The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset – Box set Author: Visit Amazon's Suzanne Collins Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0545626382 | Format: PDF
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset – Box set Description
Review
Praise for The Hunger Games series #1 USA Today Bestseller
#1 New York Times Bestseller
#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller
#1 Publishers Weekly Bestseller
A People magazine (Top 10) Best Book of 2009
A Time Magazine Best Fiction Book of 2009
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009
A Kirkus Best Book of 2009
A 2009 BooklistEditors' Choice
"Whereas Katniss kills with finesse, Collins writes with raw power." —Time Magazine
"Collins has joined J. K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer as a writer of children's books that adults are eager to read." —Bloomberg.com
"Perfect pacing and electrifying world-building." —Booklist, starred review
"A humdinger of a cliffhanger will leave readers clamoring for volume three." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Forget Edward and Jacob... readers will be picking sides—Peeta or Gale?" —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Leaves enough questions tantalizingly unanswered for readers to be desperate for the next installment." —School Library Journal, starred review
About the Author
Suzanne Collins is the author of the groundbreaking Hunger Games trilogy for young adults: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. She is also the author of an upcoming picture book, Year of the Jungle, and the New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles series for middle grade readers, which started with Gregor the Overlander. Suzanne lives with her family in Connecticut. You can find her online at suzannecollinsbooks.com.
- Age Range: 12 and up
- Grade Level: 7 and up
- Series: The Hunger Games
- Paperback: 1408 pages
- Publisher: Scholastic Press (September 24, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0545626382
- ISBN-13: 978-0545626385
- Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 3.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The Hunger Games (Trilogy) is one of the most "unputdownable" books to enter the teen market in a long time. The cliffhangers at the end of each volume are so intense, you can't help but continue on. Knowing this in advance, I decided against reading the series last summer despite the fact that everyone was talking about it. I waited the extra year, and I'm glad I did--even a week was torture when it came to getting my grubby mitts on a copy of Mockingjay.
For the record, this isn't a series for everyone. You will be drained emotionally by its end. The Hunger Games is one of the grimmest dystopian worlds I've encountered in literature. A lot of characters die, and their deaths aren't pleasant. This series may not be for you. Then again, those who know me well would say it's not for me, either. I'm one of the most squeamish people you'll meet, and The Hunger Games more closesly resembles the movie Battle Royale than I thought it would when I started reading. I really enjoyed the series, though. There are scenes so poignant, they'll stick with me. Between this and Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, I've found that even squeamish ole me can still enjoy a disturbing book if it's thought-provoking and well-written.
Now that I've warned you about the contents, let's move on to the meat of this review. It's hard to go in-depth without giving a lot away, so I decided to focus on the trilogy as a whole instead of singling out Mockingjay and reviewing it on its own (though I do have a paragraph dedicated to it further down). A brief synopsis for the uninitiated:
The trilogy takes place in the future. The USA has been destroyed; in its place is Panem, which consists of thirteen districts and a Capitol city.
First, as The Hunger Games are wildly popular at this time, I really did not want to like them as much as I did. There's a snobbery in me that tends to assume that extremely popular fiction has merely reached a low common denominator for the unwashed masses, and them alone (see Nicholas Sparks and Stephanie Meyer). That said, contrary to my expectations, I did not merely enjoy The Hunger Games. I was devastated by them.
I devoured the whole trilogy in about a week and a half. I've no doubt it wouldn't have taken that long if (a) I didn't have a day job, and (b) I'd had access to all three books in one sitting. If this seems extreme, well, it is. Not afraid to say it.
The framework is a common enough idea in literature: it's fiction of dystopia (there are hints that the country of Panem has replaced the now-dead USA) with an oppressive government and pockets of oppressed citizens. Leaders rise, conflict ensues, and the fates of citizens and nation alike are challenged, burned, and reformed (almost never in neat-and-tidy ways, either).
This isn't to say that the plot is formulaic, because the specifics of the Hunger Games themselves as modern gladiator-style melees to the death is unique and compelling in the future context. Katniss Everdeen as the first-person protagonist does not fit into any formal compartments either, and her inner conflict, selfishness, selflessness, good decisions and bad ones all present emotions that not only compel and frustrate, but also ring true.
While the storytelling is clean and the events easily maintain interest, it's the crushing human emotion and condition that propelled me through and left me an emotional wreck at the end of each novel.
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset – Box set Preview
Link
Please Wait...