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spoilers but do y’all remember that scene in book two where all of the victors are being interviewed and keep saying shit that cuts right to the capitol’s bone, all really purposefully overdramatic, and then right after Katniss gets up and that shit with the Dress happens (which she instantly knows is a life sacrifice one of her only friends is making for her) Peeta gets up on that stage and makes a normal speech and then ends it with “I’d be fine, if it weren’t for the baby�� like when is literature ever going to reach those peaks of bad bitch energy ever again

I think this series is so fascinating in that it basically spurred an entire genre of sort-of-okay YA dystopians and then a lot of really bad YA dystopians, and it gets put a lot into that category. but... this book doesn’t have any of those same problems that so plagued YA dystopian fiction.

The love triangle being pointless is quite literally the point; Gale and Peeta are meant to represent the opposite sides of war (something a certain plot point in book three really drives home). Katniss is frankly never romantically interested in either for almost all of books one and two; she grows to care about Peeta in the general sense, not just the romantic sense. The eventual romance works for Katniss because it is safe for her.

(What I’m saying is this was tenderness.)

I more think this series is interesting in how it talks about the nature of power and the nature of uprising. The uprising, as a whole, is an upswelling of the people, a realization that there is strength in numbers. Yet some of the most revolutionary actions of this series are individual �� it takes Katniss�� desire to save her sister to start a war, Katniss�� love for little Rue to create horror, Cinna’s willingness to sacrifice his life to create a symbol. Even during war, the individual lives of characters like Joanna and Haymitch and Finnick matter. They matter to the narrative, and thus they matter to us too.

(view spoiler)[The ending of book three is essentially a moment in which Katniss realizes that in taking out an old source of power, a new dictator has sprung up in his place on the same level of authoritarianism. I’m going to say it: the moment in which she chooses to shoot Coin is honest to god one of the best moments in literary history. (hide spoiler)]

Katniss Everdeen is still a deeply revolutionary heroine not only in that she’s written to be fairly gender non-conforming but also in that she is outwardly cold to all but her very few favorite people, and the narrative does not see fit to punish her for it, but to empathize with her and allow her to grow naturally in small ways. Her journey is not in becoming a Nice Person but in self-actualization. That is not a journey female characters are ever ever ever allowed to take and is arguably still something new.

I almost want to case study this. It’s a similar dynamic to Lord of the Rings being blamed for the general problems of late-1900s fantasy... but worse, because criticism of the YA dystopian genre so often fell into somewhat misogynistic areas, and I don’t think there’s any point in denying that The Hunger Games, due to having an image as Something Young Women Enjoyed™️, received far more criticism than its equivalents in other genres.

It's crazy that the first big ya dystopia is the best ya dystopia and one of the best series of all time, but this one is truly a classic and remains so incredible. Thank you to Katniss Everdeen for being one of the most interesting characters ever written and to this book for having such a dynamic story.

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🔍TOP THREE REASONS TO READ THG

1. It's relevant to our world. The parallels to our own society are so amazingly drawn, and the worldbuilding so good, that I'm not surprised this book was the one that broke through.
2. Dramatic tension. Tell me you weren't on the edge of your seat every moment of this book. You're lying. Katniss' struggle to survive on her own is compelling and twisty. Every moment is filled with fear and tension.
3. The characters are amazing. Katniss Everdeen is one of the best developed, most intriguing protagonists ever written. She's badass and she's selfish and she takes no shit. In the end, I think that's what made this series so fantastic and popular.