As one of the most popular young adult books on the market, I expected The Hunger Games to be absolutely phenomenal.
And on some levels, it was. The story is super fast paced. The characters are real and easy to care about. The love story between Katniss and Peeta is almost palpable in some moments.
But for me, the ending of the first book left a little to be desired, simply because there really wasn’t any kind of resolution at all.
In The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta live near one another in District 12, though they have never spent much time together. Katniss has to scavenge and hunt for food, and Peeta is the son of a baker.
They live in a dystopian society set in the future – one in which North America no longer exists, and the continent is now the country of Panem. For the poor, there is little food, little electricity and little opportunity to improve one’s lot in life. Everything is run by the Capitol, where important members of society have all of the most opulent things of the world, including wine and chicken.
Each year, the Capitol forces the 12 districts of Panem to send one boy and one girl tribute to compete in The Hunger Games, and event that sees the 24 tributes fight to the death. The last remaining tribute is the winner and will be showered with riches for life.
As the story begins, Katniss and Peeta both are tributes for their district in The Hunger Games. In order to win sponsors for the event, the two have to put on a show and become favorites. Katniss and Peeta have decided to pretend to be a pair of star-crossed lovers in order to gain sympathy.
The thing is, Peeta may not be pretending. Katniss doesn’t know how she feels about Peeta, but she knows she feels something. But she doesn’t feel the closeness that she feels with Gale, her best friend from home.
As the two attempt to survive The Hunger Games, Katniss alternates between exploring her feelings for Peeta and shoving them down deep, knowing that she may have to kill him in the end to win.
I absolutely loved certain parts of the book. When Peeta admitted to the world that he was in love with Katniss, I gasped and caught my breath in my throat. At that moment, it’s obvious that it’s not just a show for Peeta. A few pages later, Peeta has an existentialist debate with himself that leads to his decision to die on his own terms. Those were two particularly potent sections of the story for me, and at that point, I thought I was absolutely hooked on the books.
But at some point, that changed. I don’t want to give too much of the ending away. I know that this is a series, and Collins wanted to leave a bit of a cliffhanger to draw readers into the second book. I just wish the ending of The Hunger Games had had a bit more of a resolution. There are two pieces of the book left up in the air, and it was a bit frustrating.
Will I read the next book? Absolutely, because I already have it and because it has come so highly recommended from so many friends and trusted book bloggers. The series must have more redeeming qualities in the future, or else so many people wouldn’t have recommended it. At least that’s what I hope.
Had I just picked this book up in the store or the library and read it, though, I probably would have been too frustrated with the wide-open ending to continue with the series. The end of the first book just wasn’t satisfying for me as a reader.