I was going through some old books Emmy siblings and I owned, and I came across hunger games. I’m older now, so YA fiction mostly strikes me as a bit boring or cringy overall, but I remember liking it way back when I first read it so decided to give it another read. Im surprised that it’s such a well written book. Hunger Games is one of the most popular YA books, and it’s influenced so many others to have protagonists just like catniss, except just way worse. Catnis isn’t a special chosen snowflake, but an actual person with her own flaws, and struggles. She’s shown to be, empathetic and kind, but not unbelievably, and her relationships are actually interesting. Her not being madly in love with Pita but faking it makes their interactions feel so much more meaningful when they’re genuine and not played up for the camera. The society of Hunger Games is also interesting. The society is dystopian, and we’re able to see that even during the games with the need to play up emotions for sponsors, and them actively discouraging playing safe. The people fighting and dying in the arena are reality tv stars; they’re supposed to be interesting and memorable characters, not real people. A flaw with the story is catniss’ perspective kinda gets in the way of the story sometimes, and I felt the story would have been better in 3rd person. Overall, the hunger games is a good book, and I can see why it’s so influential to the YA genre. Way better than most wannabes I’ve read ( Divergent)

  • thatskappa@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I honestly feel like I would’ve enjoyed The Hunger Games in high school more if at the time it came out I hadn’t already read so much of the “beautiful snarky badass female lead with boy trouble” in YA at that age. My first exposure to it was Max from Maximum Ride. Then Katsa from Graceling. And so on and so forth. I kinda grew disenchanted with that archetype and found myself liking them less and less as I got older. It’s part of the reason I never finished the Throne of Glass series.

    It also seemed like the marketing for the first movie really played up the male actors and Gale vs. Peeta love triangle, and that trickled over into the discourse surrounding the books. The boys and romance seemed to be the first thing all of the girls I knew reading it talked about. Not so much Katniss herself.

    I definitely want to give it a reread now that it’s been several years and I can approach it with a new perspective.