The Hunger Games (novel)

The Hunger Games

Author	Suzanne Collins
Cover artist	Tim O'Brien
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction/ Young adult
Publisher	Scholastic Press
Publication date	September 14, 2008
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	374
ISBN	0-439-02348-3
Followed by	Catching Fire

The Hunger Games is a young adult science fiction novel written by bestselling author of The Underland Chronicles, Suzanne Collins. It was originally published in hardcover on September 14, 2008 by Scholastic Press. It is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy, with two more books to come. It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where a dictatorship called the Capitol has risen up after several devastating disasters. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where a ruthless Capitol randomly selects one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, who are then pitted against each other in a game of survival and forced to kill until only one remains.

The next book in the series, Catching Fire, is due to be published September 1, 2009, and the third book is tentatively slated for a 2010 release.

Origins and publishing history

Collins says that the idea for The Hunger Games came to her one day when she was channel-surfing, and the lines between a reality show competition and war coverage "began to blur in this very unsettling way." She also cites the Greek myth of Theseus, in which the city of Athens was forced to send young men and women to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, as inspiration for the nation of Panem; she explains, "Crete was sending a very clear message: 'Mess with us and we'll do something worse than kill you. We'll kill your children.'" After writing the novel, Collins signed a six-figure deal for three books with Scholastic in 2006. As of 2009, there are 225,000 copies of The Hunger Games in print, with 26 foreign editions, and rights to the novel having been sold in 32 territories.

Plot

The story takes place in an unidentified future time period after the destruction of North America, in a nation known as Panem. Panem consists of a rich Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol, every year one boy and one girl from each district is forced to participate in "The Hunger Games", a televised event whereby the participants, or "tributes", must fight to the death in an outdoor arena until only one remains. The story follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the Games in place of her younger sister, Primrose. Also participating from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a boy whom Katniss knows from school and who once gave Katniss bread when her family was starving.

Katniss and Peeta are taken to the Capitol, where they meet the other tributes and are publicly displayed to the Capitol audience. During this time, Peeta reveals on-air his long-time unrequited love for Katniss. Katniss believes this to be a ploy to gain audience support for the Games, which can be crucial for survival, as audience members are permitted to send gifts to the tributes. The Games begin with 11 of the 24 tributes dying in the first hour, while Katniss relies on her well-practiced hunting and outdoors skills to survive. As the Games continue, the tribute death toll increases but both Katniss and Peeta are able to evade death.

Supposedly due to Katniss and Peeta's beloved image to the audience as "star-crossed lovers", a rule change is announced midway through the Games, stating that two tributes from the same district can win the Hunger Games as a pair. Upon hearing this, Katniss searches for Peeta, and finds him wounded. She nurses him back to health, and acts the part of a young girl falling in love to gain more favor with the audience. The couple manages to outlast all the other tributes, and the gamemakers try to force them into a dramatic finale where one must kill the other to win. Instead, they both threaten suicide, and are subsequently both declared winners. After returning to the Capitol, Katniss must deal with the aftermath of defying the Capitol publicly, and sorting out her true feelings for Peeta, who she discovers truly does love her. But she did not admit into Peeta's admiration for her, in where he loses confident in himself and Katniss. They return to their district with a crowd infront of their train in where they were carried from. The book suddenly ends here with their relationship destroyed and mentioning Book One ends, making notice for a sequel.

Characters

Main characters

• Katniss Everdeen – The narrator of the story and the female tribute from District 12. At age 16, Katniss volunteers to enter the 74th Hunger Games after her sister is chosen to be a tribute. Her father died in a mine explosion; since then, Katniss has become the primary supporter of her mother and younger sister. She gets food by hunting illegally in the forest outside District 12. Because of this, Katniss has strong survivalist instincts, and is a wonderful archer. Katniss has straight black hair, which she normally pulls back into a long braid, olive skin, and gray eyes. She is also known as "the girl who was on fire" during the Hunger Games; she earned this title from her fierce personality and the outfits created for her by her stylist, Cinna.
• Peeta Mellark – The male tribute from District 12. He is the son of the town's baker, and has two older brothers. On live television, Peeta first confesses his lifelong love of Katniss, having had a crush on her since they were five years old. He is skilled at camouflaging and baking, and is very strong. Peeta is of medium height, has a stocky build, "ashy blond hair that falls in waves over his forehead", and blue eyes.

Minor characters

• Gale – Katniss' best friend, whom she met while hunting in the forest four years prior to the beginning of the novel. Gale is the oldest child in his family, and also feels responsible for feeding his mother and his siblings. Katniss feels a connection with him upon their first meeting. Katniss thinks Gale can have any girl he wants, which she can tell "by the way girls whisper when he walks by in school." Gale has strong opinions about the Capitol, which he often voices to Katniss in the safety of the woods, and which cause him to have a distaste for those who are better off. He is 18, has black hair, olive skin, and gray eyes.
• Primrose "Prim" Everdeen - Katniss' sister. She is, against all odds, picked as the female tribute from District 12 at her first reaping, but Katniss volunteers in her place. Katniss notes that many people seem to genuinely like Prim. Prim is described as being very pretty, with a face "fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named", with light hair and blue eyes. She is 12 years old.
• Mrs. Everdeen - Katniss and Prim's mother. Though said to be once very beautiful, she now looks worn and beaten-down. The daughter of the town apothecary, Mrs. Everdeen grew up in the merchant class; however, she married a coal miner. Katniss has little respect for her mother now, as after Katniss's father died, Mrs. Everdeen sank into depression and would have let the family starve to death were it not for Katniss's resourcefulness. She now works as a healer, but Katniss still holds her in low regard and refuses to trust her.
• Haymitch – As of the beginning of the book, he is the only living District 12 winner of the Hunger Games. Because of this, he assumes the role of mentor for both of District 12's tributes. Haymitch is, until Peeta and Katniss force him to sober up, a drunk, after years of training hopeless tributes. He is described as paunchy and middle-aged. During the Games, he "speaks" to Katniss through his giving of gifts, or lack thereof, from sponsors.
• Cinna - Katniss's stylist in the Capitol before the Hunger Games begin. Cinna, in comparison to the majority of Capitol residents, looks very normal and natural: his hair is "close cropped" and "appears to be its natural shade of brown", and he has green eyes. He claims to have requested working with a tribute from District 12, though as of now, it is not known why. Throughout the novel, he becomes good friends with Katniss.
• Effie Trinket - The Capitol's "representative" for District 12. She is very unhappy with her post because District 12 is the poorest of the districts, and she wishes to be moved to a better one. This results in her consistently making horrible remarks to Katniss and Peeta, while thinking she is being polite. Effie is almost always bright and bubbly, has a "scary" white grin, speaks with a Capitol accent, and wears a bright pink wig.
• Avox girl - A servant in the Capitol who has had her tongue cut out. A few years prior to the novel, Katniss and Gale saw the girl and a boy being chased by a hovercraft in the woods, but did not intervene. The boy was killed and the girl was captured. The girl seems to have forgiven Katniss and acts kindly towards her. She has dark red hair, "striking features", and porcelain white skin.

Tributes

• Rue - The female tribute from District 11. She is 12 years old and has dark brown skin and eyes. Rue is very knowledgeable about plants, and is said to remind Katniss greatly of Prim. Rue and Katniss team up for a time until Rue is killed by the boy from District 1. Rue considers music to be her favorite thing in the world.
• Thresh - The male tribute from District 11. Thresh is described as huge and incredibly strong, and can be very intimidating. He is quiet and sullen, except when he confronts Clove about Rue's death, when he becomes visibly upset. He refrains from killing Katniss in thanks for the latter's help and care of Rue. He remains unseen for the majority of the Games, and is eventually killed by Cato.
• Foxface - The red-haired female tribute from District 5. Her real name is unknown, and Katniss refers to her as "Foxface" due to her likeness to a fox. Foxface is very clever and crafty, relying on stealing food from other tributes to survive. She takes 4th place after eventually dying when she steals poisonous berries that Peeta had collected, not knowing they were deadly.
• Cato - The male tribute from District 2. Cato is large, vicious, and strong, and is excellent with swords and spears. Cato is Katniss and Peeta's final opponent in the Games, and is brutally injured by wolf-like creatures that represent the other tributes before Katniss mercifully kills him.
• Clove - The female tribute from District 2. Clove is extremely skilled with knives, and gathers a collection of them throughout the Games. She is killed by Thresh, about which Cato is visibly upset.
• Other tributes - The remainder of the tributes either remain unnamed or do not play major roles in the book.

Cover

The cover of The Hunger Games is black, featuring a gold bird with an arrow inscribed in a circle. This is the pin given to Katniss by the Mayor's daughter, Madge, as the image matches the description of the pin that is given in the book: "It's as if someone fashioned a small golden bird and then attached a ring around it. The bird is connected to the ring only by its wing tips. I suddenly recognize it. A mockingjay."

Critical reception

The Hunger Games was received well by critics. In Stephen King's review for Entertainment Weekly, he said, "Reading The Hunger Games is as addictive (and as violently simple) as playing one of those shoot-it-if-it-moves videogames in the lobby of the local eightplex; you know it's not real, but you keep plugging in quarters anyway", but also noted that, "Balancing off the efficiency are displays of authorial laziness that kids will accept more readily than adults", and gave the book an overall B grade. Elizabeth Bird of School Library Journal praised the novel, saying, "Collins has written a book that is exciting, poignant, thoughtful, and breathtaking by turns. It ascends to the highest forms of the science fiction genre and will create all new fans for the writer. One of the best books of the 2008 year." Booklist wrote, "Populated by three-dimensional characters, this is a superb tale of physical adventure, political suspense, and romance." In a review for The New York Times, John Green wrote that the novel was "brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced", and that "the considerable strength of the novel comes in Collins's convincingly detailed world-building and her memorably complex and fascinating heroine"; he also noted, "Collins sometimes fails to exploit the rich allegorical potential here in favor of crisp plotting, but it's hard to fault a novel for being too engrossing."

The Hunger Games has also received a number of awards and honors, including being a USA Today and New York Times Best Seller, and being named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of the Year" in 2008 and a New York Times "Notable Children's Book of 2008".

Film adaptation

On March 4, 2009, The Hollywood Reporter reported that movie rights for The Hunger Games were won by Nina Jacobson's Color Force production company. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jacobson plans "to quickly incubate the project before taking it to studios." This was confirmed by Suzanne Collins' agent.

External links

• Suzanne Collins' official website
• Scholastic Official Site