"The Hunger Games". Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games

“The Hunger Games” is the first of three books saga called “The Hunger Games” written by Suzanne Collins. It is one of the greatest dystopian (an apocalyptic situation, the opposite of utopic) novels of all times.

North America has been destroyed and it is now run by the powerful “Capitol”, and it is divided into 12 districts (the district number 13 was destroyed because of rebellion). The story goes around this girl called Katniss Everdeen from district 12. She is 16 years old girl who takes care of her younger sister and her widowed mother; this is very difficult because her district is the poorest district of all, it is also difficult because the food is almost running out and it is really expensive. To maintain her family she goes hunting every day. Hunting is illegal and Katniss could be severely punished, but she doesn’t mind because she must feed her family and because the peacekeepers (policemen) of her districts aren’t as strict as they should be.

Each year, the Capitol organizes a lethal competition, called “The Hunger Games”; this is to show all the districts who runs the county. Each district randomly chooses a boy and a girl to compete on these games. When Prim, Katniss’ younger sister, is chosen, Katniss decides to take her place as a volunteer. The chosen boy is Peeta, the baker son.

They are taken to the Capitol, where they have a week of training with all the other competitors of the rest of the districts. There the representatives see their abilities and grate them in a scale from 1 to 12. Against all odds Katniss got an 11, but unfortunately Peeta got only an 8.

After that, they went to the place where the competence was going to take place. Katniss and Peeta must fend for themselves against natural elements, the Game makers and the other contestants whose only option is to kill or be killed.

This book is incredibly amazing; it is a combination of love, thriller, and action moments, new wildlife that are really dangerous or beautiful, and encountered feelings.

“I can certainly see why the book was such a hit. The novel struck many chords and many themes (teenage anguish, love, work, poverty and more), was an easy and quick read, as well as full of action.

Ms. Collins built a fantastical and believable world where the United States is no more and instead the country is now called Panem which is run from “The Capital” and divided into 12 districts. The story progresses quickly and fluently with well-defined characters that have lame names. Don’t tell me that the baker’s son is named Peeta (Pita) by accident.

For me though, and I understand perfectly well I’m not the target audience, the love triangle was cliché, but I loved the violence and speed of this novel. The constant suspense kept me turning page after page as, I assume, most of those who read the book. Once I got over my name prejudice, I even liked the protagonist – a bow and arrow wielding female Wilhelm Tell, how can you not like her?

Ms. Collins’ prose is efficient in a no-nonsense style filled with humor which causes the book to become addictive. Like any good story, you are immersed in the universe built around you, yet you know it is not real but you can’t stop reading.” (ManOfLaBook.com, 2012)

What I like the most about this book is all the background of a “Hunger Game”. The fact that it was kind of a reality show were you could support any one you like, made me keep reading and reading, because I knew someone, somehow will send them help.

I could easily identify the book with me in that way, because I love everything related to marketing and communication. In this book they talk to topics related to that many times. For example when the competitors are presented, they should be presented in astonishing outfits related to the district. They dressed Katniss with a dress that was on fire, because she represented strong, passion and hope; but they dressed Rue with an angelical dressing because she was a little 12 years old girl, this showed innocence and it made the audience feel pity. The only objectives of this was that the sponsors could be attracted from the beginning to some competitors, and start to choose a favorite.

Another great example of this is when Katniss found Peeta dying, so she helped him. But it will work for nothing, unless they receive help from the outside, exactly a medicine; but at this point of the competence the medicine is really expensive and it is almost impossible to send it to the game. But Katniss had still one card to play, the “love” they strategically invented to get love from the audience. And when Katniss kissed Peeta, all the audience totally lost it, so they send it the medicine they so desperately needed.

Another thing that made this book so awesome is all the encountered feelings that made you feel. While you start reading the book, your opinion of every character in the book changes in a way you can’t imagine.

When you start reading you feel hate for Peeta because you think all the things he is doing is just to trick Katniss to think he is in love with her and make her feel that way also, so she won’t be able to kill him. But as the story continues you start to notice that Peeta has loved Katniss since he first saw her, and that all he said wasn’t a lie, well partially. Even though I had my doubts about Peeta, at last I realized that the love he said to have for Katniss, was real. You are glad because Katniss was in love with her also, but then you realize that in order to any of them to survive, one most die. And the worst part is that, probably, one of them must kill the other; so now you don’t want to continue reading because you are afraid to see how they will they solve that problem; however you cannot stop reading because you are intrigued about what is going to happen on the book.

I think this book is a reflection and a critic on the everyday life, and on the situation of violence in our world. Violence happens every day. According to Cha-cha Answers, on average a person is murdered every minute worldwide. Murder and violence are also prominent factors of The Hunger Games, where children are forced to fight to the death in an arena for entertainment. Plaudits are given when a child dies; the capitol loves a good fight. Who would not want to preclude the death of young children? When reading The Hunger Games a reader might think that Panem and today’s world have no resemblance to one another. On closer

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