In the past 10 days or so, I’ve managed to read all three books in The Hunger Games series (by Suzanne Collins). The books were well-written, thought-provoking and enjoyable and I highly recommend them. I’ll go into some brief thoughts here, without spoiling the books for you (because I hate reviews that spoil books).

The idea: It’s the future and North America has been reduced to a nation called Panem. Panem is a dystopia, consisting of the Capitol (an evil overlord, whose citizens are the picture of excess and privilege) and 13 districts (mainly consisting of peasants, slaves and other working-class folk). Seventy-five years before the book begins, an uprising occurs and District 13 is demolished by the Capitol. To remind the remaining 12 districts of the power of the Capitol and of the consequences of the uprising, the Capitol begins an annual event known as the Hunger Games.

Each year, Districts 1 through 12 must send one girl and one boy between the ages of 12 and 18 to the Hunger Games, where they are paraded around for the Capitol and then sent into an arena, where they fight to the death, live on television. The winner gets fame and fortune. The losers pay the ultimate price. This isn’t one-to-one combat, either. The contestants (tributes, as they’re called) are put in massive arenas designed to look like nature, for example, a forest. Tributes fight each other, the elements and traps set by the people in charge of the games to stay alive. Basically, the peasant’s children are fighting to death for the entertainment of the rich folk, who get bored if the games go too long without bloodshed.

The Hunger Games begins on the day the children are chosen for the 74th Hunger Games.

Although the books sound as though they should be ridiculously violent, they’re not. All violence is shown in a non-glorified way–as though it is entirely routine. I find when I read certain books, I’m turned off by violence but I didn’t have a problem with it in these books. The violence isn’t meant to be a cheap thrill. Rather, it’s there to make us question society’s need for violence and violent entertainment.

The protagonist is a strong, fiercely independent female, who faces many questions about morality versus victory and shows us the toll that the thirst for blood (and bloody entertainment) takes on everyone in its path. The author does well not to write herself into corners–there were plot twists in the books that I didn’t see coming (although I found the third book to be more predictable than the first two).

The books are all extremely well-written and thought-provoking. They provide commentary on war, violence, reality television, celebrity and our need for constant entertainment. My favourite books were the first two in the series; I thought the third book was easily the weakest of the three, though still stronger than 98 percent of the books out there. Although I read each of the first two books within 24 hours of starting it, it took me a week to read the third, which is an indication that I didn’t enjoy it as much as the other two.

That said, I’ve since read in book reviews that many people thought the third was easily the best, so there’s no definite consensus about which book people prefer. The issues I have with the third book have  to do with plot and characters and to discuss them here would involve spoilers, so I’ll leave it by saying that although I agreed with most of the ending, I did have an issue with some of the decisions that were made toward the close of the third book. Some of those decisions just didn’t ring true for me and seemed a bit convenient.

There are a couple of similar moments in the earlier two books–things that seemed a little too convenient–but those things were so few and far between, and balanced with the suspense and familiarity of the story (reality television, celebrity status given to certain people who are willing to pay the price for that status only to have it taken away at a whim, innocent people caught up in a war not of their own making), that they didn’t detract too much from the reading.

The Hunger Games series is a thought-provoking social commentary, that questions our politics, our society, our culture, our values, our entertainment and our emotions. It’s about people in power abusing those who have none. It’s about the damaging effects of war and violence. It’s about love and loyalty and questioning your own actions. And it’s about knowing who you are and who you want to be, even under the most extreme circumstances.

The books should be read in order, as the second and third do not make sense without the previous books. The Hunger Games series is considered young adult, but stand as proof that “young adult” doesn’t mean “stupid.” (Seriously, there are some fantastic young adult books.) Adults can and will get a lot out of these books and will (I think) enjoy them.  If you have the opportunity, I say give the books a read. I don’t think you’ll be sorry you did.

The books in the series are:

The Hunger Games

Catching Fire

Mockingjay

“The Hunger Games” has been compared to Koushun Takami’s “Battle Royale,” and Stephen King’s “The Running Man,” and “The Long Walk.” I haven’t read any of the above three, although I may give them a try.