Tamara Tilley

The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins, what can I say but WOW!

Since I believe THE HUNGER GAMES came out in 2008, and it is now 2012, you can see I didn’t rush right out to read it.  In fact, I refused to get caught up in the hype surrounding the trilogy and the movie release.  Many of my friends were surprised since I am a voracious reader, but I’ve had no interest in the latest book/movie phenomenons that have flooded the market.  I have NOT read or seen The Lord of the Rings series, The Narnia series, The Harry Potter series, or the Twilight series.  As a rule, I don’t like fantasy books, and I especially don’t like books with spells, potions, and what I feel are books with cultic overtones.  I know it is a matter of taste and at the root of all these books is the age old clash of good vs. evil, but I’ve had no interest in them, and it is along these lines that I had wrongly categorized THE HUNGER GAMES. 

When my co-workers set me straight, and explained the basis for the book, I decided to give it a go.  I was put on a timeline since my co-worker was moving, and I would be borrowing her set of books.  I had about a month to finish the set of three.  Well, once I got into it, book one was finished in just a few evenings, and book two and three were finished in a little over a twenty-four hour period.  I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THEM!

I think the thing I appreciated about the books the most was the clean language and the absence of sexual content.  Since I usually read Christian fiction, I appreciated a secular book/author that didn’t feel the need to throw around off-colored language or gratuitous sex in order to keep their audience entertained.  And, even though there was plenty of violence in these books, I didn’t feel that the author used every adjective possible in order to describe the gruesome scenes that played out in the story.  Of course, I realize this book was written for the youth market, but that wouldn’t have stopped some authors from feeling they needed to spice up or magnify the realism of today’s sex culture.

The love triangle Katniss finds herself in is unique.  And though I would’ve said I don’t believe someone can be in love with two people at the same time, you see how easy it can happen considering the circumstances Katniss found herself in.

The ending was bittersweet, and I would’ve liked a little more detail on what happened to each character, but the ending followed suit with the theme of –merely existing–Collins created. 




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