Saturday Review of Books: The Hunger Games

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in the upcoming "The Hunger Games" movie

After months (years?) of hearing about this book, and the trilogy that it launches, I finally succumbed and read The Hunger Games.

Why had I resisted for so long?  Well, I'm kind of ambivalent about dystopian fiction.  Some of it I'm perfectly fine with, intrigued and captivated even.  But some of it I find just too bleak and depressing.

I'm one who often uses fiction as an escape from reality.  Our own world is awful enough--why escape into a world that's even worse?

But after several friends and loved ones told me that, basically, the story trumps the bleakness in The Hunger Games, I downloaded it on my Kindle, and on a day or two with plenty of time on my hands, I dove in.

My verdict?

I really liked it.

I was hooked from the beginning, when we first meet Katniss Everdeen, a young girl doing her best to help her family survive in a world where food is hard to come by and death by starvation is an everyday affair.

Katniss is a real heroine--brave, intelligent, spirited, and skilled as a huntress.  You like her immediately and are rooting for her right off the bat.

And that's a good thing, because she's about to be plunged into the worst ordeal that could befall a young person in her world.

The Story

The Hunger Games are the ultimate reality show.  Two young people, a boy and girl, from each of 12 Districts in this post-apocalyptic America (now called Panem), will be dropped into an "arena" where they must not only survive, but fight to the death.  The last one standing is the victor.

(The "arena" varies from year to year, from desolate and barren landscapes to those filled with trees and bodies of water.  Basically, whatever the "Gamekeepers" think will make the most entertaining show for the audience.)

As it turns out, the boy from Katniss' district that accompanies her to the Hunger Games is Peeta Mellark, a baker's son who years ago literally saved her and her family from starvation by a single kind act.

The two are mentored by Haymitch, a past Hunger Games victor who is drunk more often than not.  They come up with a strategy to please the "Gamekeepers" and the audience of this intricate reality show.  They'll pretend that Peeta is madly in love with Katniss, and that the two are star-crossed lovers.

But only one can emerge the victor, right?  So not only must Katniss guard herself from actually feeling affection for Peeta, she must remember that ultimately, one or both of them is going to die.

What I Thought

Well, the story did trump the bleakness.

Suzanne Collins is definitely a great storyteller.  Her background in television writing is obvious, as the book practically translates itself into a movie as you're reading it (and of course, it will be a movie, coming out in March.)

While she's a good writer, she's no better than a host of other writers.  For instance, while reading this, I thought of  Lisa T. Bergren's River of Time series, which also features a brave, spirited, skilled young woman.  Instead of a dystopian setting, Bergren's heroines (Gabriela and her sister) go back in time to medieval Italy, a place teeming with just about as much danger and violence as any postapocalyptic world.

Bergren is every bit as good a writer as Collins.  Collins just came up with this incredible story and she tells it beautifully.

The Hunger Games is an automatic page-turner, because the reader is so invested in Katniss and whether or not she'll survive, you simply can't wait to find out what happens.  Every page is another adventure.

My Thoughts: The Spiritual?

One thing I couldn't help but notice was the complete lack of spirituality in the book.  It makes sense, of course, because obviously this is a world where the idea of God and/or religion has been completely done away with.

For example, there are frequent mentions of special days like one's birthday and New Year's Day, but no mention of Christmas.

Katniss never once calls upon or reaches toward anything higher than herself.  As a Christian, that struck me.  I can't imagine being in extreme peril and not being able to cry out to God.

The world in which Katniss lives is clearly Godless.  And it has reached a point where life has obviously so little value that the society can eagerly and happily be entertained by a lavish production that ends in the deaths of 23 young people.

In this way, the book reminds me of the Roman Empire at the height of its excess and bloodthirstiness.  Just as the Romans eagerly watched Christians being eaten by lions, the society Katniss inhabits takes avid pleasure in watching the gory deaths of the young people.

(The comparison to Roman times is actually fairly clear in the book--even with many of the residents of "the Capitol" having Roman names like Octavia, Flavius, etc., and people like the Gamekeepers sitting at perpetual banquets where they gorge themselves on food and wine.)

You can't help but look at our own society and wonder just how much (or how little) it would take to get us to that point.

Bottom Line...


The bottom line is that The Hunger Games fills all my requirements for a great read:  compelling, intriguing story that keeps me turning pages; characters I care about and become fully invested in, and good writing to make the story come to life.

Do I think it's any better than a host of other books I've read?  No...obviously, like the Twilight series and others, it has just had the fortune to appear at the right time to appeal to a huge audience--and to young people who may just now be realizing how awesome a good book can be.

I will definitely read the other two books in the trilogy.

I'm linking up today with Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books--click the icon for more info!

My interview with author Lisa T. Bergren

"What would it be like to be 'chasing the cure,' to be so sick that you would leave your home and travel...to get to a place where you're hoping to be well again? What does that mean on a physical level, but then also an emotional and spiritual level?"--Lisa T. Bergren

I recently blogged about Lisa T. Bergren's terrific Breathe: A Novel of Colorado. Today I had a great conversation with the author herself.

If you check out Lisa's bio, you find that she's been involved in just about every aspect of Christian fiction, from editor to bookseller. I'm sure she was just great in each of those roles, but I can tell you that she really shines as a writer.

Lisa and I talked about how, as a resident of Colorado Springs, she was prompted to write a book focusing on how the town was a haven, in the late 18-hundreds, for consumptives--as people who suffered from tuberculosis was then known. She found the research into how people "chased the cure" fascinating--and so did I as a reader.

We also talked about the main characters in "Breathe," who will also be featured in the remaining two books of the trilogy. They are siblings Dominic, Odessa and Moira St. Clair. Lisa's skilled pen brings their very different, flawed but appealing personalities to life.



Lisa doesn't avoid Christian content in her novels, but she likes it to rise "organically" from the story. And it does--imparting spiritual truth, but never feeling forced, cliched or heavy-handed.

You can hear the entire interview here.

Strong story, appealing characters make "Breathe" a great read

As a radio interviewer, I get a lot of Christian fiction crossing my desk. Most of it I enjoy. But frankly, some books I abandon because, even though they're not terrible, they just don't "grab" me.

Breathe: A Novel of Colorado, by Lisa T. Bergren, certainly doesn't fall into the latter category. This book grabbed me from the very first page and kept me reading way past my bedtime--for me, a sure mark of a teriffic read.

I've read lots of fiction featuring people with tuberculosis--or "consumption," as it was called in the 18-hundreds--but never one in which the "consumptive" actually recovered and went on to live a healthy life. That's just one of the intriguing things about "Breathe."

Set in Colorado Springs in the late 18-hundreds, this is the first in a series about the St. Clair family--two sisters and a brother who journey by train from Philadelphia for one of the siblings to "chase the cure" and open a bookstore for their wealthy publisher father.

Apparently Colorado Springs was highly sought-after by people suffering from tuberculosis in that era because of its beneficial climate.

The beginning of the book plunges us immediately into the action: just as the St. Clair's train is about to pull into Colorado Springs, their sister Odessa is on the brink of death.

The scene establishes the three main characters: Odessa, gentle, ladylike and courageous; Moira, loving but flighty and ambitious; Nic, determined to protect his sisters, but frustrated by the role thrust upon him by his father and anxious to find his own place in life.

As we follow Odessa's recovery and budding romance at a sanatorium, Moira's involvement with the town's tyrannical sheriff, and Nic's secret life as an alcohol-swigging boxer, there's a strong subplot involving murder and mystery that would keep you turning the pages even if the interesting characters didn't.

Lisa T. Bergren is an excellent writer. A Colorado Springs resident herself, she infuses the story with the feel of authenticity and a strong sense of place.

Best of all, she's not afraid to acknowledge Christian faith throughout the story, and she portrays it in a way that is neither preachy nor cheesy.

I highly recommend "Breathe," and I can't wait for the next book in the trilogy.

By the way, I'll be interviewing Lisa T. Bergren for my radio show, and I'll be sure to blog about it.