The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
(Scholastic Books)
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is remarkable, rivaling The Lord of The Rings in its scope and Star Wars in its tenacity and creativity. Dabbling in science fiction, magical realism, and fantastica, The Hunger Games is a post-modern Golden Compass, the perfect blend of everything fun about fiction. Collins never fails to surprise, twisting what should be a predictable tale into a rollicking adventure.
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
(Scholastic Books)
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is remarkable, rivaling The Lord of The Rings in its scope and Star Wars in its tenacity and creativity. Dabbling in science fiction, magical realism, and fantastica, The Hunger Games is a post-modern Golden Compass, the perfect blend of everything fun about fiction. Collins never fails to surprise, twisting what should be a predictable tale into a rollicking adventure.
The tale follows Katniss Everdeen, a teen girl struggling to feed herself, her mother, and her sister in a dystopic futuristic world. Unlike most sci-fi, Collins’s description and prose are so clear, the reader is never wanting for a clearer picture. Collins paints a beautiful and easily imagined world, leaving little to chance. Trilogies often create the expectation of something greater than a single novel, and Collins does not disappoint. Each installment is as strong an individual novel as it is a part of the whole, and Collins’s writing does what few can, maintaining emotion and energy throughout the entire saga.
The conflict is simple enough: the citizens of Panem live under the tyrannical thumb of The Capitol, and are punished annually for a decades-old rebellion. The punishment, The Hunger Games, is a gory and brutal reminder of a simple message: “Do not challenge us.” Each of Panem’s twelve districts offer up human sacrifices, who must then fight to the death in the Arena. Our heroine, Katniss, in an act of reckless self-sacrifice, volunteers to go in her sister’s place. What follows is a blood-soaked tale of survival and personal growth. Readers will have no problem empathizing with Katniss on a personal level, and genuinely praying for her survival with each turn of the page. So ends book one.
Book two of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, literally picks up where book one leaves off. Collins never misses a beat, and the pace of the story never slows down. Collins is capable of complicating things in a way that not many authors are. The weight of the entire world of Panem, including its unwritten future, bears down on Katniss as she tries only to regain the self she lost in the woods the day her father died. After nearly inciting a rebellion with her actions in the Arena during The Hunger Games, Katniss is now The Capitol’s primary target, along with her family and friends. The middle books of the saga further engrosses the reader in a complicated and detailed world, while still creating enough stability that one never feels lost or overwhelmed. Collins has perfect control over her prose, and her reader’s imagination.
By book three, Mockingjay, the reader should be considered an honorary citizen of Panem. Collins burrows her reader into the page effortlessly. Like book two, book three picks up right where the second leaves off, creating an episodic yet connected tale. The trilogy’s conclusion batters the reader with twists and turns so enthralling, it’s impossible not to want to keep reading. Collins’ writing is continually crisp and descriptive; stylistically flawless, and masterfully rendered.
While The Hunger Games could simply be classified as a coming-of-age or Young Adult series, Collins is careful to craft the story in such a way that its literary merit is unquestionable. Collins creates an entirely believable world in Panem that is as vivid as it is easily imagined. The series is an unquestionable classic, and easily finds itself an equal place next to the great trilogies.
