Competitive Non-Fiction

I will admit that I am a bandwagon jumper. I heard about this book through some other cannonball reviews and immediately ran out to get the first novel. I read this series months ago and have been completely captivated by it ever since.

The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in future North America where a place called the Capital wields political and military power over twelve districts. The story begins with Katniss Everdeen, a resident of the poorest district, District 12. Katniss is out hunting to provide food for her mother and little sister, Prim. That afternoon, they would all be forced to attend the Reaping, where one boy and one girl from each district are selected to compete in the Hunger Games. Designed to reinforce the Capital’s control over the Districts, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where children from the age of 12 to 18 are set upon one another in violent fight to the death in a vast and unpredictable arena. When, against all odds, Prim’s name is pulled, Katniss steps forward and volunteers to participate in her place. And thus, she is thrust into both the Hunger Games and the political tinderbox that is the Capital.

Katniss’s journey from ordinary girl scraping to get by and support her family to who she ultimately becomes is neither predictable nor unrealistic. She does not come out unscathed. This is uncommon, though not unheard of, in the young adult genre. Katniss is not an ordinary person. She is not like you or me - I’m assuming you’ve never had to bow hunt illegally or harvest dandelions to ensure your family has food to survive. This is someone who, at the beginning of the book, was already shaped by hardship, who then gets pounded with traumatic experiences. Suzanne Collins doesn’t ignore the emotional ramifications of this kind of life.

One of my favourite things about Katniss is her pragmatism. Katniss is, sometimes to her own detriment, eternally logical. She is capable of assessing a situation and determining the best way to come out alive. It is also exactly this trait that leads the series to its most natural conclusions. Katniss will, for a very long time, remain one of my favourite literary characters. She’s not perfect and she often makes me openly cringe, but she feels real. She even manages moments of cruelty and hubris without losing the readers’ sympathy.

One of my major complaints with young adult fiction aimed at girls is that it so often showcases a love triangle, and this series is no exception. [Aside: is there some sort of mathematical equation that demonstrates that 2 suitors are the optimal number for a novel?] The female protagonist always seems to select the least desirable or appropriate future mate of her two only options. This would be fine if the teenagers in these stories date for a while and then have a horrible public break-up in front of their lockers like normal people; after all, it’s a teenager’s prerogative to experiment with wildly inappropriate pairings.  But these stories more often than not end in life-long commitments, overcoming obvious personality differences and glorifying dysfunctional relationships. Without giving anything away, I can only say that I was happy with how Collins closed out the romantic relationships, and how they were always secondary to the other struggles that Katniss was experiencing. 

It can be hard to convince someone to check out a young adult fiction series, though it seems like since Harry Potter came out, this has shifted a little bit. People are more willing to dive into literature that wasn’t necessarily written for their age group. This particular series is in a very different league than Harry Potter, it’s more mature, harsher and much more sad. Because it doesn’t take place in a fantasy landscape, it can be harder to accept the cruelty and injustices. It is, however, a fantastic, gripping series that will keep you up late at night glued to its pages. I would highly recommend checking out this series.