The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
by Karen S. Wiesner
In the first half of the 2000s, Young Adult series were all the rage, dominating the attention of teenagers and adults alike. Several that became household topics at the height of their popularity, enjoying fame as both book and movie series, seem to have fallen by the wayside since. Even still, I find many of those unique tales are well worth returning to for a fresh perspective. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few series that would make any hit list of past favorites.
What an odd idea for a series! As a very basic summary, kids from each district are forced to compete in violent, brutal "games" to the death as punishment for the past sin of rebelling against the controlling state--all for the entertainment of Capitol citizens. When I first heard about this series--the first three books published between 2008 and 2010--I just could not buy the premise. The concept was beyond ridiculous to me. Parents would never allow it, and who the heck did the Capitol think it was to punish anyone for anything? They participated in the same wars in the past. Active and ongoing retribution following a war is just not done after a succession of fighting and a peace treaty is agreed to by both sides, is it? I admit to being the opposite of a war buff. Also, that people in the future could be as barbaric as in the times of the Roman gladiators didn't sit well with me either. I read the trilogy the first time, never buying the premise for an instant. I had a visceral reaction, especially, to how the author treated Peeta. I wasn't a fan of Katniss. Only one decision she made was one I could agree with--and that was how she handled the poor, pathetic rulers in Panem after the war. I remember writing a violent review that I've since lost.
A decade passed and a new book was released--a prequel to the series. Though I had very bad memories of the original trilogy, I thought I'd give it another shot. My perceptions about everything changed. Buying the premise still wasn't easy, but I managed this time, and I found Katniss a much more sympathetic protagonist this time around. Here was a mere girl with so few choices in her life. Everything she did was so that those she loved could survive. I still didn't like what was done to Peeta, but I was grateful, as before, that he at least had something of a happily ever after here. I even enjoyed all four of the movies, which closely followed the books, at this point.
Although this series has been around a long time and, if people wanted to read it, they probably already have, in fairness, I'm including this disclaimer because The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is fairly new: Warning! Spoilers ahead!
I went into Ballad… eager to figure out what the heck was wrong with President Snow, how he could possibly justify all the horrible, selfish things he did, what explained his madness. I didn't get anything I was looking for, other than more questions, more shock at just how abysmally the author failed at trying to explain Snow's behavior. The book is, wrongly in my opinion, written from Snow's point of view. While I believe that antagonists should be well-rounded, with strong justifications for any evil they've perpetrated, as well as good traits, the author immersed us too far into Snow's character to ever see him as a villain. He wasn't at all … until he was. And then we were left wondering, what the hell? What changed that this young, seemingly virtuous person who seemed on the edge of starting a revolution in the Capitol that he suddenly turned his back on worthy ideals? Everything he did for most of the book seemed to be pointing us toward him finding a way to change the constant penance visited unfairly upon those who lived in the districts and were barely getting by, treated like animals and mere entertainment. Now this person we thought we knew as good abruptly became such a heartless monster. How was it that Lucy Gray's plight hadn't made any impact on Snow if he could leave behind anything resembling a conscience in order to do what he ultimately did, turning against everything he'd seemed to stand for in the first three-fourths of the book?
Instead of answering the questions the Hunger Games Trilogy left us with, we were overloaded with even more. I can't understand the motivation of the author to write a story about Snow that doesn't really explain what motivated his lifelong cruelty after he betrayed everything he was moving toward in redeeming the districts. Could it really be that everything he did all along was simply because he couldn't bear to be hungry, couldn't stand the thought of allying with those he considered beneath him? When the truth about his two-faced betrayal became clear to me, reading the book, I felt sure I must have missed something. I went back and restarted the chapter only to come to the same end. My niece had the exact same reaction, went back and re-read…nope, Snow is proving he's a traitor to the districts, has been all along. What?!?
I didn't want to watch the movie when it came out in November 2023, but I couldn't resist. The movie was a very faithful adaptation, with some of the most beautiful music imaginable. Even though I remained confused about why the author bothered writing a book that didn't answer any of the questions that needed logical reasoning, I admit I enjoyed the movie. Despite my reservations, I also enjoyed the first three-fourths of the book. I just don't understand. It's all senseless to me. But I easily recalled my deeply disturbed reaction the first time I read the trilogy. When I came back to it a decade later, my perceptions were radically changed. Maybe the same will happen if I come back to Ballads years from now.
In any case, I'm left with recommending this series for the reason that anything that inspires such a passionate response in me is worth my time, even if I'm not fully satisfied by it and I wish the author had done many things differently. Even long years after the first publication of these stories, their impact is undeniably powerful.
Next week, I'll review another favorite YA series published in the early 2000s.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning,
multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art
here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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