Hubbry Logo
search
logo

The Hunger Games

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a series of young adult dystopian novels written by American author Suzanne Collins. The series consists of a trilogy that follows teenage protagonist Katniss Everdeen, and two prequels. The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a North American country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 13 districts in varying states of poverty.

Every year, two children, one boy and one girl, from the first 12 districts are selected via lottery to participate in a compulsory televised subjugation, disguised as a battle royale death match called "The Hunger Games", a spectacle of brutality and survival orchestrated by the powerful to maintain their grip on the weak. The minimum age requirement for participation in the Hunger Games is 12, and the number of tickets put into the lottery increases by one every year. However, children could choose to enter their name an unlimited number of additional times, with every additional ticket put into the lottery being worth a set of food rations for the entrant's family. Aided by nuclear weaponry, the last district, District 13, avoided participation in the Hunger Games by successfully rebelling against the Capitol and moving underground, following a secret peace treaty.

The novels in the trilogy are titled The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009), and Mockingjay (2010). Each was adapted into a film, forming The Hunger Games film series, with Mockingjay split into two feature-length motion pictures. The first two books were both New York Times best sellers, and Mockingjay topped all US bestseller lists upon its release. By the time the film adaptation of The Hunger Games was released in 2012, over 26 million copies of the trilogy were in print, including movie tie-in books. As of 2023, the series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide and continues to be a significant influence in young adult literature and popular culture.

The novels were all well received. In August 2012, the series ranked second, exceeded only by the Harry Potter series in NPR’s poll of the top 100 teen novels. On August 17, 2012, Amazon announced the Hunger Games trilogy as its top seller, surpassing the record previously held by the Harry Potter series. As of 2014, the trilogy has sold more than 65 million copies in the U.S. alone, with The Hunger Games selling over 28 million copies, Catching Fire over 19 million, and Mockingjay over 18 million. The series has been sold in 56 territories and translated into 51 languages.

A prequel novel, titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, about the early days of the Hunger Games, featuring a young Coriolanus Snow as the protagonist, was released on May 19, 2020. By 2023, the prequel had sold over 3.5 million copies in North America and was available in 39 languages across 39 territories.

Another prequel novel, titled Sunrise on the Reaping, taking place after the previous prequel but before the trilogy, follows a young Haymitch Abernathy through his victory of the 2nd Quarter Quell (50th Hunger Games edition). It was published March 18, 2025, and is currently set to have a film adaptation releasing November 20, 2026.

The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in an unspecified future time, in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, located in North America. Panem consists of twelve (originally thirteen) districts ruled by the Capitol, a city in the Rocky Mountains. The Capitol embodies oppression at its peak and thrives in decadence, lavishly rich and technologically advanced, but the districts toil in deprivation, being in varying states of poverty. The trilogy's narrator and protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, lives in District 12, the poorest region of Panem, located in Appalachia, where people regularly die of starvation. As punishment for a past rebellion against the Capitol (called the "Dark Days"), in which District 13 was destroyed, one boy and one girl from each of the twelve remaining districts, between the ages of 12 and 18, are selected by lottery to compete in an annual pageant called the Hunger Games. The Games are a televised event in which the participants, called "tributes", are forced to fight to the death in a dangerous public arena. The lone victor and their home district are then rewarded with food, supplies, and riches. The purposes of the Hunger Games are to provide entertainment for the Capitol and to remind the districts of the Capitol's power and its lack of remorse or forgiveness for the failed rebellion of the current competitors' ancestors.

Each book in The Hunger Games trilogy has three sections of nine chapters each. Collins has said this format comes from her playwriting background, which taught her to write in a three-act structure; her previous series, The Underland Chronicles, was written in the same way. She sees each group of nine chapters as a separate part of the story, and comments still call those divisions "act breaks".

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.