Aiming for the Heart: Another Hunger Games Post

Last week, I talked about the Hunger Games' recently popularity. Today, I want to talk about a revelation I had at the end of Mockingjay, the series' 3rd and final book.
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First thing I have to cover is the history of my affair with these books. I read The Hunger Games 3 years ago and began Catching Fire, but quit early on due to boredom. I wasn't invested in the characters.

Now comes the movie. The teens falling head over heels, the Internet swarms, the whole phenomenon. So I decide to borrow back books one and two from my friend.

Josh Hutcherson

I read them in a day. I see the movie. I fall totally in love with Josh Hutcherson (Peeta), though he's short, and I'll never forgive Suzanne Collins for his name.*"Son of a breadmaker...", scans audience for appropriate facepalms*

(ALSO: Birdy's song "Just a Game", featured on the movie's soundtrack, makes me cry. Though I have to mention that her music usually does.)

- Point being that I fall in love with the books the way I didn't 3 years ago, but the way every reader seems to be doing now. I feel appreciation for Katniss. Gale is complicated. Then, as I've said, I've totally fallen for Peeta. (Or Josh Hutcherson, the line is blurry here.)

What I do have to say: It was Mockingjay, the end of the series, that made me impressed. That tought me something about my own writing. The first and second books definitely provide a lesson for plotting and raising the stakes, but they didn't hit me the way Mockingjay did.

It was the death of a character and Katniss' subsequent meltdown that did it. Sure, I was effected by *possible spoiler* Rue's death (and the flowers!), but it didn't make me cry the way I did at the series' end.

Here's my point: Think of your reader as a target. If you shoot him in the foot, it'll hurt (and probably irritate him.) If you hit his upper arm, it will hurt more. But hitting him in the heart will completely rock him. (You could also try hitting his head, but then you might miss him completely. Or knock him over.)

The end of Mockingjay hit me in the heart, and led to some serious blood loss.

How I feel about the series now:

I'm glad it's popular, because it's the kind of thing teens should be reading. It's not just some silly love story, it's about the desensitization of violence in entertainment/the media, and war and survival. It poses morality questions and features a fantastic female protagonist (which is, in YA, pathetically rare.)

How I feel about the movie:

- I'm not a fan of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss - I'd prefer someone younger, who acts more like... well, a terrified girl struggling to maintain her compusure and figure out this boy thing while surviving. Katniss definitely isn't a damsel in distress, but is only 16 in the first book.

(FUTURE UPDATE: I still think JLaw might be a little old for the part, but I don’t care, because she is amazing. She’s a fantastic actress and a super role model.)

- I don't get all of the fan outrage I've been seeing. (To me it's a little silly after surviving through 8 Harry Potter adaptions.) I actually enjoyed some of the changes, such as the choice of character who gives Katniss her symbolic mockingjay pin. In the books, it's Madge, the mayor's daughter, who's cut out of the movie completely. Instead, it's an old woman from the Hob (the black market), who gives the pin away for free. Though Madge is more likely to own the gold pin, and has enough resources to give it away, it's not her kind of person - the mayor's family - who gives Katniss power. *possible spoilers* Katniss' defiance of the Capitol is symbolized by the mockingjay and leads to riots and revolution. Revolution by the poor, weak, and oppressed - epitomized well by the old Seam woman. Even if Madge got the pin from her mother's sister, who died in the Games (if I remember correctly.)

- I wish the movie was creepier, even if it was necessary to tone down some bits. The scariest part, and the only part I remembered from 3 years ago, was taken out! *spoilers* (that is, the eyes and hair of the dead tributes in the muttations)

- Josh Hutcherson is mine. Hands off!

Have you read the books? Seen the movie? What did you think? And what stories hit you in the heart?

Reflections: The Hunger Games & Teens Reading

This isn't a post I planned to write, but I feel like mentioning something I've noticed: A lot more teens reading.

So why are they?

Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games.

I first read the YA novel in 2009, right after its paperback release, and the release of the series' second book, Catching Fire. I read the first book fairly quickly, drawn in by the plot. Just in case you're not familiar with it, here's the synopsis:

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.

This book definitely isn't a bore. It's plotted very well. However, none of the characters stuck with me after my first read through. Yesterday, I reread the novel, and had more appreciation for them, but still no mind-blowers. It's not that they're underdeveloped - it's just that, being pretty well-read, they don't stand out for me.

Hunger Games fan art.

They definitely stand out for most teens. I've mostly gotten this sense by scrolling through Tumblr. I've got to have seen a million artsy photos of the books, pages with highlighted quotes, and fan art. Then, there was a girl at school the other day, who was going on forever about how she'd stayed up till 2 AM to read the first half of the first book. It was the first time she'd read (or planned to read) an entire novel since elementary school.

That's several years. Of barely reading.

Anyway, as I've mentioned, I've been reading the books again. I gave them to a friend and borrowed them back for spring break, and I'm already farther than I was three years ago. I got through the first book about just as fast, then stayed up to 2 AM, ironically, to get as far as I could in the second. (Page 328 of 391, when exhaustion had simply caused the words to lose meaning.) I'm still not in love with the characters, but I've got more respect for them. And I do plan to buy Mockingjay, the third and final book of the series.

So what's my point? I'm not sure I've got one. I suppose I just find it odd that, for the first time, I fail to be swept up by a teen reading phenomenon. (Even Twilight I loved originally, though I did happen to be 12.) Instead, when I read the books, my inner editor scrambles to mention possible improvements. I find Katniss's love life much less interesting than the underlying messages about technology and entertainment and the media (plus lots of similarites between the Capitol and Rome), which I hope other teens will also recognize. I'm also hoping that the movie, which I'm seeing tonight, will focus on these themes. Fingers certainly crossed.

Have you read the books? Did they sweep you up or leave you bored to tears? What about the movie? And what about all these teens reading?