“May the odds be ever in your favor!”
Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games Trilogy is a dystopian
science-fiction adventure that is totally intense and would make you turn each
page for its suspense.
The Hunger Games
“Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun…”
Every district is forced to choose a tribute every “Reaping” day to fight for the annual Hunger Games, one boy and one girl between ages of twelve and eighteen. Katniss takes her sister’s place in the Games and has to make choices for survival. Yet only one is to become victor.
The entire trilogy by the way is written in Katniss’ POV. Suzanne
Collins wrote it in a way to depict how a 16-year old whose second nature is
survival, feels and thinks to be in the arena, doing whatever it takes to stay
alive. Yet she’s not the perfect heroine you’d expect to know everything in
battle and go unscathed. Her character development during the games is something
you would see on someone who is desperate and very calculating for survival.
Since I had the idea of what The Hunger Games was all about,
especially how it skyrocketed with its hype of book and movie release, it
wasn’t that hard to read and imagine. Especially on the idea of how Katniss
would look like and some other characters. It felt like reading for the
specifics of what happens during the games. The ending is also open-ended, but
not much of a cliffhanger. If this was just released, it would feel as if
Collins wrote it as a standalone book that would make you wonder like, “that’s
it?” But since we all know it’s released as a trilogy, you won’t have to wonder
if there’s a next book or none.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
“Sparks are igniting. Flames are spreading. And the Capitol wants revenge.”
Katniss won the annual Hunger Games, but an uprising has been fueled that she cannot stop. And she has yet to convince the Capitol of being head over heels for Peeta. But the stakes are getting higher for Katniss as they visit the districts for Victory tour.
Catching Fire is quite more of an intense read compared to
Book 1. It will somehow make you think what happens next after Katniss won the
games. The plot twists are uncertain and really depicts trusting no one while
trying to survive.
I may have had an idea about The Hunger Games but Catching
Fire doesn’t really give anything away for you to predict what comes next. More
bloodbaths happen and the way Collins ended Book 2 leaves you on a cliffhanger
that wouldn’t make you waste another minute to proceed reading Mockingjay.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay
“My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead.”
District 12 has been wiped out. District 13 does exist. Katniss has become a pawn and must be the rebels’ Mockingjay to overthrow the Capitol.
The way Catching Fire transitions to Mockingjay was intensely
woven together that really shows the progress to the conclusion of the story.
More bloodbaths are also to be expected in Mockingjay compared to Catching
Fire.
“At the moment, the choice would be simple. I can survive just fine without either of them.”
Most trilogies or book series
have varied comments on having the 1st book to be the best one among
its following installments or having a fluctuating flow of the series. However,
The Hunger Games Trilogy actually intensifies from book one to three, that
could possibly give you a mix of emotions once ended.
The Hunger Games was written realistically that depicted what could happen in a battlefield, uncertainty. The characters do not
go unscathed from start to finish. They represent those who have died, survived
and experienced loss during the wars and yet still hold its aftermaths.
I love how Collins weaved the
whole trilogy through Katniss’ POV, not only showing her character
What I love about Katniss is she really is a girl on fire,
not a typical heroine you’d find on some novels. The way her mind works would
take you to how it feels to be in her shoes. Collins didn’t romanticize a heroine
being a damsel in distress or a strong willed individual who would soften and
be confused on which guy she should choose. Rather, she wrote her character as
a smart, headstrong, tough individual who only has eyes for survival.
"You've got about as much charm as a dead slug."
If you think about it, The Hunger Games does happen in real
life: the rich get to enjoy what the poor reaps for them, while the poor are
the ones that go hungry. Reading this during the pandemic somehow makes it feel
right, and would make you think that we too are experiencing it now
minus the bloodbaths.
A friend of mine in freshman year introduced me to The
Hunger Games and I wanted to read it so bad. But my sister and I only had book
1 and I couldn’t complete them because you know, the flat broke student
life. On my count, it took me 8 years to complete and finally read the trilogy.
It took all might not to watch the movie adaptations for years because I really
wanted to read it first. It was worth the long wait though haha. Couldn’t get
enough of the trilogy especially that a prequel is to be released (thank you
Suzanne Collins for that, even if its sad Mockingjay won’t have any follow ups).
I watched the first two movies and they didn’t really disappoint. It gave off
the same intensity the books had and I can’t wait to watch the last two parts
of the franchise (Mockingjay). The movies made me feel like I didn’t read the
whole trilogy, that’s how much justice was given.
The Hunger Games Trilogy is an
intense page turner that you can’t just put it down. Suzanne Collins did an
amazing job on writing Katniss Everdeen’s character and the story’s progress. I’ve
read some comments on how the trilogy is violent and bloody when it involves
killing younger ones and it’s on a young adult genre. They are entitled to
their own perspectives though. But I think this is what makes the story
realistic, where battles really involve bloodbath and violence, including dying
children. So if you don’t wanna read books that involve these, then The Hunger
Games is not for you.
But if you haven’t read the trilogy
yet and have plans in doing so, that’s totally fine because it also took me
years. You can still read it and feel its hype. It’s very well-paced and it’s
not draggy either. And if you’re the type to read intense dystopian
science-fiction adventure novels, then this is a must read for you.
If I were to rate it one by one, The
Hunger Games would be 4.3, since I already had an idea what it was about so it didn’t
fill me much intensity than I was expecting. Catching Fire as I mentioned, was more intense than The Hunger Games so it’s a 4.8 and also Mockingjay, a 4.9
rating. The whole trilogy for me is an absolute 5.0. (experienced sepanx after
reading and couldn’t event stop talking about it)
"If he wants me broken, then I will have to be whole."
Writer,
Thin Girl
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