I'll do my best to make this relatively spoiler-free, in case you've somehow managed to not read the book or see the movie...
When pretty much anything, be it book, movie, actor, musician, or product, gets too popular, it's easy to dismiss. The backlash begins almost immediately with anti-(whatever it is this week) comments and jokes. The negative bandwagon is an easier one on which to hitch a ride. It's almost reflexive. Anything with that much hype can't be any good. But what about when it is?
I finished reading the last book of The Hunger Games today. I cried. It's not about beautifully written prose or a carefully worded phrase, although there was a bit of that as well. It's about a girl who finds herself swept up into something bigger than she can ever hope to control. Her whole world is coming apart and they've chosen her as the poster child for the rebellion. In the midst of incredible pressure, she does the most courageous thing she can - she narrows it down to a fight to save herself and those she loves.
It's a complicated story. There is very little that is black or white but rather a whole lot of gray confusion. It's about breaking, and being broken, and putting yourself back together. There is violence and blood and death and torture and beauty and love and friendship and hope. There is a love story, if you want to call it that, but it's not the center of the book. Romance takes a backseat to survival, which it should.
Best of all, there is no fairy tale 'shove the bad under the carpet' happy ending. There are consequences; there is a price to be paid by everyone, not just the bad guys or the ones who don't make it, but the survivors as well. It's messy. It's real. I didn't feel cheated or tricked at the end because the end fit, it made as much sense as could be made after all the tragedy and violence and upheaval.
Hats off to Suzanne Collins for not taking the easy way out, for not bowing to pressure from her audience like some other YA authors have done and forcing a happy ending, and for acknowledging that being young doesn't mean that you don't understand the big stuff. If you haven't already read The Hunger Games, give it a shot. You just might be surprised. Or not. Let me know.
