The Hunger Games [Kindle Edition] review

Starred Review. Reviewed by Megan Whalen Turner
If there really are merely seven original plots inside world, it's odd that boy meets girl is usually mentioned, and society goes bad and attacks the nice guy never is. Yet we've Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, The Home with the Scorpion—and now, following a long tradition of Brave New Worlds, The Hunger Games. Collins hasn't tied her future with a specific date, or weighted it down with an excessive amount of finger wagging. Rather less 1984 and rather more Death Race 2000, hers can be a gripping story set in the postapocalyptic world where a replacement for the Usa demands a tribute from each of the company's territories: two children being used as gladiators in the televised fight towards the death.Katniss, from that which was once Appalachia, offers to adopt the host to her sister within the Hunger Games, but after this ultimate sacrifice, jane is entirely focused on survival at any cost. It is her teammate, Peeta, who recognizes the significance of holding onto one's humanity in such inhuman circumstances. It's a credit to Collins's skill at characterization that Katniss, like a new Theseus, is cold, calculating but still likable. She has got the attributes being a winner, where Peeta has got the grace to become a fantastic loser.It's no accident these games are presented as pop culture. Every generation projects its fear: runaway science, communism, overpopulation, nuclear wars and, now, reality TV. Hawaii of Panem—which needs to keep its tributaries subdued and it is citizens complacent—may have came up with Games, but mindless television may be the real danger, the means in which society pacifies its citizens and punishes people that neglect to conform. Will its connection to reality TV, ubiquitous today, date the book? It might, but for now, it can make this the proper book on the right time. What happens if we choose entertainment over humanity? In Collins's world, we'll be enthusiastic about grooming, we'll talk funny, and many types of our sentences will end using the same rise as questions. When Katniss is distributed to stylists to be made more telegenic before she competes, she stands naked in front of them, strangely unembarrassed. They're so unlike people that we are no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet, she thinks. In order never to hate these creatures that are sending her to her death, she imagines them as pets. It is not just the contestants who risk the loss of their humanity. It is who watch. Katniss struggles to win not merely the Games but the inherent contest for audience approval. Because that is the first book in a series, not everything is resolved, and what is left unanswered may be the central question. Has she sacrificed too much? We know what she gets given as much as survive, and not perhaps the price was too high. Readers will wait eagerly to master more.
Megan Whalen Turner will be the author of the Newbery Honor book The Thief and its sequels, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. The next book inside the series will likely be published by Greenwillow in 2010.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Grade 7 Up -In a not-too-distant future, the United states of america of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to become replaced by Panem, a country divided in to the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation in the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are instructed to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens necessary to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected because the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son in the town baker who seems to get all of the fighting skills of the lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who've trained with this their whole lives. Collins's characters are completely realistic and sympathetic while they form alliances and friendships within the face of overwhelming odds; the plot is tense, dramatic, and engrossing. This book will surely resonate with the generation raised on reality shows like 'Survivor' and 'American Gladiator.' Book one of a planned trilogy.Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Hunger Games [Kindle Edition]