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Please welcome a new addition to the Bookchirp staff: Bookworm25 and Eyes. You can now look forward to viewing their reviews on the site!

Sylvia
Bookchirp Editor-in-Chief

Here To Stay

We recently revamped the site, so feel free to explore and tell us what you think. Right now we are searching for affiliates. If you would like to apply, simply contact us through e-mail. We would love to have you. Also, we are now accepting applications for staff. Please send us an e-mail with a basic resume or explanation of your experience. Make sure to title your e-mail "Application," so that we can access it as promptly as possible. Check out our latest review, fresh off the online press: The Hunger Games: Enticing Concept, Poor Execution. Do you have any comments? Let us know by posting what you think on our comment board. We would like to know what you have to say!

Sylvia
BookChirp Editor-in-Chief

The Hunger Games: Enticing Concept, Poor Execution

Upon first reading the book jacket of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, I was fascinated by the concept and eager to read its contents. The Hunger Games portrays Panem, a futuristic North America where the government has been replaced by a corrupt “Communist” party called the Capitol. Located in Panem, representing what could be contrived as states, are twelve Districts. The Capitol has sole control over the twelve Districts and the people divided amongst them. The reader is only given a vague history of how the Capitol came to power. The Capitol requires that each District have an event called a “reaping” where lots are randomly drawn to select a boy and girl from each District to participate in the Hunger Games, an event in which twenty-four children are forced to fight to the death over a period of weeks. Katniss, a shrewd, habitual hunter with her friend Gale, takes her sister Prim’s place in the Hunger Games. Together she and another boy from her District, named Peeta, are whisked away to the Capitol to undergo makeovers (by stylist Cinna and Portia), training, and mentoring (by a previous Hunger Games winner named Haymitch). Only then are Katniss and Peeta allowed to enter the games hoping to survive, become victorious, and then return home.

When I read the first twelve pages of The Hunger Games, I was bored by the first person narration. Katniss, who is supposed to be portrayed as a fearless warrior, seems heartless and empty. My first thought was that Collins’ choice for the main character’s gender was completely wrong. I think that the story could have been achieved more realistically if Katniss was male, a throw-back to previous stories centering on a boy surviving against the elements like in The Hatchet. However, as the novel progressed I applauded Collins for having the initiative to develop such a fierce personality in a female character. Who said females have to be driven by emotion, powerless to the upcoming challenges, the damsel-in-distress?

Another story element that bothered me was the age-inappropriate actions of the Hunger Games contestants (who were ages twelve through eighteen). Though in most of the novel Collins was able to keep up the sense that Katniss is a teenager, in other parts I felt as if I was reading about an adult character. The raw killings that take place between the contestants are not exceedingly violent but are enough to question the target audience of the novel.

The Hunger Games lags in the middle when Katniss becomes an alley of young girl named Rue. Rue is a compassionate character but her overall existence becomes pointless and her actions futile, leading the reader to question the fifty or so pages she occupies in the novel. Collins also fails to progress the novel or to reveal anything new about the main character, Katniss. Consequently the conclusion of the novel, which by Collins is probably thought of as an intense cliffhanger, is dull and predictable.

The main problem with The Hunger Games was the lack of character development. Katniss, who starts off as a tough warrior-like character dwindles into a confused, love-struck teenager at the end of the novel. This leads the reader to ask who she is, the warrior or the stereotypical teenager? If in fact Katniss is the latter, how is such a character capable of performing vicious actions like she did at the beginning of the story? Moreover, Katniss never realizes the truth; the one power that she has against the Capitol is her free will to choose whether or not to kill the other contestants. She has the choice to see them as herself, afraid and fighting for survival. Then she could have perhaps convinced the majority of the contestants to rebel against the Capitol. Instead Katniss continues to think like the mass of people who live in Panem, who see themselves as powerless pawns used by the Capitol.

Considering that The Hunger Games is the first of a trilogy of novels, I will allow Collins some understanding. Expecting Katniss to start a rebellion against the Capitol in the first novel could have seemed too early and Collins could very well plan to include this in the subsequent novels… if the reader is able to get past the first one. The Hunger Games is not in totality a bad novel because it does keep up a level of suspense and action. It is also possible that I expected too much from its general concept. However, I cannot help but feel that the novel never reached its full potential as a separate piece in the trilogy. Thus, due to underdeveloped characters, incomplete plot lines, snags in pacing, questionable age-inappropriate content, and overall predictability, The Hunger Games proved to be an interesting concept that was poorly executed.

-BookChirp