I have no idea how many times I have reread this trilogy, because this work of art is some intense madness I can never forget.
The first time I read the Hunger Games was during freshman year of college, when one of my friends told me about it. And I was hooked.
The movies came out later, and I had so many questions, because I wasn’t too happy about them. I wish I had liked the movies as much as I loved the books.
Katniss Everdeen was living in a world where people took a boy and a girl from each of their 12 districts to be put in an annual event called the Hunger Games. The kids, aged 12 to 18, would have to fight each other to be the last one alive. The winner would get a house and monthly salaries enough to support plenty of people who were starving in poverty.
During the reaping, when they would take names out and announce the tributes, Katniss’s little sister, Primrose, got called out. Panicked, Katniss ran to volunteer to take her sister’s place. Afterwards, a boy whom Katniss owed her life to, Peeta Mellark, got picked.
Shaken, Katniss had to leave at once, saying goodbye to her mother, Prim, and her best friend Gale. She and Peeta then met their mentor, Haymitch, who was once a tribute and won a game himself.
Katniss and Peeta tried to be friends and worked together to impress people who might sponsor them during the game. However, Katniss lost it when Peeta confessed to the world that he had always had a crush on her.
When the game started, Katniss tried to survive by avoiding the Careers, tributes from the higher class who had trained to win the game their whole lives.
She even made friends with a little girl from District 11, Rue, who resembled Prim enough that Katniss saw her as a sister. Sadly, Rue died, and Katniss started roaming alone until there was an announcement that for the first time, they would allow two tributes to win if they came from the same district.
Katniss found Peeta, so that they could survive and win together. It took awhile for Katniss to realize that since the whole world was invested in Peeta’s love confession, she had to play the part and pretended to fall in love with him.
The more kisses they shared, the more sponsors and help they got. Then, when both of them were the last ones standing, the game decided to rewrite the exception and demand to have only one winner.
Angered by that, Katniss suggested for both of them to commit suicide together, and because the game needed someone to live and survive, they decided to let Peeta and Katniss to live and win.
The pair ended up going back home as victors, and ice cold as well after Peeta figured that Katniss wasn’t really in love with him. Things were not as bad as it was at the Capitol, where President Snow saw Katniss suggesting suicide as an act of rebellion.
What Katniss thought was a way to survive, was seen as a potential sign for uprising by the authority, and now the rulers had to make sure that Katniss and Peeta would stay to the act of being in love instead of rebelling. So President Snow threatened Katniss that he would kill everyone she loved if she could not convince him that she was in love with Peeta.
This trilogy is full of excitement. It is crazy enough that to stop reading was never an option. I kept reading until I couldn’t, simply because there were no more pages left.
Suzanne Collins did a wonderful job with symbolism in the books. Mockingjay as Katniss was brilliant, laid out since the very beginning to the end. And the state that Peeta was in later on, when he had to question “Real or not real” was how Katniss was by the end of book one, when she questioned how much her feelings for Peeta was real.
The way Peeta’s transformation was written somehow made me happy; he was the only one pure enough, worth of saving, nobody deserved even in lifetimes. To see that the games did not ruin him was good, but to see the length of how far they were willing to destroy the only one good thing there was, was somewhat refreshing.
I was Team Peeta, of course, because even though I wanted Katniss to end up with Gale in the beginning, I started to understand how Katniss and Peeta were bonded. Shared trauma is a powerful thing in relationships, and that happened. The moment Katniss and Peeta got into the arena, it was game over for Gale. Of course, in a perfect world, Katniss and Peeta could work things out and go on their separate ways; however, this world was twisted, and they just had to stay together to survive.
I was worried about the first person narration in the beginning, but I grew to love it. I felt happy and sad for, as well as angry at Katniss for how she was dealing with everything thrown her way.
But in a way, it was good that we got to hear her voice, so we could figure out what she really wanted and didn’t, and let’s face it, she was falling for Peeta in book one.
Haha. Yeah, I got it bad.
I used to want to find my own Peeta Mellark. He was like a Ned Stark who could bake and paint. How amazing is that?
This trilogy is worth every second, I swear, and if you loved the movies, then you would love the books even more. It’s a solid 8/10 from me.
I haven’t gotten to bring myself to re watch the movies, but I have reread the books enough time to say that they’re truly worth it.
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