The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Because of the critically acclaimed and the hype generated with the release of “The Hunger Games” movie, I found myself curious in finding out what the story was about. I was a little wary whether I would enjoy the trilogy written by Suzanne Collins since it appeared to be a series that was targeted towards the adolescent audience. I am glad to say that I was pleasantly and utterly surprised at how much I really enjoyed and loved the trilogy!

The first book of the series is called “The Hunger Games”, the second is “Catching Fire”, and the third is called “Mockingjay”. All three books actually managed not only to move me beyond incredulity, sadness, tears, happiness plus other myriad of feelings while reading them, but it made me think deeply about war and humanity in a way that affected me greatly. I also saw similarities of the societies lived between the fictional country Panem, a Latin phrase for panem et circenses, literally meaning 'bread and circuses', and that of the civilisation of Ancient Rome. Children were pitted against each other to the death in Panem's Hunger Games arena, while slaves and prisoners battled each other in the Gladiatorial arena of Ancient Rome, until one victor remains. However, I had trouble getting past the fact that in the Hunger Games the participants were selected from a pool of children, the youngest at 12 years old and the eldest at 18yrs. I was horrified at how brutal, savage and cruel the Hunger Games would get as the children fought to survive, not only each other, but also the traps and perils the Hunger Games Gamemakers created and executed within the arena.

Overall, I enjoyed the books for what they were. I liked how the story of the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale was played out and why and who Katniss eventually chose in the end. Though I was utterly horrified at how many people died in the trilogy, war has its inevitable causalities and I knew some would die, I just did not expect certain characters I grew to like to be the ones that did. I liked the ending and it tied off lose ends and neatly packed up the whole story. With that in mind, I am not sure whether I will enjoy watching the “The Hunger Games” movie that has been released with the other 2 books to follow, because I know I will nitpick at them just as I always do whenever I read the book first. But I am sure I will eventually get around to it just for curiosity sake.