A little Hunger Games help here?

[r_wolfcastle]

My lovely otherwise-intelligent wife has a big thing for certain of the recent evil tidal wave of books in the vastly-profitable genre known as Young Adult. No, she was not stupid enough to fall for the Twilight "saga", but she did exhibit an unhealthy fascination with the Harry Potter books/movies

Comments

[shadowsmark]

I expect the movie will probably be rather grim (that is, too Hollywood), but I'll be seeing it anyway with my 11-year-old and the houseguest of yours who turned her onto the book. (She's *just* started reading me the third book; she's already read it, of course.)

I think of the book as "The Lottery" meets _Ender's Game_ meeting _Lord of the Flies_. Note that all those are well-regarded pieces of fiction. Though it's not *great*, _Hunger Games_ is certainly not terrible. The whole child-slaughter thing is portrayed pretty wrenchingly; in general, I think the books are pretty moving, not a gore-fest. Also, they've been an excellent vehicle to discuss interesting topics with my child such as when and why and how do people rebel against oppressive regimes. Good fodder for talking about thinking for yourself and maintaining ethical principles in the face of adversity.

As I mentioned, I don't have high hopes for the movie. It makes the cardinal sin of using a 21-year-old to portray a 16-year-old. Too bad! It would be much more convincing if children were used to portray the children.

[r_wolfcastle]

Thank you, that was very helpful. I will start reading this evening. As slowly as I read, I ought to be finished sometime in July.