"The Hunger Games" Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

"The Hunger Games" Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I use Grammarly’s plagiarism check because why downplay your intelligence by mimicking others thoughts?

Please don’t read this post if you are afraid of spoilers, I’m sure I may spoil it for you even when I have every intention of being vague.

I had been somewhat interested in reading “The Hunger Games” Trilogy by Suzanne Collins since the first book was released/I had heard about it. As someone who has read those typical young adult turned movie/tv show book series’ in the past (Harry Potter, Twilight, Game of Thrones…) I figured reading the Hunger Games Trilogy would be a nice, easy, playful read for my collection.

A few good friends had read the books right away and as I was pretty late getting into the game, because I just finished the trilogy NOW and the second movie has just been released, I picked their brains about how they liked the books. So these friends of mine, related their thoughts to me before I delved in myself. The typical reply was something along the lines of “The first book was fantastic, it just goes down hill from there, not as much action.” Now that I’ve read all three. I have to disagree.

My favorite was the second book in the series “Catching Fire” and I intend to watch the movie… one of these days (I usually wait until it’s out of theaters, maybe I’ll write a post about why one of these days as well).

The first book is simply called “The Hunger Games”, as I’m sure everyone knows by now, was all about the characters interacting with what I can only refer to as (even though it sounds horribly pompous) dystopian society in which they live. Where 12 districts are ruled by one overbearing elitist capitol, that benefits from everything produced by the 12 districts without producing or providing anything in return, which is aptly named “Panem”. And a game of death between children ensues to see which district will get a little help from Panem that year. Our narrator and lead character Katniss Everdeen has to deal with being one of the participants in this horrendous “game” and the plot generally focuses on that struggle.

The second book, and remember it’s my favorite, had the same action and a similar physical struggle as the first book, but the thoughts of our characters and the torturous pursuits to make political gains and the hint of government brainwashing really made this second book my favorite. So many subtle clues as to what the government wants, what the individual characters want, what the societies in each district really have to deal with. It all comes out in this second book and really made for a great read. Along with the very intricate and mind altering situation our original characters and many new ones have to endure, it was so much more interesting to me than the more predictable outcome of the first book (This last statement may be because I watched the first movie before starting to read the first book, could be why I have any thought of it being predictable).

The third book, which I haven’t heard was anyone’s favorite, and that’s not hard to believe because it’s not that great. It wasn’t bad, per say, it was just an incredible stretch to be introduced to a 13th district so fast as well as an entire wrapping up of every single loose end in their political life struggles. The previous books always left something to be desired and this third one, completed the circle so static and firmly, no thoughts are left to the imagination anymore. It’s probably why I didn’t much care for the book, although it had the action, it had the political intrigue that I enjoyed the most from the second book, but I like to come to some conclusions on my own when reading instead of being bluntly forced into an ending that seems a bit too fairytale perfect. Probably only in my mind because in this book, sooooo many characters die it’s ridiculous, it’s basically like every chapter at least one person is dead/blown up/martyr themselves.

But overall, this was a very good series to take up a little bit of your time and I’d recommend it for anyone.