Lindsey's Library

Critique

Collins has created a gripping epic of a story, which is an arguably darker combination of the already dark stories 1984, Lord of the Flies, and the short story The Lottery. I certainly couldn’t put the book down from beginning to end, however I found myself thinking the text was very dark and not suitable for younger readers. In fact, I was reminded of stories like The Bluest Eye, which is a text involving children as the main characters, but is often banned from various school reading lists and regarded as a book not suitable for kids.

That disclaimer aside, this is one of the better books that I’ve read in a while, and it certainly deserved all the press and awards that it’s received. I’m sure that several production studios will consider it for a film, which is bitter sweet in my opinion. This would make a great movie, but it would be incredibly dark.

On the literary front, this is a perfect example of a dystopian society, which is the best kind of science fiction. Also, what makes any good science fiction novel really good is the subtle or not so subtle hint that all of the terrible things going on in the story are palpable at some level. It seems a little farfetched that our society could turn into this, but it’s not far from where Rome was just before its fall and the degradation of art and culture had reached its limit with rampant incest and duels to the death in the Coliseum. Even now, reality TV is not a far cry from the gladiator games. How long will it be before we want to be entertained by watching people compete by killing each other?

However, what makes this book amazing, in my opinion is that Collins has taken a relatively original idea (possibly pulling from sources like the Japanese film Battle Royale) and really flushed it out in a phenomenal way. The great travesty with science fiction and fantasy books is that many of the authors have great concepts, but are terrible writers, leading them to flood the market with books that have great elevator pitches, but are, in reality, not that great. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think that Collins has given us a truly original story, but what made Chaucer and Shakespearre so great, among other things, is that they took well-known stories and rewrote them with their literary genius.

The way that Collins writes the story through the eyes of Katniss creates empathy for the reader, and makes the dark world tangible and the characters she’s interacting with three-dimensional. Katniss is always believable in every action and decision, making her a reliable narrator, and therefore, making the other characters reliable as well. In doing so, the story’s underlying messages are communicated clearly and effectively, showing our own society a mirror of itself and what it can become if we don’t start moving in a different direction. I recommend this book to all readers 14+.

The other books in this series so far are Catching Fire (book 2).