Reaction to The Hunger Games

After listening to all the rage surrounding the movie The Hunger Games, I decided to invest time in reading the book. Quite the quick read, the first in the trilogy has afforded me several observations. The author provides some great insight on those who produce and those who consume reality television demonstrating just how ridiculous, stupid, and fake the lucrative industry is. While the Shakespeare and Milton lover in me barely survived Collins’s drab, elementary writing style, her creative plot prevented me from setting the book down. My favorite futuristic detail? The amazing shower! If only I had one of those, getting ready in the morning would be effortless! While I praise her creativity and admire her ingenuity, I can’t forget the gruesome violence inundating the second half of the book. Teenagers killing teenagers—I’m not so naïve to think it doesn’t happen, but I don’t enjoy reading the gory details. Some redeeming characters impressed me; they refuse to take human life regardless of the situation or circumstance surrounding them. Of course, the female character dominates in nearly every arena (pun intended). Feminism must be appeased even if such a character is highly unrealistic. In short, I rank it on the same level as the Twilight series—lousy writing style but a creative storyline. However, it is the essence of the storyline in The Hunger Games that sets it apart from Twilight; we’re much closer to a Hunger Games reality than a vampire war to rescue humans.