Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I don't read a lot of YA literature anymore.  I've already talked about the hate/hate relationship I have with the Twilight saga, and it frustrates me that any time I walk through the YA section of a bookstore, every single book features vampires or other supernatural beings.  Maybe the tweens are lapping this up, but I'm certainly not.  Which is why, when The Hunger Games first appeared on my radar, I figured I wouldn't read it.  Some gentle coercion from my cousins and aunt, as well as almost everyone on The Nest Book Club singing its praises, I took the plunge.

This book is great.  Like most books in a series, it has a cliffhanger ending that leaves you -- or at least me -- unsatisfied.  I had to start the sequel (Catching Fire) last night because I really want to know what happens next.

What (in my opinion) makes Hunger Games so amazing?  It caters to people of all ages and both sexes.  Kind of like Harry Potter.  I discovered yesterday that the 8th grade class in the school across the street is reading this as part of their curriculum.  I also have friends and relatives of all ages raving about it.

Someone on Youtube asked "Is Hunger Games the next Twilight?"  I will try to keep my bias and my loathing for Twilight out of my opinion of this comparison.

It is true that both series have exploded onto the YA literary scene.  Both are written for juveniles but captivate readers of all ages.  Both are written from the first-person perspective of the female protagonist.  But there is a fundamental difference between Hunger Games and Twilight, and that is, strikingly, the female protagonist.  Twilight's Bella Swan is a mincing damsel-in-distress who is ready to sacrifice her whole future for love, despite the fact that she is only 17.  She deliberately puts herself in harm's way, just so that her hero can rescue her, over and over again.  The heroine of Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen, is as far from the female archetype of damsel-in-distress as possible.  Katniss is only a year younger than Miss Bella Swan, but she is head and shoulders above her in emotional maturity.  Her one major goal in life is to protect her loved ones.  Katniss has no time for romance.  Admittedly, she deliberately puts herself in mortal danger...but it is only to protect the person she loves more than anyone in the world -- her little sister, Prim.  In Hunger Games the protagonists are role models of unselfishness and self-reliance.  Not so much Twilight.

IMHO, Hunger Games rates head and shoulders above Twilight and most YA literature of the twenty-first century.  I can't give a complete summary until I've finished the last two books in the trilogy, but considering that I'm 22% done with Catching Fire...I have a feeling that won't be too long in coming.

Rating: *****