| 25 September 2011
I've heard a lot of good things about the Hunger Games, and it was a quick and interesting read. However, it is also mired down by some of my least favorite writing characteristics - incessant and useless 1st person narrative, climaxes dragged down by realism too bare to leave us feeling anything climatic, and shallow conceptualization - that I am not sure if I'll read the other two books.
I'm not above a 1st person narrative, but it's hard to get in the head of a 16-year-old girl. Granted, this is a young adult book and shouldn't necessarily be judged on the trappings of its genre - but Harry Potter wove a much more compelling story through a 3rd person narrative, even if it mostly kept the focus on Harry. By the end of this quick read I was sick of the main character, and bringing in a few chapters from different points of view would have done wonders in terms of pacing, delivery, and variety.
The whole book is built up to the Hunger Games themselves, and they manage to devolve into trite, boring battles in which the battlers have little say in the outcome, and the game is played by the Games' orchestrators, the environment, and sheer luck. The led me to believe that there is absolutely no reason to follow our main character; I'd have much rather read about a clever girl that outsmarted each obstacle at the perfect moment using her wits, experience, and previous hardship. Instead we get an empty shell of a teenager that fumbles from one lucky outcome to the next, and writing that just glosses over anything that shows the character's real gifts and strengths.
The only reason I'm considering the next two books is my hope that the narrative will get a lot broader. Instead of worrying about the Games, let's hear more about the interesting world that Collins crafted, and how the main character plays her part in a larger rebellion.
This isn't all to say that it's a bad book, just the wrong book for my tastes, and not quite meeting its universal praise. I enjoyed the cynical take on reality television - which doesn't get enough cynicism these days - and I really do like the vague, dystopian setting.
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