The Hunger Games

When I was younger I always used to have my head behind a book. I’d read all the time. I loved it. I loved being transported to another world through words. I loved letting my imagination run wild. As a child I was happiest when I was reading. Then I was introduced to the internet, boys, makeup, celebrities and BOOM I left my beloved books for all of the things I’ve just named. I’ve often missed the sense of belonging I used to feel when reading a book, the smell of its pages when it’s been used/loved, the crispness of its pages when its brand new, however whenever I sat myself down to rekindle my love of books I’d be distracted. That’s easily one of my worst traits; I’m distracted way too easily *Oh look, a cloud.*

Recently there has been a lot of excitement surrounding The Hunger Games. I’d heard about the film and didn’t really have any interest in going to see it. I didn’t know what it was about and to be honest wasn’t overly fussed about finding out either. I was happy to stay clueless. I kept seeing all these tweets about Katniss and Peeta. What ridiculous names. I couldn’t be dealing with it. So I ignored it. I blocked The Hunger Games out of my life, just like I have done with Twilight. HATRED.

I later found out that the film (just like Twilight) was actually an adaptation of a popular book series (like I said earlier, I really was clueless.) Suddenly the tweets all got too much and seeing people have conversations about District 12, The Capitol and Gamemakers got too much and I needed to know what it was about. Instead of taking the easy option and going to the cinema to watch the film I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to fall back in love with reading again.

I read The Hunger Games within 24 hours. I was hooked; I genuinely couldn’t put it down. I read it on my way to work, which in London isn’t exactly considered abnormal, I mean half the people on tubes either have a kindle, a book or a newspaper in their hands. However I don’t get the tube to work anymore, I walk. Yes, I read whilst I walked, what a loser! I was so engrossed that I didn’t like to look up from the pages to check where I was going, which inevitably resulted in me walking straight into a lamppost. I styled it out obviously. I didn’t. On my break I didn’t stop to eat or socialise, I chose a quiet seat in the corner and I read. When my break was over and I snapped back into reality I felt a huge wave of loath sweep over me, loath for work for coming between me and finishing my book. As I walked back out a colleague of mine looked at me and then asked with pure concern whether I was ok. I wasn’t. Rue had just died. I was heartbroken. She was so precious. I smiled and tried to shake it off as tiredness but she could see straight through me and asked what was wrong. I told her a character I liked had just died in the book I was reading. She started to laugh. It wasn’t funny.

It would be fair to say that I enjoyed reading The Hunger Games and became totally engrossed. Before reading it I was clueless as to what it was about and considering it’s supposedly meant to be a children’s book I was shocked to find out whilst reading it. For those who haven’t read it the basic storyline is that each county in a Country has to send two children (a boy and a girl) between the ages of 12 and 18 to compete against each other in The Hunger Games, which is televised for the entire nation to watch. The aim of the game is to be the last person standing. In other words they have to kill everyone else. Brutal.

Having read the book I was then intrigued to see the film. I needn’t have bothered. It was a complete let down. As per usual with film adaptations many of the brilliantly thought out details of the book had been carelessly tossed aside by the film creators. Unlike the book I was bored halfway through the film. I’m unsure as to whether this is because I knew what was going to happen or because I’d run out of popcorn but either way I left the cinema feeling very unimpressed. I had already created an image of what I thought people would look like in my head from reading the book and these were ruined by the film. I preferred my version. Overall I’d give them film a generous 3/5 and the book a 4½ /5.

I’ve since got the trilogy and cannot wait to read the following two books, however I need to finish the current book I’m reading ‘Tell me Something’ by Adele Parks and then next I’ll be reading ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern, but after that I’ll be all about Catching Fire.

Oh and P.S. I’m totes Team Gale!  Screw Peeta, what a pansy!