Series: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is a dystopian series set in the distant future Appalachia. The world - as much as we know of it - has destroyed itself and been reborn as Panem. In the centre is the Capital, where people live in luxury and entertain themselves with fashion and the drama of the Hunger Games. Around it are twelve districts, each focusing on a single industry so that all dependent on each other for the basic necessities of life. Once, 75 years before the series begins, the districts rebelled in what has come to be known as the Dark Days. There were thirteen districts then, but the Capital destroyed one in the battle. To ensure that the districts would never again seek to rebel, the Capital instituted the Hunger Games - a gladiatorial event in which two children, a boy and a girl, from each district is selected by lottery and entered into the arena, there to fight to the death until only one child is left.

The odds were in Katniss Everdeen's favour and she was not called to be a tribute for the Capital's Hunger Games, but her little sister was not so lucky. When Katniss volunteers herself to take her sister's place, her personal refusal to accept the Capital's rules lay the groundwork for a return of the Dark Days and the possible extinction of what's left of human society.

Are you on Team Peeta or Team Gale?

The Hunger Games series followed many conventions that could have reduced it to a superficial, silly novel - the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale perfectly illustrates my point. It would have been all too easy for the Hunger Games to become about Katniss's "boy troubles," to make her struggle be about the men in her life. The narrative does flirt with this at a few points, but it does so in a psychologically real way that preserves Katniss's identity as an individual in her own right, rather than as an object for the competition between two males. As Shoshana Kessock points out, the only real team in the Hunger Games is Team Katniss.

Living vs Surviving

Katniss's reaction to her dystopian government grows and changes in interesting ways. In the beginning, she is resigned to her fate, content merely with survival. She dismisses the interests of both boys in her love triangle because she cannot envision a future with either, a future which may include having children, in a society that would allow have something like the Hunger Games. It's Peeta who offers her an alternative to simple survival - living - which, paradoxically, may mean martyrdom. His refusal to sacrifice who he is as a person to play by the Capital's rules is a lesson to Katniss that simply surviving isn't enough. She comes back to this lesson again and again through the series, each time understanding a little more about what Peeta meant.

Coming back to the romance tropes, it was so refreshing to see Katniss and Peeta help each other grow as individuals rather than simply learning to don a new identity at the expense of the self. Bella Swan, of Twilight fame is a perfect example of the latter. She sheds her self to take up the identity of her paramour (in this case, his identity as a vampire). In the Hunger Games, on the other hand, Peeta serves as a lesson, but it changes Katniss in a way that is unique to herself. She doesn't become a copy of Peeta, but rather a person who has been shaped by her relationship with him.

Moral Complexity

In the first book of the series, the sides are fairly clear: the Capital is bad, the Districts are victims. But by the second book, Katniss is unable to reconcile her hatred for the Capital with her love for the Capital people in her life, such as her design team, Cinna, or even Effie. By the third book, the moral line that divides the sides becomes even more complicated as we meet the people of District 13 and fine them to be something less than the rescuers they have presented themselves to be. As with so many of our real world revolutions, when the rebels win the war, they adopt all the habits they had so recently fought against. There's a lesson there for readers about trying to fit groups into a "good guy vs bad guy" narrative, and about thinking too uncritically about one's in-group.

Image

Much of the series revolves around Katniss's image. Throughout the series, characters are always dressing Katniss, using her appearance to tell a narrative that promotes their own agenda. I kept thinking of our fashions and the way that clothes often display the maker's branding in a highly visible spot, using their customers as walking billboards. Through it all, Katniss struggles to keep hold of who she is as a person, an individual separate from the image is made to project.

There's also a lesson here about the importance of image, and how powerful our appearances can be.

Conclusion

This series is absolutely fantastic. At only three books, there's really no reason not to go out and read it. It's very well written and excellently plotted. If you haven't already, give it a try!

The Hunger Games #3: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Read: 11 March, 2012

The Hunger Games ended when Katniss destroyed the barrier keeping the tributes in the arena, but the battle against the Capital is far from over. After an all-too-short glimpse of freedom, she finds herself yet again a pawn in someone else's game - this time she is the Mockingjay, a symbol of the revolution used by the rebels and District 13 in their PR campaign.

I was worried about the third instalment of the Hunger Games series because so much could have been poorly handled. The love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale - which had been on hold while Katniss fought for the survival of herself and her loved ones - needed a resolution, and that might mean turning Katniss's world towards 'boy issues.' The Capital had been set up as the baddies from the start, but Mockingjay is the first time we get to look at possible alternative rulers. It would have been so easy to maintain the perception of the Capital is the series' baddies and reduce the conflict into a simplistic good vs evil conflict. And, lastly, the first two books in the series focused around a Hunger Game - what was left for the third? Surely we wouldn't see another Hunger Game? But where else was there to go?

I was pleasantly surprised on all fronts. Collins navigated the standard whirlpools with much grace and ended the series powerfully. Even the "years later" epilogue fit the story and only increased the emotion, rather than feeling too removed from the events for the reader to process. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was in tears for much of the ending.

I really enjoyed the twist - yes, there's a twist. It caught me by surprise, but only because it solved an issue that had been concerning me rather than because it was from "out on left field" or otherwise lacked sense. In retrospect, it fit Katniss perfectly.

Buy Mockingjay from Amazon now!

The Hunger Games #2: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Read: 5 March, 2012

After Katniss defied the Capitol in Hunger Games, forcing them to allow two winners of the Games for the first time in their history, she returns home and tries to patch together a life that has been irrevocably changed by recent events. Her budding feelings for Peeta become even more confused now that Gale is once more by her side. But for now, she's tried to put the events of the Games aside as best she can while she carves out a new routine. Unfortunately, the Capitol is not so willing to forget her defiance.

Discussing Hunger Games with a friend on Facebook recently, someone chimed in to say that they truly enjoyed Catching Fire and actually considered it superior to the first book. I'm not sure I agree, but I can certainly understand where she was coming from. It starts out fairly slow, showing us a Katniss who is trying to make sense of her post-Games life, but then the story really catches fire (har har) and I found it impossible to put down. And with the fictional world and character exposition taking care of by the first book, Catching Fire was free to focus on development.

There were some weird authorial issues. I don't want to give too much away, so... this next bit is a total spoiler. Sorry. So, in both books, Haymitch communicates with Katniss in the games through the gifts he either gives her or does not giver her. So when there are five people in Katniss's alliance and they keep receiving bread rolls in multiples of 6, I assumed that Haymitch was trying to tell Katniss that her group should be looking to include Chaff (since Chaff was Haymitch's friend, and because Peeta had so easily remembered that he was still unaccounted for). And yet while much page space was given to Katniss trying to interpret all of Haymitch's other gifts, she barely gives the rolls a second thought. The only reason I could think of for this is because Suzanne Collins knows the answer, knows that it isn't anything she wants Katniss to guess, so she's just dropped it. It feels like a missed opportunity for some character development. Up until that point, Haymitch's gifts were always communicating to Katniss, but this time the message was meant for her allies. Katniss could have tried to guess the meaning and come to the wrong conclusion, and then had to deal with her feelings later about Haymitch "cheating" on her (which, frankly, would have made her anger at Haymitch's supposed betrayal at the start of Mockingjay - which I've only just started reading, so forgive me if this does get covered - far more palatable).

Buy Catching Fire from Amazon now!

The Hunger Games #1: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Read: 11 February, 2012

Every year in Panem, two children are chosen by lottery from each of the twelve districts to compete in the Hunger Games. Twenty-four kids enter the arena to fight to the death, and only one can survive.

The general story is a fairly common one, and I don't do well with stories heavy on action, so Hunger Games could have gone quite badly. But the action was just present enough to keep the story interesting without ever making me feel "actioned out." As for the plot, the interesting characters keep it fresh.

There is a love triangle, which seems to be a required theme in these sorts of books, but it never felt forced. Katniss naturally starts to develop feelings for Peeta when she finds herself in a life-or-death, high stress situation. Rather than coming off as a silly girl unable to decide what she wants, Katniss is instead confused by the stress of being so near death. I found this to be much more psychologically plausible and it avoided the demeaning perception of girls/women as too silly to know their own minds.

Even beyond the love story, the gender portrayals were refreshing. There are no helpless princesses in need of rescuing in The Hunger Games. Peeta is vulnerable, but even he shows enough strength to prevent the story from simply being a flat reversal of gender stereotypes. Katniss is strong, but realistically so, with failings and weak moments that don't feel token or trivial. She is a genuinely strong person, and a complete character to boot.

It was a bit of a shock to read The Hunger Games right after reading Clash of Kings. For one thing, the simplicity of the plot made for a difficult switch in my reading. But once my brain caught up, I found that I truly enjoyed the book. The setting was a dangerous one, and the novel could have easily devolved into a bludgeoning "message," but while the criticism of our present world are very much there, I never felt like it was overly forced.

Buy The Hunger Games from Amazon now!

Flatland by Edwin Abbott

Read: 30 November, 2011

A. Square, an inhabitant of the two-dimensional Flatland, is taken on a journey of Lineland, Spaceland, and Pointland, during which he learns to transcend many of his assumptions about the universe and the natural order.

There are two parts to the Flatland narrative. The first reads like your standard (albeit clever - clever enough to fool several contemporary reviewers) social commentary, while the second tries to illustrate the failings of perspective and how trapped we are in comprehending only our own and lower dimensions. But as with any excellent writer, the division is never quite so clear and the second part provides a very interesting lens for the first.

I knew going in that I would enjoy Flatland; I'd heard enough about it for that. I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed. This is an excellent and readable novel that is one part social commentary, one part math, and one part Crusoe adventure!

I highly recommend the Broadview edition of the text. As always, the notes, introduction, and additional materials are both interesting and informative.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Read: 12 August, 2011

Robert Neville is alone, completely alone in a world overrun by vampires.He is alive, but he can't figure out why he bothers.

I enjoyed the recent movie with Will Smith - mostly because I read into it far more than any of its creators intended. When I talk about the movie with others, it's like we saw entirely different movies. Mine was a subtle commentary on racism, or perhaps our relationship with the mentally ill. My movie featured a brilliantly executed unreliable narrator and one of the best ironic endings I've ever seen. What other people saw was yet another mindless monster flick.

I Am Legend the novel is everything I saw into the movie, only better.

Neville is a fantastic character. He's going nuts, making stupid mistakes, and drinking himself silly. But it's never frustrating, and I never felt that I just wanted him to shut up and get on with things. That's because Matheson has perfect timing, he never allows Neville to wallow for too long.

The sense of isolation and loneliness is palpable. As I was reading, I could really feel Neville's despair. This makes the story creepy and even terrifying without ever resorting to monster-in-the-closet gimmicks. Quite the opposite - the vampires' inability to wake during the day give Neville the advantage. He can scavenge safely during the day and then simply wait out the night in his house-come-fortress. The vampires are never the source of terror, the loneliness is.

This was one of the best, most perfectly executed books that I've read in a very long time. I highly recommend it for any fans of science fiction, distopian fantasy, post-apocalyptic fiction, and horror fiction.

NOTE: The copy I was reading was a first printing and had a truly creepy portrait of a young Matheson emerging from the shadows on the back. Yikes!

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Read: June, 2004

The devil has arrived in Moscow, and he's there to wreak havoc. Meanwhile, a writer obsesses over Pontius Pilate while a young woman obsesses over him.

I read Master and Margarita for a course I was taking in university, and it was one of my favourite books of the whole year. I found the obsession with Pontius Pilate to be rather contagious. I was taking another course on the New Testament, so I was able to get it out of my system by writing a rather lengthy essay on him.

This was all a couple years ago, so my memory of the book is a little hazy, but I remember finding it very funny and interesting, mixed in with that depressingly lethargic outlook on life, society, and government so common to Russian writing.

Black Man by Richard Morgan

Read: 5 June, 2010

Black Man (or Thirteen, as it's known in the US) envisions a future in which genetically modified super-soldiers have come and gone. Carl Marsalis is a 'Variant Thirteen' whose escaped persecution by becoming persecutor, his job is to use his enhanced abilities to hunt down others like himself.

It was an interesting book with a rather frightening image of the future. For one thing, the US has been split apart by ideology, with a vast portion fenced off and backwards, an anti-technology society referred to as 'Jesusland.' The hints dropped throughout the book about how this future came about are frighteningly plausible.

Given the subject matter, it should come as no surprise that the book contains quite a bit of graphic violence. It did verge on the gratuitous at times, but it fights with the context. Thirteens are hated and excluded from society precisely because of their psychopathic violent tendencies.

I've read that the name was changed in the US to avoid the more racially-charged title. It's a shame, because the fact that Carl Marsalis is black plays a fairly important role in the story. The whole idea of the 'Variant Thirteen,' people who are seen as not quite people, echoes back to the rhetoric we've so often heard in the context of race. To censor the title, eliminating the big neon sign pointing at the analogy of the book, doesn't avoid racism. Rather, it just hides it - and it's questionable just how much use not talking about a problem can have in fixing it.

All in all, a solid future-fiction with a good plot and an excellent premise.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Read: 6 February, 2011

Jordan Scott is a Lost Boy. As a teen, he was expelled from his polygamous community after being caught holding hands with one of his step-sisters. Now, he's just received news that his mother has been arrested for his father's murder. Thus starts an exposé of polygamy in Mormonism, both in the 19th century and today.

I found the historical fiction portions of this book very interesting. Ebershoff mingled the present-day mystery with "historical documents" to compare a modern day 19th wife to Brigham Young's famous 19th, Ann Eliza Young. What makes this technique so interesting is that the author will frequently re-write actual documents - for example, he writes several fictional chapters of Ann Eliza's real Wife No. 19. It's a weird approach that both adds a great deal of verisimilitude and makes it difficult to separate those parts of the novel that are fact from those that are fiction.

The modern portions of the novel were appropriately gritty - lending realism without being gratuitous. I particularly liked the choice of making the main character gay (and pursuing a relationship) without it being necessary for the plot. I hope to see more novels with gay main characters without the novel itself being about a gay main character.

When I had finished reading the novel, I was curious as to how Mormons have reacted to the less-than-flattering portrayal of the early LDS church, not to mention the sensitivity of mentioning Mormonism in the same context as polygamy. So I took myself to the chat feature on Mormon.org.

Unfortunately, the missionary I was assigned (a lovely young man named Tim) was not aware of the novel (and doesn't "really discuss books very often with friends either"). I would like to pursue the question a bit further and perhaps try my luck at another time, but so far my sample of one seems to indicate that the Mormon boat hasn't been rocked too deeply by The 19th Wife.

EDIT 1: Attempt #2 got me Nicole, who assured me that Ebershoff's book is "not accurate at all unfortunately," but not to worry because "the Book of Mormon is 100% accurate!" Hoorah!

Unfortunately, she didn't acknowledge my follow-up questions about whether she had, personally, read The 19th Wife or if her impression was just from what had been discussed in her community. Rather, she wanted to know if I had heard of the Book of Mormon, if I knew what it was, if I was planning to read it, yadda yadda. And so my search continues...

EDIT 2: Attempts #3-4 got me Sloane and Emily, neither of whom had heard of the novel. I officially give up...

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

Read: 6 May, 2009

There was a tall pile of them on the sale table, just $4.99 each. I'd never heard of the title, or the author of that matter, but I had my allowance in hand. This was why I had come - to experiment, to sample the books no one else had wanted. $4.99 is nothing, really, especially for a hardcover. So I grabbed a pile of books, anything that looks interesting. I blew my entire allowance. It doesn't really matter. If just one or two of these books turn out to be gems, they will have enough value for the entire pile.

I'm not sure why I picked this one. I don't think I even bothered to read the jacket. The cover is interesting and it says "by the author of The Hours." Hadn't I heard that title before? I was sure it was a movie I had seen, maybe even liked.

I've been chewing my way through the pile of books I've bought in that way, but months went by before I got to this one. In the meantime, the bookstore marked it down to $2, and then only $1. The pile, sans my copy, never seemed to get any smaller. For whatever reason, this is a novel that has failed to catch the public's eye.

But I like the cover. I like the dandelion parachute ball, green and glowing. I would see it on my shelf and try to imagine what the story could be about. With a name like Specimen Days, it could be just about anything. Horror, maybe? I think I confused The Hours with The Others.

I had just finished Witches Abroad. Discworld novels are safe; I know what to expect when I crack the spine onto the first page. I was ready for something different, unexpected, adventurous.

So I picked the glowing green dandelion parachute ball with the black background. Why not?

Specimen Days is not a novel, no matter what the cover says. Specimen Days is a meditation, a thought experiment. It glides through experiences like a breeze, offering no explanations and no resolutions. To call itself a novel, it experiences the world through three characters: the child, the woman, and the man. Each of these receives a chapter, an age, and a genre. The book is at once historical fiction, detective story, and science fiction. Somehow, the whole is held together by an experience of Walt Whitman. I won't try to explain - I can't. You'll just have to read it for yourself.

I'm not surprised that Specimen Days can now be purchased for only $1 on the book's sale table. It isn't bad, it's just so experimental, different, and genre-defying. It's an experience of beauty and thought that can be both marvellous and uncomfortable. It isn't a casual read.

That being said, it was a wonderful experience and I feel enriched for having been seduced by that glowing green parachute ball. Read it, give it a chance, and let yourself experience the touch of the literary numinous.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Read: 20 February, 2009

In this infamous classic, young Alex is an ultra-violent teen who revels in rape, robbery, and in beating up members of the older generations. When a robbery goes sour and Alex is betrayed by his closest droogs, he finds himself in jail with a very long sentence for murder. But there is still hope for our young narrator. Alex is given the opportunity to test a new system that promises to end all crime by turning the most depraved devils into perfect angels. But the prison chaplain has his reservations. Is it right for the government to keep the peace by creating clockwork oranges?

POSITIVE: The language play is amazing. I have the benefit of knowing a little Russian, but this is by no means necessary. Alex's switches between Nadsat and his "gentleman's goloss" add a great deal of layering to the novel. Burgess is also able to preach without bogging down the story. Finally, the humour is fantastic and, at times, very clever.

NEGATIVE: All that violence can be hard to read and Burgess's writing style makes it all the more vivid. I spent much of the novel in a cringe. Had it not been for the distancing provided by Nadsat, I might not have been able to make it through. Even so, the violence does serve a purpose to the story and cannot be said to be gratuitous.

Overall, I would say that this is a very readable novel and would be most appropriate for scholars and teens. Those with more sensitive dispositions may wish to stay away!

Blind Faith by Ben Elton

Read: 19 December, 2008

Throughout my reading of this book, I kept thinking of the classics of dystopian fiction such as Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451. In the end, that's exactly where this book lost its points for me. The televisions that cover every wall, the underground railroad for books, the total saturation of society with sex, food, and entertainment, etc. All of it was lifted directly from the exemplars of the genre. The only difference was that when Huxley, Orwell, and Bradbury wrote their novels, their visions were prophetic in a way. Elton's novel, on the other hand, merely took much of the world as it is and changed the names (FaceBook becomes Face Space, YouTube becomes MyTube or just Tube).

All this might have been forgiven if the characters had been better fleshed out. Instead, Trafford is merely a modern man stuck in a totally different world with little explanation for why he thinks as he does. In his conversations with others (particularly Cassius and Sandra Dee), he comes off as either pathetic or overly dramatic. This might have worked had it been clearer that many felt as he did but were, like him, too afraid to show it. It might have worked if we could see him incorporating bits of media into his speech so that we can, at least, know that the reason he makes such dramatic speeches is simply that this is how he has learned to talk. Instead, we just have a thoroughly modern character who regresses into the role of a babbling idiot when he meets like-minded people, and then suddenly takes on this obnoxious and self-important attitude when he decides he has a "mission." It all reeked of Hollywood.

Compare this to Winston Smith who, despite his doubt, remained thoroughly a man of his time. Or compare it to John of Brave New World who at least had a good reason for being an outsider and a throw-back from our time.

All in all, I found it to be a bit of an ego-stroke - a vehicle for ideas that are finding themselves increasingly in poor favour. All the atheist and scientific talking points were puppetted out by the various characters, which is all well and good. I would have liked a better setting for such gems, but this is what I got instead. Worth a read, but don't expect too much.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Read: 2006

Offred is a handmaid in a Christian theocracy existing in what was once the United States. Her function is to produce a child for couples who cannot conceive. She is forbidden from reading and must cover her body at all times. She is valued only as a vessel for a potential heir. Her mind is suppressed, her individuality taken.

With all that has been going on these days about evolution being removed from school curriculums and abstinence-only education, Atwood paints a dismal picture of what is increasingly appearing to be a possible future. Most importantly, perhaps, she posits this world coming from a great disaster (albeit one that leaves most men sterile) and some connections may be made to the terrorist paranoia of recent years.

Atwood is a fantastic writer with an easy-to-read style and multi-layered storytelling. This is one of the aspects I've enjoyed most about her books. It is possible to read them for their surface story, but if interested, there are all sorts of allusions to discover.