Book Review: The Hunger Games

The title of this book is The Hunger Games and was made by Suzanne Collins in 2008. This book is set in a fictional version of America. In the nation of Panem at a date of which is not specified. With characters all along the story that are very interesting with the main ones caring about others and not being selfish.

A 16 year-old girl from District 12, named Katniss Everdeen lives in the coal-mining district. It is is the 74th annual Hunger Games and during the Reaping, Katniss’ younger sister, Primrose, is chosen as a tribute.Katniss was not okay with this and decided to volunteer as tribute, becoming District 12’s female tribute and saving her sister from the games. The male tribute chosen is a baker’s son named Peeta Mellark who gave Katniss bread to save her and her family from starving Before she leaves, Katniss comforts her mother and tells her to stay strong for Primrose.

Katniss and Peeta are taken from their district by Effie Trinket and travel to the Capitol. Katniss and Peeta later get together with Haymitch in another car of the train and he tries to give them advice like how if they want to survive with better chances, they need to get the public to like them.. Peeta waves to the crowd while Katniss does not. Katniss meets her stylist, Cinna, who tells her that they need to make the people of the capital remember them, especially by the sponsors. Cinna says that someone as brave as Katniss should have a great costume for the Parade where each pair of tributes wears an outfit reflecting their district’s main feature. Katniss and Peeta wear black suits with actual fire coming from them to symbolize the coal-mining district. Peeta takes Katniss’ hand and raises it into the air during the parade for more effect. One tribute named Cato is hot-headed and imposing, proving to be a possibly serious threat. Later, over a meal, Haymitch tells Peeta and Katniss about the Careers district from which Cato comes from. All of the possible tributes train until they’re 18 before openly volunteering to participate in the Hunger Games. Katniss refocuses on Peeta, describing his impressive strength, but he rebuffs her compliments and confesses that his own mother thought Katniss to be the superior tribute.When Peeta is bullied by the other tributes during training, Katniss suggests he show off his strength by throwing a large weight across the room. Peeta manages to perform the feat successfully and gains a small amount of respect from the tributes. Later, in succession, each tribute is instructed to show off to the game makers and sponsors, including Seneca Crane. Angered by the sponsors’ attitude towards her, Katniss fires an arrow straight through an apple in a roasted pig’s mouth, right in front of the stunned sponsors. Katniss sarcastically thanks them for their consideration and leaves. Many tributes achieve high scores of 9 to 10, including the Careers Cato and his partner Clove. Peeta receives an 8 while Katniss scores an 11, the highest of all the tributes.

The President of the Capitol, Snow addresses Seneca and tells him that the Hunger Games is about giving the districts hope but that too much hope can actually be dangerous. During another meal, Haymitch tells Katniss about Peeta’s decision to go without his help because of the fact that there can only be one winner.

On the extravagant Hunger Games TV chat show, each tribute is introduced individually and interviewed by the flamboyant host, Caesar Flickerman. Katniss elicits laughs from the audience during the interview and impresses them by showing off her dress which displays real fire as she twirls. During his interview, Peeta eats the audience up, garnering some laughs himself. It is then that he announces his crush on Katniss, something which angers her intensely. Backstage Katniss pins Peeta to the wall, demanding answers for his behavior.Just before the games, Haymitch warns Katniss to avoid the bloodbath at the beginning by heading to the high ground in search of water despite having to leave her bow and arrow behind. The tributes are all injected with a tracking device in their arms as they travel via helicopter to the outdoor arena. The tributes are then taken underground where they report to certain checkpoints before being loaded onto platforms that deliver them to the ground level of the arena. Before she is hoisted up, Katniss says farewell to Cinna who has seen her off. Then she, along with the other tributes, are raised into the arena and a countdown to the Hunger Games begins. As the horn sounds, the tributes rush towards the center cornucopia full of weapons and backpacks, brutally attacking and killing each other in the process. Katniss manages to grab a pack and barely escapes Clove, who embeds a knife in her backpack. Once at a safe distance, Katniss finds a rope, an empty canteen, and a coat inside the backpack. She takes Haymitch’s advice and locates water in a nearby stream before she ties herself high up in a tree for the night and attempts to get some sleep. Loud bangs from a cannon indicate the deaths of tributes and we learn that thirteen were killed within the first 8 hours. Katniss witnesses from her tree perch that Peeta has joined with a group of Careers during the night with the intent on leading them to her. While exploring the next day, Katniss gets too close to the outer regions of the arena. She is then spotted by Cato and 4 other tributes, including Clove and Glimmer who have banded together. We learn that, apparently, the Careers come, collectively, from Districts 1, 2, and 4 who are trained illegally before volunteering to fight; this group of 4 from two districts chases Katniss who eventually escapes by climbing a tree. Peeta suggests that the group wait for Katniss to eventually come down for food and water.

The group settles for the night beneath the tree and Katniss ties herself to the tree to sleep. Her attention is then caught by a young 12 year old girl in an adjacent tree named Rue from District 11. Rue, however, is friendly to Katniss and points out a large tracker jacker nest just above Katniss and dangling over the Career group below. Katniss manages to climb down the tree and manages to grab a bow and arrows. As she begins to hallucinate, she sees Peeta approach her and seemingly yell at her to run. Regaining some sense, Katniss escapes but eventually collapses. After a night of hallucinations and nightmares, some involving her father, Katniss awakens beneath a tree trunk with leave bandages covering her stings. Unclear as to who exactly helped her, Katniss stumbles around, thinking it must have been Peeta. Rue is to start small fires to distract the remaining Careers while Katniss detonates the booby-trapped mines surrounding the mound. The Careers become distracted by the smoke of the fires while one tribute, a boy from District 3, remains at the cornucopia, standing guard. Katniss then notices a female tribute unseen by the others. Foxface from District 5 sprints towards the pyramid of food and supplies, unnoticed by the guard.Katniss then shoots at a bag of apples on top of the pile which causes them to cascade down and detonate the mines. Katniss watches, triumphant, as the Career group rushes back to the clearing. The guard tribute from District 3 is equally confused but Cato’s anger makes him murderous and he snaps the boy’s neck. Katniss leaves, disturbed by Cato’s ease to kill. Katniss finds Rue trapped under a net and releases her just before they are attacked by Marvel, a tribute from District 1. Marvel throws a spear but Katniss dodges the attack and shoots an arrow into his chest, killing him. Distraught, Katniss tries to calm Rue and sings to her peacefully as Rue dies. Katniss then gathers flowers from the forest and spreads them over Rue before her body taken back to her district via hovercraft. His district follows his rebellious example and they destroy the stage showing the games. As Katniss makes a peace gesture to the camera, the ’Peace Keepers’ of District 11 arrive and shoot Rue’s father dead. President snow is enraged by the rebellion in District 11 and wants to change the game’s rules and circumstances to ensure that Katniss is killed. Haymitch pleads with Seneca to keep Katniss alive, issuing a plot of teen romance as a main reason.

Two winners instead of just one will be allotted so long as they belong to the same district. With this knowledge, and having just overheard the remaining Careers mention leaving Peeta for dead by the river, Katniss sets out in search of him. She finds a trail of blood near the river and follows it to where Peeta has camouflaged himself in the rocks. Katniss helps move him to a nearby cave where they are well hidden.Katniss attempts to heal Peeta’s sword wound but realizes he has blood poisoning, something that can only be cured with a special medicine. Katniss despairs as there could be no way Haymitch could send some since it would be too expensive at this point. However, as if by magic, an announcement rings out that there will be a feast at the cornucopia for all the tributes but, instead of food, there will be something each tribute desperately needs. Peeta begs Katniss not to leave him and risk her life trying to save him. He asks her to stay and Katniss reluctantly agrees, though she knows there may very well be medicine at the cornucopia that could save his life. However, this hits a nerve with Gale watching back home who is clearly smitten with Katniss. Katniss waits until Peeta has fallen asleep before leaving for the cornucopia.

When she arrives, she sees Foxface sprinting towards the supplies, surprising the other tributes with her speed and escaping without much incident. Katniss decides to mimic Foxface’s moves and sprints out to grab the medicine but is thrown off guard when she is hit with a knife launched by Clove. She teases her with bloodlust and mocks her for teaming up with the ’little monster from District 11’; Before Clove can slit Katniss’ throat, she is lifted by Thresh, the male tribute from District 11, and thrown against the cornucopia wall. Thresh tells Katniss that she gets this one chance since she helped Rue but, after this, everything is fair game. Katniss escapes.She returns to the cave with the medicine and administers it to Peeta and herself, healing their wounds. During her hunt, Katniss hears a cannon signaling another tribute death. Panicked, she runs back to where she last saw Peeta. In a mix of anger and relief, Katniss slaps Peeta, telling him that the berries are Nightlock and extremely poisonous. Katniss and Peeta sprint through the forest as two more of the dogs begin to pursue them. They are chased to the cornucopia where Peeta helps Katniss climb on top of it, barely making it up himself.

Cato, however, is also on top of the cornucopia and attacks Katniss, attempting to throw her to the dogs. The three fight each other and Cato grabs Katniss by the throat, holding her near the edge of the structure before Peeta manages to fight him off her. Cato gets the upper hand and gets Peeta in a choke hold to either break his neck, as seen before, or throw him to the mutant dogs.

Katniss unsheathes an arrow and points it at him, uncertain whether to shoot or not. Cato, dripping blood, laughs sadistically, telling her that he knows what the games are about now. The tributes aren’t just entertainment; Peeta, who is still being choked, appears to try and tell Katniss something while Cato talks. Katniss shoots his hand, forcing him to let go of Peeta. Peeta then pushes Cato off the edge to be mauled by the dogs. Katniss and Peeta watch a moment as Cato is savagely attacked before Katniss shoots an arrow into him, ending his misery. The last cannon goes off and Katniss and Peeta realize they’ve won the Hunger Games. Peeta begs Katniss to kill him so that she may win but she takes out her hand and holds out some Nightlock berries. She takes some for herself and gives the rest to Peeta, hinting that she’d rather the Capitol have no winners instead of one. They are brought back to the Capitol where Haymitch tells them how foolish they are to have defied the Capitol like that and instructs them to play up the star-crossed couple routine at their final interview.Peeta and Katniss travel back in District 12 by train. Although they are met with a hero’s welcome, Haymitch warns Katniss that she is now a political enemy after such a public defiance against the society’s leaders. Peeta takes Katniss’ hand and holds it up in the air.President Snow watches the District 12 welcome from the Capitol. Walking away, he wonders what to do about the two victors and the feelings of rebellion they may have created in the Districts.

I would recommend this book to most people. It Was a good book with many characters, like Katniss and Peeta, who fight for their lives to keep others in their family safe and to come back to them. With there being a little bit of a romantic twist in this bloodbath of The Hunger Games. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a book with some twist, a little bit of romance, and a bunch of action. It is one of those books that you would feel good about after you read it and want to read it again.

Works Cited

1. Collins, S. (2008). The Hunger Games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
2. Cunningham, S. (2011). Reading The Hunger Games. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
3. Franich, D. (2014). The Hunger Games: A Critical Handbook. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
4. Gitlin, T. (2015). The Hunger Games and the Future of War. New York, NY: Routledge.
5. Gray, R. (2015). The Hunger Games Phenomenon. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
6. Jowett, L. (2014). The Media and the Making of The Hunger Games. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing.
7. Kavadlo, J. (2012). The Hunger Games and Philosophy: A Critique of Pure Treason. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
8. Lewis, R. (2012). Young Adult Literature and the Digital World: Textual Engagement Through Visual Literacy. New York, NY: Springer.
9. Murphy, C. (2018). Young Adult Fiction and Contemporary Theory: Reading and Writing Resistance. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
10. Peluso, M. J., & Evans, J. K. (2012). Young adult literature and adolescent identity across cultures and classrooms: Contexts for the literary lives of teens. New York, NY: Routledge.