Girl on Fire

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I shouldn’t have read The Hunger Games after my breathtaking experience with Inception. But I did. So naturally, the consequences, I paid dearly.

By that I mean: The Hunger Games is one (to borrow my friends’ term) bad-ass read.

By which I further mean, I love Suzanne Collins probably as much as I do JK Rowling and Christopher Nolan. Because she is a magnificent writer. Because she brought back my balled fists as I went with her heroine into the Games arena. Because she crafted a world so different yet so similar to what we live in now.

Aside from all that, I loved The Hunger Games because of:

1. The entire concept and plot

Because this is something new. I’ve gotten tired of vampire stories after vampire stories since the Twilight debuted so much so that even a re-read of Harry Potter has seemed a great escape. So I daresay the concept Collins has came up with is even more refreshing than it is new. Finally, one has had a sense of creating an entirely different set of characters in an equally unconventional setting.

And yet, there is no difficulty in understanding the story. I found the entire plot easy to follow. I have this habit of imagining what I read if it ever comes out on the silver screen and The Hunger Games didn’t prove stubborn in that area. The descriptions of the places were clear enough as well as the systems with which the characters lived.

2. The first-person point of view

In one of the reviews I’ve written before, I’ve expressed my reservations in writing first-person-based stories. These reservations resurfaced as soon as I started reading the novel because, well, there were more than one character that I very much liked to dig deeper into. Which I knew Katniss Everdeen’s perspective couldn’t wholly give.

But suffice to say that I completely stopped caring about who was talking even before I reached the middle. Because Katniss Everdeen’s first-person was more than enough. I loved how Collins had made her more than a brave warrior to be assertive enough for mind games as much as physical ones. And that, more than anything, helped for me to at least get a grasp of the other elements at play in the story.

3. Katniss Everdeen

Needless to say, right? The heroine so young yet so strong I cannot help but feel for her. I always thought that for readers to like a novel personality, they should be able to relate to that character in at least a personal level. With which I could say that I liked Katniss because she had a constant conflict going on within her but she was willful enough not to let that come out through her physical demeanor.

I loved her complexity, in other words. The way she held herself, always on the watch and on the go, was very heroine-like. She had a courage that extended from simply wanting to win into a desire to survive that appeared so naturally. And that was not even for self-centered reasons. She might be strong, but she wasn’t bone-deep tough. I liked that play of thoughts and emotions.

4. Peeta Mellark

His supposed “play” with the Lover Boy act. By heavens, I can smell pretenses miles away. Reasonably, even without Peeta actually professing the truth, I daresay I know what goes on with him and what Katniss thought was purely pretension. I loved him because of that. Well, his character, I mean.

To the point that if Katniss was ever real, I could have smacked her head just so she opens her heart for Peeta’s true feelings. But of course, there are still two more novels for me to read of Peeta and Katniss. Hence, I shall leave their story at bay for the time being.

5. Cinna

Twirl for me, Cinna. Twirl for me. His inclusion, his entire character that stopped me from thinking he could be gay even if he’s a stylist, makes me want to applaud Collins more. Cinna’s parts were very brief, but his relationship to Katniss, as she views it, runs deeply. I couldn’t yet specify what I loved him for. Right now, I’m hazarding a guess that it’s because of his relaxing presence in the entire story. A lone calm figure, transparent and mysterious at the same time.

6. Haymitch Abernathy

You probably wouldn’t like him, and I might still agree with you. But Haymitch’s addition to the colorful plot was a good plus. He was as complex as Katniss and as predictable as he was not. It would take a while to love him, because there was a whiff of holding back in him. An un-attachment that could very well translate to indifference had his tribute mentees proved incompetent enough. But that’s exactly why I liked Haymitch. Because he was able to recognize potential and even a possibility of survival in Katniss and Peeta.

With all these good points, thinking about the negatives would be very arduous. But if I give it a shot, I would say:

1. The unnamed Foxface

I didn’t very much appreciate her exposure. Or lack thereof. I wished Collins had her encounter Katniss more times after that small fight at the Cornucopia. I would even love her to be an ally to Katniss for even a shorter time than Rue was. Because I was really intrigued with her strategy. And also because I had, after reading novel, an unshakeable thought that she could have won if she was not poisoned (and of course, if Katniss was not the protagonist).

2. Effie Trinket

Because she reminded me of Dolores Umbridge. Horribly.

3. Gale

Because I would have been more excited if he took Peeta’s place at the reapings. In fact, I actually rooted for that happening until I read Katniss remember her first meeting with Peeta. Then I knew Gale wasn’t supposed to be in the Games. But even so, I hope to get more of him in the next books.

All of these positives and negatives combined, I could only repeat praises for Suzanne Collins. And I could go on endless. But for the meantime, that’s all I could come up with.

Because Catching Fire is waiting.