Young adult books have become a gold-mine for aspiring authors, with the generic badass female main character rebelling against a highly oppressive government. The start of this trend can generally be attributed to the author of the Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, whose best-selling trilogy generated so much popularity amongst the teenage community that it led to 4 blockbuster movies and Collins making millions of dollars.

I detest this book.

So many issues with this book, but where to begin? I know of some people who found the Hunger Games repulsive because of its gratuitous or graphic content. Personally, I find that my dislike of the Hunger Games stems from the fact that Collins treats the process of a society that encourages teens to kill each other in an annual fight to the death with far too much sterility that it becomes pointless to even read the book. The point of reading, for many people, is for pleasure. But others have likened reading to be a window into the lives and thoughts of another person, perhaps even someone we may not ever wish to be in real life (take Lolita, for example, written in the perspective of Humbert, the pedophile), but would like an insight into their drastically different lives. So to write a book in which a twisted society that publicizes and makes entertainment of the fact that children are being pitted against each other, but not provide any insight into the mentality of the teenager who is forced to kill others her age, seems so pointless. Throughout the entire book, I did not once feel an ounce of sympathy for Katniss. I hardly reckon I’m a cold hearted person, but Suzanne Collins has effectively written a book in which readers are unable to bring themselves to sympathize with the plight of the main character, despite the fact that she has been thrown into a horrific scenario of having to slaughter her peers.

Many have accused the Hunger Games of being a copy of Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale, as Battle Royale, too, describes a similar world in which classmates are forced to kill each other and the last one standing is allowed to live. The similarity ends there, because where Takami describes each and every death in gory, vivid detail, the description of any death in the Hunger Games is short. In contrast to the lack of sympathy I felt for Katniss, I was incredibly shocked and affected by some of the stories of the secondary characters in Battle Royale, as Takami describes some children as having descended into a state of madness, others being stabbed in the back, which is a far more believable and likely reaction to having been thrown into a killing field. Katniss only really kills one person in the book, and even then it’s under circumstances that conveniently absolve her of any moral dilemma and justify her actions. She emerges out of the Games in a pretty decent mental and psychological state, considering all she’s seen. How on earth is that even possible! I’m not rooting for Katniss to have PTSD or anything, but if you’re going to rip-off Koushun Takami and set up a battle royale 2.0, don’t gloss over the nitty gritty details.

Equally frustrating is the fact that the Hunger Games also wastes a lot of its secondary characters. Out of the 24 tributes, 14 remain unnamed, and another is given the nickname “Foxface” but her real name is left unknown. So much potential to explore the minds and backstories of characters such as Cato, Foxface and Clove. Instead, readers are stuck with Katniss’s point of view, which is frankly annoying. The 1st person point of view, combined with the fact that Katniss is such a frustrating character oblivious to the affections of not one, but two, guys, makes for a dull read in which one feels like bashing Katniss around the head for being clueless all the time. As one of the least compelling and believable main characters I have ever encountered, Katniss is also barely shown to interact with anyone (be it her sister, Gale or even Peeta) before she somehow gains their love?

Yet, the worst part about the book might just have to be the writing. Perhaps if Suzanne Collins had not used such basic, unvaried sentence structures and simple words, I would not have despised this book the way I do now. But the writing is highly repetitious in its descriptions, as well as dull and flat. The fact that the books are targeted for a younger audience does not give you the excuse to make your writing blander than oatmeal. Not to mention, Collins seems to think that her readers are totally incapable of inferring anything, thus her constant need to point out the fact that she used symbolism. Take the case of the dandelion as a prime example of the condescending way Collins writes. When Peeta gives Katniss the burnt bread that saved her family from starvation, she sees a patch of dandelions. Later in the book, as she is on the train headed to the Capitol with Peeta, Collins writes, “Unfortunately, the packet of cookies hits the ground and bursts open in a patch of dandelions by the track. I only see the image for a moment, because the train is off again, but it’s enough.” You’d assume readers can make the connection between Peeta and dandelions, but no, Collins has to add that it was “Enough to remind me of that other dandelion in the school yard years ago…” And even later, “I had just turned away from Peeta Mellark’s bruised face when I saw the dandelion and I knew hope wasn’t lost.” Even a ten-year-old could understand that dandelions represent hope in this story, there was no need for the explanation. Honestly, this book is like a dream for high school students in English lit. Why pick a well-written novel and try and find the symbolism and infer the author’s meaning when you can read the Hunger Games and have it pointed out for you?

I realize I have poured a great amount of frustration into these 1000 or so words, and I this is pretty uncharacteristic of me. I do not usually find books I utterly despise, as I love to read and often try to find redeeming qualities in books that might make me like it (even if it’s just a little). Saying that, I did try very, very hard with the Hunger Games, but I couldn’t bring myself to even stand this book, especially after the fact that it started the trend of poorly written YA novels with main characters that are even less inspired or relatable than Katniss, as well as unrealistic romances equivalent to the one in the Hunger Games. Perhaps the one good thing about the Hunger Games is that it got people to read, and love reading. If that is what it takes, then so be it. Maybe one day they will stumble upon Battle Royale, or something better.