Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Hunger Games - Review

Its been a while since I read the first book "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. My only dilemma was to watch the movie too and then write the review or critique the movie seperately. Between that time, I was so curious as to what would happen in the second book "Catching Fire". So I just completed the second part today and I must say that though there are some moments where the author let me down on her page turner trilogy, but on the whole, these are a set of amazing novels. I am yet to catch hold of the third one.

To begin with, this maybe the third or fouth young adult novel that I read but this definitely falls under the chick lit section that I am so fond of!!! :) . Well let me get on with the plot now. So the novel is set at a time, after the natural disasters, where only a part of North America is inhabitated (How obvious...). There are only thirteen districts remaining, where life is difficult for all except the one called "Capitol", which colonizes the rest of the districts. Every year Capitol conducts hunger games where participants from each districts are pitted against each other and the last man standing wins. The story is narrated by the protagonist -Katniss Everdeen. So its obvious that she participates in the games and wins it. How? is what the novel is about.

One of the things that amazes me is "How does a seventeen year old girl hunt and kill rabbits, squirrels, eat raw eggs?" To survive yes ... but still its hard to imagine. The lane where I live is an unfortunate one, having halal shops at both the ends. So I can hear an occasional cry of a hen, when I am eating pani puri and on the other side when I am buying fruits... And my heart does go out for their pain, each time. Ya, well I have a weak heart, but  if I am put in the same condition where I need to hunt to survive, can I do it?

The author has characterized Katniss brilliantly, and far far better than what you see in those stupid teen vampire crap (Yes I am talking about Twilight. Thank God I did not read it because I saw the movie first :P.) And again she left the end of the first novel hanging with a climax, which makes you get hold of the second book immediately. But I must say that the second book is very slow in the beginning, and takes some time till Katniss get back to the arena. Yup she participtes again. This is where I think the author could have done better . Catching fire too ends without an ending where the author tries to tempt you towards the third book immediately. But I guess I will take a break here. Enough of eating oysters from their shells and roasting rodents for supper. I will watch the Hunger Games movie now and maybe even wait for "Catching Fire" to release in 2013.

2 comments:

Shvetlana said...

You are wrong about Twilight. The book is amazing. Sadly, the film is no where near the book. I read the first book and you can ideate each character in the book. It takes you into another world.

Rums said...

Hmm ok I will try it again someday... but I want you too to read hunger games and let me know if its better than Twilight or Twilight is better.