A society in a repressive and controlled state in which the conditions of life are extremely bad and people lead dehumanized, often fearful, lives.- The opposite of utopian.
If you can pull yourself back to days when you were a student and the required reading list included books such as “Fahrenheit 451,” “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” “Brave New World,” and “Lord of the Flies,” you will find that you are actually familiar with the concept of “dystopian.”
As an English major and English teacher in a previous life, I’ve read more than my share of these types of stories, so I wasn’t too enthused when I started to hear rumblings about a series of young adult novels referred to as “The Hunger Games” trilogy. It was early 2011 by the time I decided I needed to take a look, after I’d heard several people reference the books and had seen the covers of the three novels on coffee tables, bookshelves, and in the hands of people whose literary taste I trusted.
- “The Hunger Games” – 2008
- “Catching Fire” – 2009
- “The Mockingjay” – 2010
The series is anchored by the first-person narrator, Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl who has grown up in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian society in the poorest of the 12 districts of the country of Panem. Because of her father’s death in a mining accident, Katniss has long been providing for her family (her barely-able-to-cope mother and her sweet sister Primrose) by sneaking out of the fenced-in district to the forbidden forest to hunt for game with her slightly older male friend, Gale.
The impetus for the action (and the constant driving theme element in the series) is the Capitol’s yearly Hunger Games – where one teenage boy and one teenage girl from each of the 12 districts is chosen to fight to the death in a televised reality show that the entire nation is required to watch as a reminder of the power that the Capitol holds over the people of the districts. Of course our narrator ends up as District 12’s female representative for the 74th annual games (although she isn’t the girl who was chosen – an important plot point I won’t explain further). Her male counterpart is an intelligent, artistic, and gentle young man named Peeta Mellark – the son of the district’s baker.
Yes, there’s a love story and a triangle, although Katniss is too stubborn and independent to let that consume her (or her story) completely. There is violence – teenagers have been tasked to fight-to-the-death for the enjoyment of the viewing public. But there is so much more. There is rebellion, war, psychological torture, alcoholism born of horrors witnessed and experienced, and the battle between good vs. evil when the narrator (and the reader) isn’t actually sure which side is worse than the other. Such strong, universal themes and messages in three books that are all far too well-written to be disregarded as simply “young adult fiction.”
A movie adaptation of the first book is coming in March 2012 and the first full-length trailer for the film has recently been released. Although the movie is getting all of the typical hype of a future “big series” like the “Harry Potter” or “Twilight” films, I have high hopes for it. It’s very well cast and the initial glimpses into District 12 and the Capitol seem mind-blowingly true to the books and different than anything else we’ve seen.
Link to "The Hunger Games" movie trailer on YouTube
Trust me. Pick up the first book of the series, “The Hunger Games,” and see if you aren’t hooked after the first two chapters like I was. It’s not often that I find a book that keeps me up past my bedtime, but these three did that. I didn’t expect to be moved by them the way that I was – but I think you might be too.
Link to "The Hunger Games" trilogy on Amazon.com
Happy reading!
