What can I say about a book that’s already been read by just about everyone interested in reading it? I read this when it came out six years ago, and it was assigned for my lit class so I read it again. I’ll admit I was annoyed by this at first. I took the class to force myself to read literature I wouldn’t on my own and I don’t have any trouble finding books like The Hunger Games, but I think they just stuck this in the curriculum to appeal to the youths. Alright.
It feels strange to review such a well known book at length, so I’ll keep it short. It really is a cut above most YA dystopian trilogies. Katniss is anything but a helpless female, and the world and conflict are truly compelling. You get far enough away from a series like this and it’s hard to remember if it got so much hype just because it got a huge movie deal but no, it truly is a fantastic piece of fiction. It’s what a lot of others try to be and end up coming off as knock-off versions. The genre is often trivialized and that’s often its own fault, but The Hunger Games is a classic in its own rite. I think what makes it so powerful is the reality show format: we can see ourselves in the tributes and the Capitol, and we’re disgusted. How much would we watch before we said no? How far would we go? Not that far…right?
A couple stray thoughts that I’d forgotten over the years: wasn’t there some big thing when Amandla Stenberg was cats as Rue? Why? The book is very clear that Rue and Thresh are Black.
I’d forgotten how much Katniss and Gale really weren’t a couple before The Hunger Games.
Oh man the Rue casting controversy. I ranted on my Facebook page about how poor reading comprehension had gotten if people honestly were claiming that Rue was miscast and had someone respond that she didn’t think it was a reading comprehension thing as there really wasn’t that much implying race for those characters. This is a woman I went to college with who went on to get her law degree, she’s a practicing lawyer in CA and is generally someone I consider quite intelligent. I didn’t bother arguing but I screamed internally, because as you say it’s quite obvious.
“The book is very clear that Rue and Thresh are Black.”
And yet white people still managed to reimagine them into white people in their heads. Their brains selectively blotted out mention of their skin color because characters they like that much HAVE to be white, don’t you know.
I suppose I could be generous and say if they weren’t reading carefully, it does make sense that they would imagine them white, because white is the default, unfortunately.
I’d bet it was a combo of both, TBH.