Brain Spill Book Review #7

The Hunger Games

Setting

The Hunger Games is a book written by Suzanne Collins about America in a distopian future. The Capitol is the center of wealth and the government and controls the twelve districts around it. The twelve districts were forced into submission after a large inter-district rebellion. As a warning to the other districts, the capitol completely destroyed a thirteenth district by bombing it. As part of the post-rebellion agreement, each district must give the resources it produces to the people back in Capitol. Also, once a year, each district must provide two tributes, a boy and a girl, for the Hunger Games The tributes, all of which are between the ages of 12 and 18, will then be put in a large arena where they must fight to the death.

Summary

Our story is told from the perspective of Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old from the poor area of District 12. Katniss lives with her mother and younger sister, Prim. To feed her family, Katniss illegally hunts outside of the borders of her district with her friend Gale. When her sister is chosen as tribute for the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place. A boy named Peeta is chosen as the male tribute from District 12. Peeta and Katniss, along with Effie and Haymitch, their trainers, go to the Capitol. The story revolves around the two tributes trying to gain the support of sponsors from Capitol and fighting for their lives in the Games themselves.

Characters

Katniss

Katniss is the narrator of the story. She is also, in my opinion, the most annoying character in the entire book. The whole time, Katniss is always angry, or sad, or suspicious, and that's not all. Katniss goes on to describe in detail how angry, sad, etc. she is at certain people. Yes, I understand she is fighting for her life, but can't she just show happiness a bit more? The one time she does show trust and is not acting is when she is with Rue. 

Peeta

Peeta is the other tribute from District 12. He seems better than Katniss because at least his actions are nicer and are actually nice instead of pretending to be nice for personal gain. He does happen to be lovesick with Katniss, which is his main annoying quality. He doesn't seem to realize (even though he helped plan this) that Katniss is only pretending to be in love so that she can get them sponsors and get them out alive. Whatever.

Gale

Gale is Katniss's hunting buddy from District 12. He's sort of not really mentioned too much other than that he is, like Katniss, in a situation where he is supporting the rest of his family. He mainly appears asa kind-of-sort-of-maybe love interest for Katniss which is keeping her from falling for Peeta. We know he is annoyed at the Capitol and that he takes his anger out while he's in the woods. He also helps to support Katniss's family when she leaves for Capitol.

Haymitch

Haymitch is the coach of Katniss and Peeta. He's their coach because he's the only living winner of the Hunger Games from District 12. He is also a major drunkard. He is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting characters. We can see his fear of the past through his continual drinking, which he uses to keep down the memories of his time in the Hunger Games and his time coaching tributes who he watch die in later Hunger Games. We can also see his attempt to save at least one of the tributes by focusing the sponsor's gifts on Katniss.

Rue

Rue is a tribute from District 11 who becomes allies with Katniss partway through the games. she brings out the best in Katniss, mainly because she reminds Katniss of Prim. Rue is 12 years old, and is the youngest tribute that year. Katniss allies with Rue because Rue reminds her of home. Because of this, Rue brings out the little happiness we see in Katniss, which is, besides herself, something that only Prim, Gale, and (until he died) Katniss's father.

Effie

Effie isn't really important, but I want to clear something up. Some might say that Effie is more annoying than Katniss, but that is not true. Effie, with her strange catchphrases and colored wigs, is a comical sort of annoying. She brings a sort of light tone to a dark plot. Katniss is just depressing.

Conclusion

The book is a good, intense read, even though I don't like Katniss. The book mixes moments of emotion with moments of action. In the book, the idea of an over-powerful government which people are fighting against is always interesting and always popular. I give it 7 waffles out of 11.