A few months ago, Amy asked if she could read a book
recommended to her by a friend. I’d not heard of it, so off to the internet I
went to do a little research. And what I read freaked me out.
“You want to read a book about kids killing each other?!”
And that’s how the fascination with
The Hunger Games started at our house.
Amy assured me that many of her friends had read the
book. And many of her friends’ moms
had read it, too. I’m really not sure why I said, “Yes,” but I did, and Amy
devoured the trilogy in a week. When the movie came out, she arranged a movie
night for the youth group to see it opening weekend
And then she started telling me to read it.
Last week, I gave in and cracked open the book. I still
had concerns that I’d a) let my baby read a book about children killing each
other and b) let my baby organize a movie night where other people’s babies
watched a movie about children killing each other. I began the book, hopeful I
hadn’t made some horrific mistake.
I finished the first book in two days. Two days later, I
finished book two. I started the final book in the trilogy last night, and it
is a dadgum miracle I’ve done anything at all productive today, because all I
want to do is read the book. Amy told me I should just give in and finish it,
because until I do I won’t be able to stop thinking about it.
She is right.
For the two people in the universe who haven’t heard of The Hunger Games, it’s a book about life
in a post-apocalyptic country called Panem. The country has an annual game where a boy and
girl from each of the country’s 12 districts compete to the death, thus
reminding the citizens that anything resembling a previous rebellion will not
be tolerated. We see the events unfold through 16 year old Katniss Everdeen’s
eyes, one of the 24 who will play in the Hunger Games.
Yep. It’s a book about children killing children. And it
is as horrifying as it sounds. But it’s more than that. It is part social
commentary and part science-fiction. And it’s a really, really engaging story.
Quite honestly, I’m shocked the conservative community didn’t
go the whole, “Boycott The Hunger Games,”
route. It went nuts over Harry Potter and his magic; I am positively amazed that
didn’t happen with these books. Unless we’ve actually learned a valuable
lesson. That sometimes, scary, dangerous material can actually teach us. That
reading about pretend struggles of good vs. evil will actually help us as we
battle our very real struggles. That what’s horrible in a work of fiction may
not be so far from reality and it could serve as a wake-up call.
I haven’t finished the third book, but I am banking on
good winning in the end. Not sure, exactly, what that will look like in this
case, but I surely do hope Katniss and Gale and Peeta figure out how to live
together. And that two of those three live more together than they do at the
end of Book 2.
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