But Katniss does admire these dresses and a lot of that has to do with the fact that she has a bond of deep affection with the designer Cinna. She is wearing the dresses because she has to, not because she wants to. The reason she has to dress up is because she wants to win sponsors over to help her during the Hunger Games battle. She then wants to inspire a resistance against the capital, the upper class people who are responsible for having created and organized The Hunger Games as a televised event.
The dresses she wears are a part of the performance she acts out. They serve a function as a kind of drag, rather than as an expression of her own gender identity or choices, because connecting to the main emphasis, Katniss is not a stereotypical female character.
She instead replaces the position of a stereotypical male lead of a lot of movies and other media. Peeta, on the other hand, is actually committed to the romance story. He really loves Katniss and expresses that directly. He seems to fill the role of a damsel in distress in the Hunger Games, which is usually reserved for the women.
Katniss and others save Peeta multiple times from danger and near death throughout The Hunger Games. There was suspense, Katniss was sweet and witty, but overall this book is a shitty meltdown. Adding the ridiculous cliffhanger ending. Some people here are using words like dystopian literature, and then write essays about how this book is the core of it.
The core is pointlessly graphic and sadistic, without any concrete message except of the negative: this book is just proving that the world today is fucked up if this book is so successful. In a metaphorical way it is promoting political establishments of certain countries and that is getting tiring. Not all people are eager to swallow the shit of general brainwashing.
Katniss being the heroine ironical quote marks. Being loyal and darling and a role model. Just wake up. Life is happening and some pretty dark things are happening while you are thinking that Katniss is the representative of the club called liberation.
For me, in a bookish way it stands for one bad one night stand, kiss and forget. But as always, readers tend to bring fiction to their real life and just as many think that kittens and superheroes are comfort zones, a lot of readers perceive this plot as their own little shrine.
But that is me not being in tune with the mainstream population which is too distracted with billboards. Because it is easier, because why protest, why not simply take what you are given - eat your GMO Monsanto's company hamburgers, eat your cancer giving Nestle products and think that The Hunger Games are the best franchise ever, like ever. This shit sells. It's genuinely bad but excellently targeted. You know, it evokes pride and loyalty and massacring children, freedom and scandal and Hollywood.
It goes very well with all the Kardashian filth. As long as it sells, sells, sells. And marketing agencies know that people are united when they are jealous, when they want and they with those hamburgers want freedom. Nobody is going to kill their Katniss in a goddam book!
Take a look around you. And then the punch line for this book comes from the so called activism from the shopping mall. People who devour literature of this kind and think that everything is all right while in the same time, fuck, you are getting oozingly fat. Bottom line. This book is very shallow and MTV culture oriented, like a classical example of easy consummated pop-literature; I'm very surprised that it didn't come with some trash magazine subscription. If it doesn't have savage brutality, prize money and prefix ''media coverage'' then it won't be appealing and educational because surely this is how children of 21st century survive this techno media world; through examples of true moral issues and realistic outcomes.
Have another gulp of Coca-Cola along the way while you listen to dubstep shit. It saddens me when a violent hillbillish book is so popular. What is there to truly identify yourself with. Except if your chicken soup for soul are basic emotions which come with buy 1 get 1 free. PLOT It's a potentially exciting but gruesome story, but most of the characters were rather flat, much of the plot was predictable it's not hugely original; in particular, it is VERY similar to the Japanese "Battle Royale" , and there were too many flaws in the plot.
I fail to understand its very high ratings. Post-apocalyptic America Panem is divided into a wealthy and technologically advanced Capitol and twelve subsidiary districts of oppressed people who exist in dire poverty, with inadequate food, housing, and health care and hardly any technology.
To reinforce the power of the Capitol by instilling fear in the population, once a year, two children from each region are selected by lots to fight to the death in a reality show. If that were not bad enough, the whole thing is utterly corrupt in multiple ways, plus the public bet on the outcome, and sponsors can sway the results.
Did I mention these are children? Some are as young as 12, though the narrator is A compulsory full-body wax on a teen seems rather pervy and who would want to bet on, let alone sponsor a child-killing tournament, even if it's by helping one of the contestants? As the book keeps reminding readers, one person's survival is only possible by the death of all the others.
CRUELTY TO CHILDREN I realise that horrendous things are done to children around the world every day extreme poverty, child soldiers, sexual assault, genital mutilation etc , but in none of those cases is the sole intention that all but one child dies, and nor is it organised by the government for a sick combination of sport, entertainment, punishment and profit.
Humans often lack compassion, but I was never convinced by Collins' world - especially the fact this outrage has continued for three generations it's the 74th games , apparently without the Capitol even needing to invoke gods or supernatural powers to justify their cruelty!
Could a barbaric annual tournament really be such a powerful incentive not to rise up in all that time? I don't think so. BIG ISSUES Nevertheless, it tackles some big themes that are particularly pertinent to teens: the nature of friendship; divided loyalties; the difference between love and friendship; who to trust; whether the ends justify the means; the need to repay favours; the danger of power, wealth and celebrity; the corrupting influence of reality TV; the need for independence, and whether you can trust a parent who abandons you.
It all feels rather laboured to me, but it might not if I were a teen, which only reinforces my puzzlement at the number of adults who have enjoyed it. I must be missing something. I predicted the main plot twist less than a quarter of the way in and the fact that Katniss is telling the story limits the possible outcomes , but the suspense was broken when it was made explicit way before the end. There are some other twists between then and the final page, but by then I was rather annoyed with the whole thing.
I suppose they had become inured to it, but on the other hand, that meant they knew the horror of it. I just didn't believe there was as little fear in them as there appeared to be - given that they are children. It can only be a tiny part of the USA because each district specialises in only one thing coal mining, agriculture etc and has just one town square that can accommodate everyone 8, people in District 12 and yet it's a day's train journey from District 12 to the Capitol.
It doesn't seem like a very plausible settlement pattern in a post-disaster world, even given the totalitarian regime concentrating people in a few centres makes it easier to observe and perhaps control them, but it also creates more opportunities for opposition movements to develop. It is even possible that they could all survive. The second point is what makes LotF a better book, in my opinion. Of course, there are other, more obvious, parallels with extreme "reality" shows such as "Survivor" and "I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here", but the fundamental differences are not just that contestants in those shows do not fear for their lives, but that they are adults who have chosen to enter.
Any fans who read this will now hate me. I wanted to enjoy this book, and I read it all the way through, making notes as usual, but to no avail. Shelves: classic-young-adult , girls-rule , young-adult , utopia-dystopia , reviewed , chosen-girls. It is beautiful for the unflinching way it shows you, as a reader, your own willingness to disregard people who are different from you - how you are the Capitol audience. But, it is important as a story about girls.
I had not initially thought about articulating that point because it seemed so obvious to me, and I am bad at recognizing my own assumptions. Lately, though, I have seen so many people, both men and women, acting as though this remarkable book is a piece of fluff that I realized maybe what I love most about The Hunger Games is not as obvious as it seems. To me, this series is important because it is a landmark departure from the traditional story about girls.
Too often, stories objectify women. When I say stories objectify girls, I mean they talk about girls as though they are fleshlights that sometimes have handy dandy extra gadgets such as an all-purpose cleaning mechanism and food dispensing function. Sidebar: if you are inclined to now google the word "fleshlight," I encourage you to consult the urban dictionary definition here before doing that, as the google results will probably be NSFW and also NSF those of you whose parents might check your browsing history.
Do parents know how to do that? Sorry for the sidebar, I am just intending to make an explicit point, and now I am feeling uncomfortable about what that explicit point might mean to the target audience of this book. Girls, you are probably badass like Katniss, and you are definitely not a fleshlight. Back to my rant about typical objectification in storytelling: often the girls fleshlights have fancy outer designs because it makes the fleshlights happy to be fancy.
Sometimes they have skeeeeeery castration functions , and other times they work as helpful databases for music or video games or whatever UR into. A lot of times, I will hear people refer to this type of objectification as treating women like they are just a vagina, or a pair of boobs, but I think there is something to the stories that is less human and more sexbot machine than that complaint covers. So, in all of those links, I have tried to include books written by men and by women because I think that women think of ourselves this way almost as often as men think of us this way.
The link from The Ugly Truth , for example, shows both a man and a woman treating women like fleshlights. I have also included both books I love and books I hate because, ultimately, I do think girls adopt this story about themselves, and I also think we can pretty easily identify with a male protagonist and disregard female characters who look nothing like humans.
For example, The Sun Also Rises is one of my favorite books in the whole world, even though it does not contain any women who resonate with my experience of humans. And I don't think it's necessarily bad that I can enjoy stories where women are only fleshlights, as long as I can still be whoever I want to be without a positive role model. I think it's good to enjoy stories and take what we can get from them, and so I don't regret that I love The Sun Also Rises.
In seeing some male reactions to The Hunger Games , I am reminded that most men do not identify with female protagonists the way women have been trained to identify with male protagonists. This seems like a huge disadvantage for men to be in, to me, and if you are a man reading this review, I would ask you to check out your bookshelves. How many female authors are on your shelves?
How many of the books those authors wrote have no central male character? If you have a minute after that, check the shelves of a woman you are friends with and see how many of her books were written by men or have no central female character. Odds are the results will be pretty different. Katniss is strong and broken, and powerful in her brokenness. Masculinity does not have to mean emotional cowardice. Hopefully, we never think of our primary purpose in life, in the way so many stories think of it, as making penises erect.
Hopefully, we never think of ourselves as gadgets that are super fun for other people. Yes, it is also a poignant critique of reality TV and Western callousness about the catastrophes caused by industrialization in the developing world, but that, too, resonates with me in many ways because of its remarkably feminine voice.
It absolutely makes sense to me that this book is not for everyone because of its violence, but I still think that it is objectively important because it shows a perspective that seems authentically feminine to me — that talks like a girl, not like a sexy, fancy gadget. The Hunger Games is one that does, and it does so in way that is beautiful and important. I want to die as myself. I don't want them to change me in there.
Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not. I keep wishing I could think of a way to That I'm more than just a piece in their Games. You're the one who wasn't paying attention. Of course, I loved Peeta! How can "I don't know how to say it exactly. How can I not? He is perfect! But Katniss? She is so strong and bad-ass but she always misunderstands Peeta!
It's so obvious that he loves her but she is in denial! She is so stupid!! And when she realizes his feelings, she just hurt him! Let's start from the beginning!
What is Hunger Games? Every year, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 were selected from each of the twelve districts as tributes, who train for a week and then are sent into an arena to fight to the death. Only one tribute can win the games. This competition is showed to television to be seen by all citizens. So, Katniss' little sister, Prim, is selected for the games, but Katniss took her place to save her. I volunteer as tribute!
He protected her but I will admit she protected him as well! She risked her life to get the medicine needed to heal his leg. But how can she not see that he is madly in love with her?
I loved it when he told her about her singing for the music class, that's when Peeta realized he was in love with her when he saw that the birds were listening like they did for her father. And right when your song ended, I knew - just like your mother - I was a goner," Peeta says.
Very deep. He is her best friend! At the beginning, she said that she never saw him that way and now what? She is confusing me. Please, not love triangle again!! I liked Gale but no! He won the Hunger Games of his time.
He is also Katniss' and Peeta's mentor. It seems at first that he doesn't like Katniss very much but at the Hunger Games he helped her more than he helped Peeta. He always supported her in his way. She was the year-old female tribute from District I really liked that Katniss allied with Rue. They were amazing together. But Rue died. I understand only one can win our case two but I felt so sad when she died.
Not only her though. A lot innocent kids die because of the Capitol. It's not fair. So katniss and Peeta can be allies. But when all the other tributes died it was announced that the rule they said early has been canceled. I was so angry! They did it on purpose. She is so stupid. He didn't want to fight her and she thought that he could kill her. But it was a trick.
Peeta discovers that Katniss was mostly acting during the games about the feelings. He was so heartbroken! My baby! I haven't seen the movie yet! View all 49 comments. Dec 24, Emily May rated it really liked it Shelves: young-adult , dystopia-utopia , It seems weird that I never reviewed The Hunger Games. I don't know why I didn't when it was a series that completely took over my life for a short while.
But recently I've been thinking about posting something in this review space and after just watching the second film which I think was amazing and better than the first , now seems like as good a time as any to talk about why I love Katniss and nearly everything about this series. I gave this book four stars back in and I'm going to leave that rating as it is because it's an indicator of my thoughts at the time though they slightly differ now - thoughts which were influenced by having just finished the fantastic, horrifying, brutal and unforgettable Battle Royale manga series.
I don't think it was the best time for myself and Katniss to find one another when I had so much beautiful insanity to compare the book to, but it still managed to have such an effect on me that I instantly told every friend and family member to read it.
Coming back to this now after having spent the last couple of years being bombarded with dystopian YA, I appreciate what Collins has achieved a whole lot more. I appreciate the strength of Katniss as a heroine who commands our attention and holds our love whilst still being what some would consider unlikable; I appreciate the balance of beauty and horror that Collins delivers on every page, treating us constantly to both the darkest despair and rays of hope; and I also - amazingly - appreciate the love triangle.
Love triangles seem to have chased me and hunted me down with every YA read I picked up over the last two or three years - my dislike for romance instantly becoming doubled by the introduction of yet another boy with beautiful eyes.
But Katniss, Peeta and Gale worked for me. They convinced me, held my interest and made me cry. The love triangle worked because it's outcome wasn't obvious, because we all wondered and hoped and worried. Because, either way, I was always going to be half happy and half sad.
Katniss still remains for me everything that a female protagonist should be. Or a female hero, at least. She fights for the ones she loves, she's brave and doesn't need to be saved. But neither is she a one-dimensional smiling poster-version of a heroine. She falls, she fails, people get hurt because of her and she has to live with that.
We love her and yet she's antisocial, awkward and moody. She loves other people with all her heart but she's not much of a team player. In short: she's a complex portrait of a young woman that doesn't fall into any neatly defined boxes or categories.
Now, perhaps, authors have since tried to recreate her. But she's still one of the first and best. I know another review of this book isn't needed. I know you've all probably read it anyway. Or never will. But this isn't really for anyone else; it's a reminder to myself of why this book deserves its hype and why I need to remember to come back to it again and again between the new and hopefully amazing YA books I'll be reading in the future.
View all 29 comments. I've said to a few people that if I wasn't married, I'd have to marry this book. I feel pretty safe in saying that if this isn't still my favorite book of the year when next January rolls around, that I'll eat a hat. As soon as I finished reading it, I turned around and read it a 2nd time, which I've never done before in my life.
It's got some very meaty issues to chew on, not the least of which is reality TV taken to extremes. I will miss Katniss until I can read about her again. What more could you possibly ask for out of a book? It doesn't actually come out until October , but if you can get your hands on an ARC, definitely do!
I think that the violence in this will be easier for kids to take, since they probably won't see it quite as clearly as an adult will. None of it is particularly graphic, but it is definitely brutal. This is on the edge of too dark for me, which is my favorite kind of book. There aren't many writers who can push it right to the edge for me without going over Zusak comes to mind immediately , but Collins is definitely one of them. OK, I'll stop gushing. I may have to re-write this review when I get some perspective.
Still my definite favorite book of the year, but all the typos in the finished book were pretty disappointing. I've had 2 teenaged boys at my library read this on my recommendation, and both of them came back asking me for more books like it really there isn't anything.
May-June I'm reading this for the 4th time, with my younger son, who's finishing up 5th grade. Still as good as ever!! Can't wait for the movie!! I've seen the movie twice so far, and definitely liked it better the 2nd time, when it didn't have to try to be my favorite book. STILL as good as ever, and the odds will forever be in its favor. View all 75 comments. Jul 18, Colleen Venable rated it really liked it Shelves: books-that-made-me-cry , ya-fiction.
Fantastically Written? Ooooh yeah! Super Quick Read? Most definitely! Man, I wish someone on my friends list here has also read Battle Royale and this book! I ate it up, shouting into other rooms and offices that I was going to be shoving the book i Fantastically Written? I ate it up, shouting into other rooms and offices that I was going to be shoving the book into their hands as soon as I was done, but as it went on desha vu was a little too common for me.
I know there are major story types out there, ones that are repeated over and over again. Shakespeare retold different ways. The bible reinterpreted to 2,, varieties of tales FEED felt utterly original. If it's going to be about "the future" we don't know about, make it original. In my mind dystopia novels survive on "idea" more than "excecution" and while the execution of this was beautiful, the idea was hardly new.
In Battle Royal short explanation of BR plot: 40 students put on island forced to kill each other and winner is set for life and put on TV etc There are so many other similarities, from the ways the gamemakers manipulate, to the ways the media encourages, to one character having a fever and the other taking care of them with soup.
There are even "career" battle royal players. In BR you see the emotions before and after someone is killed, their last thoughts, the feeling of the person who killed. It's actually really beautiful the way it is done, and so believable that put in an arena teens WOULD turn into savages. In The Hunger Games, yes the main characters were fantastic, and many of the lesser as well, but Foxface is only Foxface, and the Careers are never more than random 1-dimensional bad guys.
I am not saying it wasn't a GREAT read, I'm just saying it shouldn't shake the publishing earth the way I am pretty sure it is going to. I anticipate this is the next Twilight series people are going to gush over. In a few years we'll all be hosting Hunger Games final book parties. I'll be amongst the attendees I'm sure.
Also in terms of female main characters, Katiniss may surpass Bella in me wanting to shake sense into a character. Talk about a smart girl being utterly clueless! Yes, it was great, but eh, maybe I'm just bitter because I think BR is the better book of the two and while Hunger Games will get tons of praise and likely a rather deserved award or two, BR will continue to be banned in many libraries.
Amazing what subtracting guns can do to a story. Suddenly it doesn't feel as violent, but rather is more reminiscent of stories we heard growing up. The number of swords and arrow deaths in traditional fairytales is nothing to freak out about, but if bullets are flying, it will give "too many ideas" to teens and therefore must be dubbed an adult book.
I'm pretty sure if I hadn't read BR just a few months back this exeedingly long review would have been just as long only instead of a rant it would have just been one long squeeeeeal of delight over how much I loved the book. Original Comment: Peer pressure, peer pressure, peer pressure. Geez guys! Alright, alright I'll read it! Clearly Gregor was merely the prelude. As an author we were accustomed to your fun adventures involving a boy, his sister, and a world beneath our world.
But reading it gave me a horribly familiar feeling. There is a certain strain of book that can hypnotize you into believing that you are in another time and place roughly 2. And The Hunger Games? Well as I walked down the street I was under the disctinc impression that there were hidden cameras everywhere, charting my progress home.
Collins has written a book that is exciting, poignant, thoughtful, and breathtaking by turns. It ascends to the highest forms of the science fiction genre and will create all new fans for the writer.
One of the best books of the year. Ever since her father died the girl has spent her time saving her mother and little sister Prim from starvation by hunting on forbidden land. But worst of all is reaping day. Once a year the government chooses two children from each of the twelve districts to compete against one another in a live and televised reality show.
Twenty-four kids and teens enter, and only one survives. Why not make it as if Peeta and Katniss were in love with one another? But in a game where only one person can live, Katniss will have to use all her brains, wits, and instincts to determine who to trust and how to outwit the game's creators.
So sure, there are parts of this plot that have been done before. You could say it's The Game meets Spartacus with some Survivor thrown in for spice. Some of the greatest works of literature out there, regardless of the readerships' age, comes about when an author takes overdone or familiar themes and then makes them entirely new through the brilliance of their own writing.
Similarly, Collins takes ideas that have certainly seen the light of day before and concocts an amazingly addictive text. Your story often rests on the shoulders of the protagonist. Is this a believable character? Do you root for him or her?
Katniss, on the other hand, is so good in so many ways. She sacrifices herself for her sister. She tries to save people in the game. Most remarkable to me was the fact that Katniss could walk around, oblivious to romance, and not bug me. You just want to bonk the ladies upside the head with a brick or something. The different here is maybe the fact that since Katniss knows that Peeta has to play a part, she uses that excuse however unconsciously to justify his seeming affection for her.
Thems smart writing. And did I mention the dialogue at all? The humor? The words pop off the page. No faux slang here, or casual references to extinct dolphins. People love to characterize books by gender. It stars a boy? Boy book. A girl? Girl book.
Now take a long lengthy look at the first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. Finnick and Annie Cresta actually were a canon couple. However, the reason we included them on this list is that their story is so painfully tragic it almost feels like they might as well have been the stuff of fanfiction. For starters, Annie was kidnapped and tormented by the Capitol for a long time before Finnick was finally able to rescue her. Then they are reunited, they get married, and they experience bliss, but only for a short time before Finnick is killed.
After that, we discover that Annie is pregnant with Finnick's child. It's a heartbreaking story. The two of them truly deserved better. The idea of Katniss and Cressida together is appealing to many fans because of the actresses involved. The same can be said for her character Cressida, who already proves herself a fan of Katniss after deciding to take on the directorial job and take video footage of Katniss being the Mockingjay. The two women share several great scenes in the movies, and it helps to know that Dormer and Lawrence are also good friends in real life.
Surprisingly, The Hunger Games doesn't have plenty of slash ships in the fandom, but perhaps one of the biggest ones is Peeta and Gale. As two points in the central love triangle, it's not at all surprising that the two of them are paired together often in fan fiction and fan fantasies. Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson are also friends in real life. In fact, all the cast members from the triangle are close.
There have been plenty of online quizzes and articles weighing the two characters and trying to figure out who is the best choice for Katniss, but there are many who prefer to think about what the two would be like together instead.
Katniss and Johanna is another tremendously popular Hunger Games pairing in fanfiction. It helps that in the movie, many of their interactions give you that love-to-hate vibe between the two of them.
Plus, the actresses have good chemistry. It also helps that Johanna Mason is another popular character in the franchise, on par with Finnick Odair. Due to their bubbling tension, many would have liked to see Katniss and Johanna hook up in the franchise. There is a lot of fan art and fan fiction about the two of them out there. Madge Undersee was Katniss's best female friend back in District Madge was the daughter of the mayor, and she was one of the few people that Katniss genuinely liked to be around.
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