The book
The good
Suzanne Collins is a brilliant writer. It’s an extemely well-crafted novel. I cannot fault it on technical grounds, the plot was a bit relentless for my personal taste, but if you’re into young adult dystopian then it’s a must-read. Click on the image above to get your kindle version.
The bad
- It had me so full of adrenaline that I couldn’t sleep until I finished the book – I tried and failed.
- It’s set in a really horrible, cruel world, one I do not want to spend time in, especially when I can’t sleep.
The ugly
It’s about teenagers fighting to the death. I found this deeply disturbing.
The Movie
The good
- It was over in two hours, so I could sleep that night.
- It was well cast, well acted, well costumed and probably as good a rendition of the book as anyone could make.
The bad
- I felt it was a bit flat in comparison to the book, but then it’s hard to translate the power of a first person book into the third person viewpoint of a movie.
- Very bad wobbly-cam. It almost gave me a headache.
- It’s set in a really horrible, cruel world.
The ugly
It’s about teenagers fighting to the death, still deeply disturbing
Put aside the hype and can you truly disagree? I’m baiting you here.
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The teenagers fighting to the death aspect is definitely ugly. That said, I think that parents try to shelter teens quite a bit, not always giving them credit for their strength of character or their ability to deal with real life situations. Collins certainly gave her teens life or death issues (which makes sense as a means to keep the drones in place — break them during their formative years which would go a long way toward ingraining the governmental dogma and solidifying a very real fear of the capitol).
As for the reader’s reaction, the teenage years are a time when little things become HUGE ISSUES (I remember protesting my high school’s split lunch policy — it was a horrible injustice). The teen emotional response is so intense that there are things worth dying for. Hunger Games gives them problems much bigger than their own, real life or death circumstances vs some of the high school drama they’re going through. It puts things in perspective. Even with the horror of death, perhaps because of it, I do recommend this book to my middle grade students.
Okay, enough rambling… 🙂
Great comment, Erin, very thoughtful. This is what I hoped to achieve with this post ie dicussion. I recommend it too.
It took me a lot of back and forth before I finally read the book – precisely because of the concept of kids being forced to kill each other for their families to have a better life. So sadistic.
Not sure if I’ll see the movie, though I agree that the book itself was powerfully written – despite the subject matter. 🙂