A Short Review of The Hunger Games (Scholastic Inc., 2010)
January 23rd, 2012 § 3 Comments
Yeah, comparisons to Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale are inevitable (and when that one first came out, it was compared to Golding’s Lord of the Flies, so you know, the premise isn’t actually original) but since I’ve only heard of Battle Royale and its many adaptations and have not actually bothered to read the darn thing, I won’t say which one is better. As young adult novels go, Hunger Games is tightly plotted enough for this ‘old’ guy to read it all the way to the end. It’s set in a dystopian future where the 13 Districts of North America are ruled by the Capitol and when the Districts were defeated in a failed rebellion (with District 13 reduced to ashes), the remaining 12 have to send a pair of teens every year to the Capitol so these kids can compete in a televised match to the death in the Games. All in the name of entertainment and to remind everyone not to ever mess with the Capitol ever again.
The violence is competently written, something that I did not expect from a modern young adult novel, and impressed this reader enough to make him want to read the rest of the series.
I read a lot of young adult fiction simply because it is typically more tightly plotted and to the point than what is written for adults.
I’ve read this trilogy but I’ll keep my opinions to myself until you get a chance to finish. Be sure to update us when you are done!
One of my nieces recommended this series but I demur because I am a little uncomfortable with reading dystopian settings. I know, I should not be so chicken, but perhaps one day I will give this series a shot.
Thanks for the heads up!
Hey Khairul, I added The Malaysian Reader to a website called bloglovin’…you heard of it? Check it out:
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3419470/the-malaysian-reader