The Hunger Games

It’s 2am on Friday and I can’t sleep. I just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I can’t remember ever reading a book that increased exponentially in excitement and tension like this. Maybe it was just my own imagination creating a dramatic ending as I raced towards the final pages for a conclusion. In the past I’ve devoured James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series, J.K. Rowling’s entire collection, and the Twilight saga which are all series in which the author knew that the first book was one of many to come. With The Hunger Games I found myself tearing faster and faster through the pages as the main characters of the novel battle to the death in order to save their own lives. The subject matter of the novel brings you into the dark place of what it means to survive. The things you lose and some of the behaviors you have to adopt in order to endure. I wish I could but I don’t want to talk too much about the plot (for those who are still planning to read it). I also wish I was part of book club that was having discussions about this particular book so I could hear other people’s thoughts—What would you do if you had to fight for your life? What would you do if your success came at the demise of all others? What would you sacrifice in order to save someone else? How much/how often are we manipulated by ruling forces? Would you consider yourself easily manipulated? 

Yesterday I mentioned to someone that the novel reminds me of a modern day Anthem by Ayn Rand. Tonight I saw this description in the book jacket that is so concise in expressing what Suzanne Collins is able to pull off remarkable well in a young adult fiction novel: In The Hunger Games, she continues to explore the effects of war and violence on those coming of age. Her work is about wars, past and present, and about the war that wages on the inside of many of us on a daily basis. It makes me wonder how have I been shaped as an individual because of war?

I’ve got to stop doing things before bed time that increase the activity of my visceral nervous system.

The best is yet to come (and so is Book Two),

~Adwoa