The Hunger Games trilogy iPhone screenshots
This popular Young Adult+ trilogy is a very descriptive, well-written, and occasionally humorous set of stories. There is a bit of irony, too, on hearing the full story. It's a coming of age tale for a teenage girl who has a younger sister and who has lost her father to a mining accident and her mother to debilitating depression after losing her husband.
The books are set in a future where there is a wide separation between the affluent and the near destitute. Where just about everyone plays some sort of pawn-like role in society. And where a few have decided to do something about it, since they really have nothing of value to lose.
Things that stand out in the story are the main character's constantly questioning nature, her rollercoastering self-reflecting emotional confusion, her blind bravery, and finally her acceptance of her feelings and reality. A good summation of the teenage years for many.
The entire series is recommended listening. Suzanne Collins is the author of the books, which were published in writing from 2008 to 2010, and the audiobooks are published by Scholastic Audio with very good narration provided solely by Carolyn McCormick.
The Storyline
Book 1, The Hunger Games: The book begins with the 16-year-old heroine Katniss Everdeen waking up on the day of The Reaping, which is the mandatory raffle all 12-year-old and older children must enter, used to determine the year's participants in a fight to the death called The Hunger Games. The participants are called Tributes. Katniss ends the day as one of the Tributes.
We follow her adventure of going to the Capitol, the city where the Games take place. After preparing for the pre-Games festivities as the Girl On Fire, Katniss trains for the Games, leading up to a surprise ending of the 74th Hunger Games. Another layer of the story is the love triangle forming between Katniss and two boys she knows from her hometown (hunter guy and painter guy), which brews throughout each of the other books.
Book 2, Catching Fire: The book picks up a few months after the finale of the Games. Katniss begins her day in the woods, knowing that later she has to begin the mandatory Victory Tour to support the Games. Now she learns she will face the arena again in the Quarter Quell Games, which is a death fight between the victors of previous Hunger Games. During her training, Katniss gains a piece of information that shakes up the Games for good.
Katniss also has more clarity about how the power structure of the country is forcing her to do things she neither wants nor can control. The weight of shilling for the government hangs heavy and what happens back home might be more weight than she can bear. The love triangle is also being forced along by the system, rather than by her desires.
Book 3, Mockingjay: The book continues after the end of the Quell Games, when a full scale civil war has gotten underway. Katniss joins the rebellion and vows to assassinate President Snow. She has lived through horrors, danger, pain, killings, the loss and torture of her loved ones and acquaintances. Though she's witnessed these atrocities, she has proven herself a survivor.
In the end, Katniss finds the more things change, the more they stay the same. But her love triangle is now finally resolved. Eventually, she's as satisfied as she can ever be, with all that has happened. Another costly human cycle has once again churned. Up until the next generation.
Find The Books
All three a-books are available for purchase from Audible.com and for rental from SimplyAudioBooks.com, as well as other vendors. A short sample of each book can be heard for free. Each audiobook is over 11 hours in listening length, with clear narration and non-book information only at the beginning and the end of the books.
Book 3, Mockingjay, includes an Epilogue that tells about Katniss's outlook for the future, and a Final Personal Statement from the author about how the series was conceived.
The Movie Of Book 1
After finishing all of the books I saw
the movie version of Book 1, The Hunger Games. Author Suzanne Collins co-wrote the movie's script, so the differences in the story were relatively minor.
But there were differences. The book is written from Katniss's subjective perspective and the movie is a combination of her perspective as well as an objective audience's perspective.
So there are shots of the giant billboard-screens showing the Games to the public and we can see how the Gamemakers control what goes on in the arena, etc. Cinna's creations are also a little better in the book than the movie. The movie condenses the action sequences together whereas the book is more thoughtful with Katniss's point of view.
But this naturally occurs when adapting an expansive book down to about a two-and-a-half hour movie within a budget. My recommendation would be to listen to the entire trilogy before screening the movie and definitely before catching the upcoming movie versions of Book 2 and Book 3.
However, if you do watch the movie first, it will probably send you looking for the book to fill in some of the story.
The Movie Trailer Of Book 2
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Staff Panel, 30 Minutes
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The Movie Trailer Of Book 3, Part I
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Wed Nov 27, 2013 at 6:39 PM PT: ERJ1024 has reviewed The Hunger Games 2 Catching Fire movie. This adaptation seems more true to the book than HG1.
For an audio adaptation of Books 1 and 2, you can listen for FREE to The Katniss Chronicles. This study of The Hunger Games books follows the chapters, and in 2014 will adapt the final book Mockingjay to an audio screenplay.