This is a book series I’ve loved for a while, so this is what we're reviewing this week. I was originally going to follow my normal format and talk about each book separately, but instead I’m going to be doing the three major characters in this review, minor characters in the next, and plot progression in the last.
Let’s do the the face of this book trilogy first: Katniss Everdeen. There’s something about Katniss that makes her the perfect dystopian lead, because she’s sort of what everyone strive to be—kind, brave, clever, but I think that the most important thing about her, the thing that made her so famous and so widely loved, is her strong sense of right from wrong. Her moral compass, as my English teacher says. Katniss is able to make hard and terrifying decisions over and over again, not only for her own survival, but for what is right. At the start of the Games, she has the opportunity to kill an opponent—the opportunity to change her chances from one in twenty-four to one in twenty-three—but doesn’t. Then, later, she fights for Rue’s life, even if it mean Katniss won’t make it out of the Games alive because she knows that this poor little twelve year old deserves to live. And then, in Mockingjay, when Peeta is brainwashed by the Capitol and wants to kill her, she won’t hurt him, not if it means saving her own life. She puts Peeta above herself because she knows that’s what’s right. Peeta has always put Katniss first, and, when given the chance, she did for him what he’d have done for her. Also, Katniss is able to adapt for survival. Yes, that could be attributed to her upbringing, having to hunt and support her family her whole life, but still. Did everyone in District 12 react to poverty by rising up—by breaking the unjust laws to feed their family? Did everyone go out into the forest—the unknown forest, the one the Capitol tells District 12 is too dangerous for them—every day for a living? Katniss is an inspiration that has become a character remade time and time again in YA dystopian novels.
Next: Gale…
…Oh, Gale. I wanted to like you.
He’s the sort of character who is the third wheel of a love triangle, the person you know is going to end up alone, because no matter how much they say they’re in love with lead, the person they care about the most is themselves.
The best example of Gale’s true personality—the person he has been on the inside for most of the series—is at the end of the third book. SPOILER ALERT (I don’t know why I say this anymore; you all know by now that every single one of my book reviews is going to be filled to the brim with spoilers)—Gale helps plan the dropping of a bomb on not only the innocent children of the Capitol, but also the Rebel doctors, including KATNISS’S SISTER, Prim. What kind of sick monster does that? Yes, I understand he hates anyone and anything from the Capitol, but it’s not even like he’s just prejudice awful—the Rebel doctors were there, the ones on his side! And, okay, maybe he really is that crazy, and if he doesn’t know anyone personally it doesn’t matter to him, but the thing is, he DID know someone personally—the girl he says he loves’ SISTER! Okay, Gale, you can say you love her all you want, but once you’ve KILLED HER SISTER, it’s done. Not only is she never going to be with you, but she’s never going to talk to you, either. Sorry. Sucks to suck, I guess.
It’s not even like he didn’t know Prim was training to become a Rebel doctor, and that she would be a doctor in the war—he did know that. He knew that, and he still bombed and killed her RIGHT IN FRONT OF KATNISS.
I’m sorry. I’m making him out to be worse than he is, at least in the first book.
In the first book, he’s decent. The most selfish thing he does is ask Katniss to leave her mother and sister, and he himself leave his three younger siblings and mother, to run away from District 12, “just the two of them.”
But, you know, not that selfish.
I just don’t know what to say about him beyond my previous rant. I just… I just can’t with Gale. I don’t understand him, and I certainly don’t understand Team Gale. I just don’t.
And now, after that horrible character, we have the best character: the boy with the bread. Yes, reader, we are talking about none other than the sensitive, kind Peeta Mellark. Peeta is the kind of guy that you can’t help but love. When he loves something or someone, it’s with his whole heart. He’s just so selfless, especially when it comes to Katniss—often to the point where he is ready to die for her. In the end of the first book, when Katniss and Peeta find out that one of them has to die in the Games, Katniss gets ready to shoot him, but he gets ready to shoot himself. It’s a long-standing comment throughout the series that Katniss doesn’t deserve him, and, frankly, she doesn’t (at least, not for much of the series).
Now you’re probably thinking: “Lulu, you just raved about the genius character building Suzanne Collins did for Katniss. What are you saying, she doesn’t deserve Peeta?”
Um…exactly that. There were perfect choices made by Collins for Katniss, but that’s not because she made a perfect character—she didn’t. Those choices were perfect because they made an imperfect character, one that had room to grow. I also want to make clear that I’m not saying Katniss wasn’t good enough for Peeta by the end of the series—she was his equal halfway through the sequel, when she actually fell in love with him (versus just pretending for her family's safety).
Okay: back to Peeta.
Peeta has this quote in the first one that really portrays an often overlooked trait about him. It happens during the week of training before the Games. He and Katniss are sitting on the roof, and he says, “I want to die as myself. I don't want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not. I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol that they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games.”
This quote is sort of self-explanatory, so I won’t get into it too much, but this really shows his boldness and strength that is often overshadowed by Katniss’s more public bravery. That’s sort of her schtick, you know? His thing is kindness, and her thing is bravery (and Gale's thing is narcissism), but this is a point in the book where we see that he has the bravery to stand up to the Capitol and not be the sadistic tribute they want from these people. Peeta has this full, true bravery that he never gets credited for.
Stay tuned for more Hunger Games, and with that, I’m going to close off with a beautiful quote my friend recommended: “I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.”