For the past three years The Hunger Games trilogy has been the victim of several misinformed reviewers. There are so many reviews that have been published, and that have completely missed the point of the books.
The Hunger Games was published in September 2008.
One review by Stephen King, published six days before the release, described the book as “fairly standard teen-read stuff.” He retorted about the “love triangle: what 16-year-old girl wouldn’t like to have two interesting guys to choose from?”
This was the first mistake made by this trilogy’s reviewers. Almost every single one after King seemed to follow suit, focusing on the romance in the novel. To those who haven’t read The Hunger Games: The romance is such a minor part of the first book, that it’s sad King even feels compelled to mention it. Sure it creates appeal, but it isn’t what the books are about.
These books are about the fight against the injustice, the poverty, the desperate inhumanity of the future world. They are about kids seeing through the monopolizing world of politics and about a youth doing everything in her power to escape the death game, trying to overcome something so out of her grasp that the adults begin to fear her.
“Once inside the death match arena, she must get down and dirty to outlive her competitors, but there’s one slight problem. Her hot friend Peeta gets cast into the games, too. In the midst of all the slaying, Katniss finds herself embroiled in a love triangle with her longtime pal Gale, who is watching the games from his home, and Peeta, who confesses his love for her inside the arena.” That’s the view of a tabloid reviewer for CNN who probably didn’t even read the book.
Peeta and Katniss weren’t friends. Peeta is never described as “hot” or even good-looking for that matter. The only thing attracting Katniss to Peeta in the end is that they can make it out of the arena as a team for their district. Peeta confesses his love as a ploy, BEFORE they enter the arena, to gain sponsorship from someone who could send supplies during the games.
Catching Fire was published in September 2009, a sequel to The Hunger Games.
Entertainment Weekly, a company apparently known and reputed for their entertainment coverage may have written the worst review mankind has ever read…and then wept.
Katniss, previously described as a brave and tragic girl fighting against a giant, is thrown down to the status of an “adolescent girl who crushed on a sexy hunter. In between romantic daydreams, [she] shot strange beasts, dodged force fields, and battled murderous zombie werewolves usually while wearing fabulous glitzy outfits.”
As ironic as it is, this reviewer is looking at this story in the EXACT way that the Capitol saw the annual Hunger Games event.
The author of this review went on to say “Katniss pretends to be in love with her sweet-natured Games teammate Peeta Mellark, but she secretly pines for brooding Gale, a childhood friend. Except why? There’s little distinction between the two thinly imagined guys, other than the fact that Peeta has a dopier name. Collins conjures none of the erotic energy that makes Twilight, for instance, so creepily alluring.”
First, Katniss is not pining for Gale, she is trying to repair a faded friendship. However, it really makes sense that this reviewer had a hard time finding distinction between Gale and Peeta, since there is no way she both wrote this review and read the book. And “the erotic energy that makes Twilight…so creepily alluring” is missing? Catching Fire is not a romance novel. Catching Fire is nothing like Twilight. Catching Fire is not supposed to be alluring. Catching Fire is not meant to be erotic. This review was a disgrace to Entertainment Weekly.
Mockingjay was published in August 2010, the final book in the trilogy.
Entertainment Weekly (thankfully) wrote an incredibly short review with little opinion and nothing specific about the book. The angry comments on their first two reviews must have taught their staff to read the books and understand the concepts before writing about them. Apparently, the YA reviewers were either unwilling or incapable.
The one semi-successful review of the Hunger Games trilogy out there (from NY Times) at least got one thing right. “That just goes to show how much adults forget about what it’s like to be a child. Kids are physical creatures, and they’re not stupid. They know all about violence and power and raw emotions. What’s really scary is when adults pretend that such things don’t exist.”