Author: Suzanne Collins
Date Finished: 22-04-'12
Star Rating: 5/5 (if there was a such a thing as 6/5, it would have awarded it so!)
Overview (or the blurb of the book): In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a flight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-- and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
Comments: Superbly written with fantastic imagination, the Hunger Games has successfully been added to one of my 'favourite books list'!! Told with a steady pace, the author carefully unspins this adventurous tale of the presumed future of North America~portrayed in the book as seemed to be the most savaged place there ever can be, with people fighting to each others' death while everyone else are forced to watch on TV. The presumed future of North America has not been portrayed very well, unlike the future we always thought it would be with flying cars, etc, with not much techological improvements, the TV was the only technology mentioned; and the people in the Capitol possessing much greed, fame, vanity, uncivility, and possibly everything negative we can think of.
The main character, Katniss, being good-natured but forced to be selfish due to her surroundings; this is the part where the author implies hope still exists, even in the world of cruelty, good people live and fight for their survival. Although the people of the Capitol are being described with such negativity, however, Cinna (her 'designer' for her dress so she can be memorable) is also a good hearted person. Another significant character~Peeta in this book was also firstly described as kind, since he spared some bread for Katniss when they were still children, but later on portrayed as a hypocrite due to his many actions that made both Katniss and the readers wonder about his true personality.
Collins' imaginery world of survival and selfishness might seem so far away and almost 'alien' to the world that we exist in, and yet, it is quite similar in many different ways. In our world, it's also all about survival, just in a different way, from as simple as surviving at school- not failing at tests, sticking with friends, or trying to impress a teacher; to the 'outside' world, where if you boil it down to the basics, mostly everything we do are to survive: earning money, socialising, or even being nice to someone even you dislike them in order to make a good impression, it's all about surviving in this world! It all dates back to our nature of 'the Law of the Jungle', where the weaks are ever preys to the strong.
Furthermore, there are all kinds of people in this world, same as in the Hunger Games, there are nice souls amongst the people who we often classify as 'unfriendly'- just like Cinna being a Capitol, sometimes they just cannot help it to be amongst the 'unfriendly'because they had to survive- just like when Peeta joined the 'Careers' in order to stop them attacking Katniss! Also, there are people out there who seems to be something but turns out to be the opposite, just like when Haymitch seems to be useless to the contesters at the beginning but turned out that he helped Katniss the most during the Games.
Also, the author cleverly 'foretells' the future from our current problems, whether on the fighting of natural resources, using renewable energy, poverty and many other global issues that world leaders are recking their brains to overcome right now in the Rio+20 Conference. I think she's basically saying: if these things aren't resolved, it will all just become bigger problems in the future. As mentioned before, the 'future' as Collins' portrayal from the book wasn't the wonderful future we dreamt to have; but quite on the contrary, Katniss' life was poor when she even has to fight for having human basic needs such as food, she wouldn't have any spare money to enjoy luxuries like the ones the Capitol might have enjoyed. This is telling us that if we don't resolve our current global issues, they will just become 'stumbling blocks' for our developments in the future.
This book was so great that I finished it in one day and even after finishing it, the different 'scenes' in the stories kept coming back to mind and I even felt sad after I finished it because I longed for more. An abolutely worthful read and I recommend this fantastic book to everyone!!
P.S. Remember to comment on my posts, whoever has also finished this book, so we can discuss ideas!! :)
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