With an almost literally heart-stopping punch right at the end, these three books are a good example of how sophisticated childrens' literature has got - so much so that I didn't even realise it was for kids until I saw my copies were published by Scholastic. I'm in my thirties and much adult fiction isn't this intense.
The story is an exciting, detailed exploration of the psyche of an inhuman totalitarian regime that resembles and essentially explores H G Wells' Time Machine division of humanity into a decadent aristocracy and toiling masses. Katniss Everdeen is the daughter of a miner in the sinister 'District 12', part of a downtrodden community of helots subject to punishing conditions. Learning to struggle against the elements and against the regime in her home, she transfers those skills to the 'Arena' during the sadistic 'Hunger Games', alongside her contemporary Peeta Mellark, after her little sister Prim is chosen and she substitutes herself instead. She becomes a symbol of resistance for refusing to play the game required of her. The characters are satisfying, the events credible, and the consequences of their actions are clear. For a children's series, Collins believes her young readers are able to cope with some very dark themes, and the love triangle constructed over the course of the three books is convincingly rocky, and resolved in quite a surprising way. She also deals well with her characters' psyches; she doesn't make people change their minds or accept events without good reason. Katniss' eventual trauma feels real, and the unexpected climax works to show how political conditions can become internalised to such a degree that even in victory she feels she has been defeated.
Collins' world has some sketchiness about it, but this is something she doesn't really have to worry about. As a writer who can drag her readers in, pummel them into shape and spit them back out again three books later, any minor flaws do not spoil the books, and most crucially, she sets up a world like that of Harry Potter or Discworld in which there could be many more stories written about peripheral characters, other protagonists and other events in the wars, Games and rebellion that periodically rock Panem. There are publications out there which expand on Panem - and I look forward to some good fanfic.
Suzanne Collins' exceedingly fine sci-fi
With an almost literally heart-stopping punch right at the end, these three books are a good example of how sophisticated childrens' literature has got - so much so that I didn't even realise it was for kids until I saw my copies were published by Scholastic. I'm in my thirties and much adult fiction isn't this intense.
The story is an exciting, detailed exploration of the psyche of an inhuman totalitarian regime that resembles and essentially explores H G Wells' Time Machine division of humanity into a decadent aristocracy and toiling masses. Katniss Everdeen is the daughter of a miner in the sinister 'District 12', part of a downtrodden community of helots subject to punishing conditions. Learning to struggle against the elements and against the regime in her home, she transfers those skills to the 'Arena' during the sadistic 'Hunger Games', alongside her contemporary Peeta Mellark, after her little sister Prim is chosen and she substitutes herself instead. She becomes a symbol of resistance for refusing to play the game required of her. The characters are satisfying, the events credible, and the consequences of their actions are clear. For a children's series, Collins believes her young readers are able to cope with some very dark themes, and the love triangle constructed over the course of the three books is convincingly rocky, and resolved in quite a surprising way. She also deals well with her characters' psyches; she doesn't make people change their minds or accept events without good reason. Katniss' eventual trauma feels real, and the unexpected climax works to show how political conditions can become internalised to such a degree that even in victory she feels she has been defeated.
Collins' world has some sketchiness about it, but this is something she doesn't really have to worry about. As a writer who can drag her readers in, pummel them into shape and spit them back out again three books later, any minor flaws do not spoil the books, and most crucially, she sets up a world like that of Harry Potter or Discworld in which there could be many more stories written about peripheral characters, other protagonists and other events in the wars, Games and rebellion that periodically rock Panem. There are publications out there which expand on Panem - and I look forward to some good fanfic.