Hungry for more ‘Hunger Games’ Ruel S. De Vera Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 09, 2009
MANILA, Philippines – Think our reality TV is bad? Imagine a live TV show fanatically followed by millions where 24 teenagers must make it through a deadly obstacle course and kill each other. Welcome to “The Hunger Games,” the first of a new trilogy by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press, New York, 2008, 374 pages).
In the aftermath of catastrophe, America, now known as Panem, is divided into 13 districts and tyrannically ruled by the Capitol. As a reminder of a failed rebellion, the Capitol first razes District 13 to the ground and then holds the yearly Hunger Games, where each district randomly selects two contestants, or tributes as they’re called. After the Games, only one tribute gets out alive. Ever.
In the year of the 74th Hunger Games, the impoverished coal-mining District 12 somehow selects 12-year-old Primrose Everdeen. But smart and resourceful 16-year-old Katniss, Prim’s older sister, bravely volunteers to take her sister’s place. Picked to stand beside Katniss is the handsome, strong Peeta Mellark and though faced with superior opposition from all sides, they must overcome the course, their competitors and each other if they want to survive and return to District 12.
This is a surprisingly violent, inventive and tragic tale. Collins, best known for her popular young-readers Underland Chronicles, has built a dark and audacious world. Panem is detailed and fully formed, combining bits of our tableau with future tech and old mistakes.
Taking care to slowly build up the tension, Collins infuses “Hunger” with a palpable desperation that tugs at the reader (the book is clearly meant for an older audience). She loads the slow-burning “Hunger” with genuinely surprising and horrifying twists, transmuting it into a novel that is part quest and part pageant.
In Katniss, Collins has a winning, determined yet flawed heroine and narrator. Tough as nails but also naively vulnerable, Katniss doesn’t whine but instead soldiers on while swallowing her tears all the while lamenting the terrible costs of her survival. She is the reason readers will want to find out what happens next.
No long wait
They did not have long to wait. Collins’ follow-up “Catching Fire” (Scholastic Press, New York, 2009, 392 pages) begins immediately after the events of “Hunger” and thus picks up after Katniss and Peeta return to District 12. But going home is never simple and neither is living up to the virtuoso “Games.” The second book feels cramped, overpopulated by characters new and old. But perhaps the most important reminder is that readers must read “Hunger” first, because catching up to all the references and precedents in “Fire” on its own would be more challenging than visiting the torched District.
Katniss thought her troubles would end along with the Games. She was very wrong. “If it were up to me, I would try to forget the Hunger Games entirely. Never speak of them. Pretend they were nothing but a bad dream,” Katniss tells herself. “I will have to travel from district to district, to stand before the cheering crowds who secretly loathe me, to look down into the faces of the families whose children I have killed.”
Collins turns the aftermath of the Games into something far more dangerous, more treacherous and more addictive. “Fire” pulls Katniss in completely unexpected and potentially harmful directions. A terrible true enemy reveals itself. More people.
Katniss finds her whole world to be at risk. Then there is the matter of Katniss’s affections, now torn between her secret childhood sweetheart Gale and her public paramour Peeta. All of it vibrates with empathy, and that’s just the first half of “Fire.”
In the second half, Collins suddenly pulls the rug out from under the readers’ feet. On page 173 comes the massive shocker, something that pivots “Fire” to a different territory. Collins then shifts gears, her quicksilver prose just zooming off, with the readers trying to keep up. Though “Fire” is only 20 pages longer than “Hunger,” it feels like the new book had swallowed its earlier incarnation, leaving readers breathless.
Then, Collins does it again to devastating, illuminating effect. After lulling the reader into what seems to be familiar happenings, she completely changes everything. Katniss’s world – and the things she fights for – just got a whole lot bigger, epic almost. The last eight pages will shatter any preconceived notions you have about “Fire,” and, down to the very last line, leave you open-mouthed and wanting answers – just like Katniss.
One can only imagine what Collins has in store for her readers, who will just have to wait until next year to find out how it all ends – just like the many fanatical viewers of the Hunger Games themselves. In the great “Hunger Games” and the even better “Catching Fire,” Suzanne Collins already has two parts of what promises to be a trilogy that harnesses neither vampires nor wizards, but boasts of that rarest authorial power: making us hungry for more.
“The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins are both available at National Book Store.
