The Hunger Games – Why the World Became Obsessed With a Book about Teens Murdering Each Other
By Hannah J
Hannah J is a part-time blogger and full-time bibliophile, as well as student, chocoholic and self-confessed (and proud!) grammar nerd. Her book obsession and geeky grammar love aside, Hannah is known for her witch-like cackle, her “surplus of personality” and her very, very weird dreams. She can be found at her usual blogging abode,Perfect Companions Have Pages and Prose, where she recommends and reviews the books she loves, posts favourite songs and recipes, and offers advice and opportunities for discussion on the art of fiction writing.
Whilst some people may refer to the prospect of children being put in an arena and forced to fight to the death on national television as “twisted”, “horrible”, even “sick”, there’s no denying the fact that it is one of the most popular YA series of the 21st century – dare I say, ever? I don’t think many people would argue when I say that theKatniss/Peeta/Gale love triangle blew a certain human/vampire/werewolf trio out of the water – or at least, out of the headlines. With the release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire movie just a few weeks ago, the characters (and by extension, the actors that play them) and the story are under more scrutiny than ever. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who hadn’t at least heard of this fictional phenomenon. At times, it can even feel like the story is being shoved down our throats (as much as we love it, of course.) I can’t imagine how J-Law and Josh must feel.
But why did The Hunger Games have such huge crossover appeal? What is it about District 12 that draws us in? Why do we fall in love with Peeta/Gale/Finnick (Team Peeta, everyone, just sayin’)? And what is it about Katniss Everdeen, The Girl on Fire, that makes her such an easy heroine to root for? In short, what makes a world-wide bestseller?
In “the Big 3” YA bestsellers* (Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games), the protagonists – young, naïve, but brave – have to face almost impossible odds. (Yes, yes, I’ll quote that wonderfully ironic line that everyone knows: “Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour.”) Harry, a neglected orphan, has to defeat Voldemort, evil wizard extraordinaire. Bella falls in love with theimmortal, fanged-but-beautiful Edward Cullen**, someone with whom a future just isn’t viable. Katniss, our heroine, has to face the arena, where 23 other tributes are going to be pitted against her. The irony of the hunted hunter. And let’s not forget her having to deal with a certain baker’s son…
The abundance of fast-paced action, interspersed with slower, romantic scenes, keeps us glued to the pages and on the edge of our seats. We love The Hunger Games because it isexciting. The stakes are high, the rewards hefty, theconsequences grave. If we look away for just one second, who knows what might happen? The next sentence could just as easily bring triumph as it could bring tragedy. And we readers love that.
Next, what would a book be without its cast of characters? Contrary to what one initially may think, characters are of equal importance – sometimes even more – to the plot. Take a moment to remember your favourite book, that one that you reread every year. Would you still love it so much if the main character was a perfect little wuss, or a stuck up, annoying brat?
No matter how good the plot, chances are you would not. If you’re going to effectively live inside someone’s head for 500 pages or more, you need to like them. In The Hunger Games,Katniss volunteers to take part in a bloodbath to spare her little sister, Prim, knowing full well that her chances of coming out alive again are slim, to say the least. This means we immediately respect her for her family loyalty and self-sacrifice. Her flaws, such as her lack of trust and impatience, are forgivable, because we understand why she is this way, and her courage more than makes up for a bit of snippiness.Collins creates a character everyone can comprehend and sympathise with, and if we can sympathise with someone, we root for them. We are emotionally invested. This is what you want to do, in any genre, for any gender or age group, your goal as the author should be to get the reader to care so much, that if the protagonist doesn’t achieve their goal, we are so upset we hurl the book at the wall. *cough* Not that I’ve everdone anything like that… ;)
Now we have come to the final aspect of a bestseller. Using the other two, you will write a good book. But what makes a good book stand out among all the other good books, what makes a good book a memorable book, is this: Combine an original, different plot and setting*** with familiar themes,motives and morals. (Even this will not guarantee a bestseller– nothing will –but it is a good rule of thumb which can certainly help.)
Let’s look at Panem. Nothing like it exists today, but it’s still believable. Human beings are capable of some real atrocities, as we know from recent and ancient history. I, for one, can clearly see a tyrannical autocrat like President Snow implementing a regime not so different from The Hunger Games. This is part of the fear factor, another reason for The Hunger Game’s massive cross over appeal. It is new and different enough to provide escapism to another world, without being so foreign and outlandish that we feel totally lost, or worse, cannot believe it. In short, it could happen.And while none of us can say we’ve been put in an arena to fight to the death, we’ve all experienced the driving emotions, the motives, that make Katniss volunteer. We know love, and anger, and loss. We know sadness, fear, vengefulness. We know what it is to be human. And what we don’t know, we can imagine, because we are human. We (hopefully) don’t know what it is to be oppressed under an unfair and terrifying regime, but we do know what it’s like to want to protect those we love. Thus, when we read The Hunger Games, we feel what Katniss feels. We live the journey, fight the battles, fallin love with each turn of the page. We get to the end and sigh with both sadness and relief (and if you’re me, turn right back to the first page so you can experience it all over again, this time noticing all the clever foreshadowing.) We’ve been through it all right by the character’s side.
And that, my friends, is the mark of a book worth reading.
Thank you, Anya, for having me on your blog! I’ve loved being here with you all. Hopefully you’ll come visit me over at Perfect Companions Have Pages and Prose (which will resume in February due to personal reasons) sometime, and I hope I’ve given you a little something to think about. As for you, do you love or loathe The Hunger Games? Please leave your thoughts in the comments. Ciao!
*These are by no means the only YAs to make the bestseller list. I wouldn’t even call them the best of YA, necessarily. There are plenty of amazingly talented lesser-known YA authors who, in my opinion, deserve more time in the spotlight. But that, my friends, is a topic for another post.
**May I just say that personally, I do not like Edward. But for the purpose of this guest post, we need to put that aside because the point is that Bella does. Really though, watching her sleep? Slinking, uninvited, into her bedroom? In the dead of night? Seriously, dude?*shudder*
*** Depending on your genre, “different” will mean, well, different things. A fantasy or dystopia setting can get more diverse and peculiar than a regular-world setting for a non-paranormal story. Use your judgement.
