Like the proverbial train-wreck, Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy is one in which I cannot look away. I'm not a big fan of series-books in general and I've never liked to read one after the other; but wait too long and I've forgotten the characters and plot. So a few books after completing The Hunger Games, I found I just couldn't take it any longer, I had to know what happened after Katniss and Peeta kicked ass in the Games.
I'm not sure what I had expected, and I should have seen it coming, but the deeper I get into the story, the more appalling I find it. And it's for young adult which, for me, meant The Baby-Sitter's Club. However, I am managing to find solace in the fact that if this were for mature audience the violence and gore would be off the charts. *sigh*
Although the Tributes are mere pawns for the Capitol, Katniss and Peeta took things into their own hands and decided between them who would be the victor of the Hunger Games - both or neither. The Capitol chose to look foolish with two victors rather than look even more foolish no victors to then parade on the Victory Tour.
As if the Games weren't horrible enough, as the victors, Katniss and Peeta must now visit each District on a Victory Tour, a sort of sick parade of pseudo-gloating as to why their children are no longer alive. And as they make their way from District to District it becomes startlingly obvious people are most displeased, but not because of Katniss and Peeta.
The token of luck given to her before entering the arena has now become like the bat signal, the picture in which you know who you are speaking with can be trusted. Rumblings of a revolution are spreading like a smoldering fire and the Capitol blames Katniss. Now it is her duty to prove her final act in the arena was done out of head-over-heels, desperate-for-each-other love, and not as means to spark an over-throw of the government. Her family threatened, she is once again sent into the arena, proof she has been unsuccessful in her endeavor.
With one goal in mine, she quickly learns her opponents have a different agenda altogether. Like the first, I was hopeful everyone would drop into the arena and unanimously decide to not participate. But then I realized since the Capitol has been known to wipe out contestants in the blink of an eye out of sheer boredom, violent deaths were going to happen any way you sliced it.
Locked inside the arena, Katniss is unaware of the events unfolding in the "real world," as are we, until Katniss makes a split-second decision that changes everything.
Katniss is back, better than ever, and more precariously walking the line between not becoming the Capitol's pawn and keeping her family safe. But now things have spiraled out of control so our once keep-to-herself character must now look her enemies in the eye.
The shining spot to this trilogy being classified as Young Adult is that it undermines previous heroines who were thrust upon us simply because the story was good (I'm looking at you, Twilight). Katniss teaches even the most mature reader to always be kind to others, and that taking care of our loved ones far surpasses anything else.
And, for me, it's about damn time the Capitol recognize.
