Cliff notes for The Hunger Games

The other day I had lunch with a friend who enjoys reading young adult novels too, and when she asked me what I’d been reading lately and I told her “The Hunger Games,” she asked, “What’s that about?”

I failed epically in my explanation. I barely got past my first sentence and she held up her hand. “That sounds terrible,” she said. “I don’t think I want to read that.”

I wanted to grab her shoulders and yell, “But you should! It’s amazing!”
I had another friend on Facebook tell me she couldn’t figure out what the books were about either from reading this blog, so let me back track for a second and try to do justice to what these books are about — and tell you why you should read them — in as basic terms as I can muster. Warning: this contains spoilers for those of you who haven’t read the books.

The Hunger Games: Book 1
The book is set sometime in the future in the United States. Only, it is no longer the United States. People revolted against the government, a civil war broke out, and the country became Panem — made up of 12 districts ruled by The Capitol. The Capitol is a place of wealth and extravagance and ruled by one man, President Snow. Life in the Capitol is great. There are parties, entertainment, food and expensive clothes. Life in the districts is hard. Think Great Depression and then some. People are desperate for food and everyday items, but it is against the law for them to hunt outside of their district. Food is rationed and supplied by The Capitol and used to control the citizens of each district. Most people are literally staving. Following the revolution, The Capitol devised a way to further punish the people in the remaining districts by holding The Hunger Games for their own entertainment. Each district holds a lottery, in which one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 – 18 are selected as “tributes” to fight to the death as part of a televised reality show. Only one victor can survive each Hunger Games.

Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12 with her mother and younger sister, Prim. When her father died in a mining accident when she was only 11, Katniss had to become the sole provider for her family because her mother had a complete mental breakdown and could no longer function. Katniss broke the law, went into the surrounding woods, and taught herself how to hunt to keep her family alive. That’s how she met her best friend, Gale, because he was doing the same for his family. The only reason she hasn’t been punished is because she sells meat to The Peacekeepers in her district, so they turn a blind eye to her and Gale (a boy), when they hunt. Katniss resents her mother, misses her father fiercely and tells us in the first chapter that Prim, her 12-year-old sister, is the only person in the world she knows she loves for certain. So during the ceremony for the 74th Hunger Games, it’s almost no surprise that 12-year-old Prim’s name is drawn. And of course, 16-year-old Katniss volunteers to take Prim’s place in The Hunger Games, fully expecting to die because she doesn’t see herself as a likely contender. Making matters worse, the male tribute chosen from her district is Peeta — a boy who once took a beating from his mother so he could sneak a starving Katniss some bread. They’ve never spoken (this happened when Katniss was about 10 or 11), but she has always felt indebted to him for that act of kindness. However, she will have to kill him if she wants to win The Hunger Games.

The tributes are given a mentor — a past victor of The Hunger Games — who is supposed to train them and win them sponsors (while in the arena, tributes can be given gifts from the viewers at home to increase their chances). Haymitch — the town drunk — is Peeta and Katniss’ mentor. Snarky and belligerent, Haymitch only sobers up when Katniss and Peeta show some spunk and force him to give them a chance. During the final televised interviews before The Games begin, Peeta tells the audience that he has been in love with Katniss since they were children, which shocks and confuses Katniss, who has already braced herself for having to kill him. She decides winning over the audience with a star-crossed lover act is Peeta’s strategy for winning. He seems sincere enough, but she can’t understand why anyone would love her.

Once they are dropped into the arena — a wooded forest with the environment controlled by Gamemakers — Katniss separates from Peeta and tries to survive on her own. She uses her hunting skills to stay alive. However, she finds an ally in the youngest tribute, Rue, who reminds Katniss of Prim. After Rue is killed, Katniss realizes that Peeta has been protecting her in the arena, and she sets off to find him. He’s badly wounded, and she nurses him back to health, realizing that she can use his star-crossed lovers idea to her own advantage. She pretends to share Peeta’s feelings and soon begins receiving gifts from sponsors — medicine, food and weapons. The audience watching feels moved by their love story. When The Hunger Games come down to just Katniss and Peeta, she refuses to kill him, and he — because he truly has loved her all his life — refuses to kill her. Katniss and Peeta threaten to kill themselves rather than kill the other, and it’s implied that the Capitol audience watching demands they both be allowed to live because their love story is so great.

After the Games, Peeta realizes that Katniss was only acting when she pretended to care for him in the arena, and worse — Katniss learns that her refusal to kill Peeta in the arena has sparked rumors of a new uprising against the Capitol. Her refusal to play The Games as instructed has inspired people in the various districts to rebel.

Catching Fire: Book 2
Following their win in The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta are celebrities of a sort who are expected to visit the various districts. While she’s at home with her mother and sister before her Victory Tour, Gale informs Katniss he loves her and hated seeing her fawn all over Peeta on television during The Games. Confused by her feelings for both Gale and Peeta, Katniss is thrown into more emotional turmoil when she is visited at home by President Snow, who warns her that her actions have sparked thoughts of a rebellion against the Capitol. Many people in the Districts saw her kindness to Rue and her refusal to kill Peeta as clear acts of defiance against the government. President Snow threatens to kill Gale and her family if Katniss doesn’t convince people on her Victory Tour that she truly does love Peeta and that her refusal to kill him wasn’t an act of defiance — it was the action of a girl out of her mind with and desperately in love. Peeta agrees to help Katniss with the act, and the two become close friends as they travel from District to District greeting their fans. Katniss notices that many people have mimicked her token symbol — a Mockingjay pin she wore during the Games — throughout the districts, which confuses and puzzles her. And when she visits Rue’s district, Katniss delivers a heartfelt speech thanking the people there for their sacrifice, which again sparks an uprising.

Rather than murder her family in retaliation, President Snow arranges instead for only past Victors of The Hunger Games to be placed into the lottery for the 75th Hunger Games, and as the only living female tribute in her district, Katniss is guaranteed to participate — again. Peeta volunteers to take Haymitch’s place in the Games when Haymitch’s name is drawn and swears to again protect Katniss in the arena at the cost of his own life. Haymitch instructs Katniss and Peeta to make allies with some of the other Tributes, and they team up with others to try to stay alive. Katniss has decided that her single goal is to protect Peeta so that he can be the only Victor, fully expecting to die to make it happen, but Peeta has decided the same about Katniss. Inexplicably, though, it seems many of the other Tributes are determined to sacrifice themselves to keep both Peeta and Katniss alive during the latest Hunger Games. Katniss begins to suspect they see Peeta as the leader of the new rebellion and need to keep him alive so he can use his influence over people to rise against the Capitol.

These same allies in the arena devise a plan to channel lightening and destroy the force field around the arena. Peeta and Katniss become separated during the attempt, and Katniss is nearly killed when she manages to blow up the force field. A hovercraft appears and takes her badly injured body away. Upon waking, she learns that the Rebels plotted to save her from the arena — but they didn’t save Peeta. Haymitch explains that, unknown to both Peeta and Katniss the whole time, Katniss with her Mockingjay token has become the face of the rebellion, and she had to be protected at all costs — even at the cost of Peeta’s life. She is expected to become the leader of the rebellion — not Peeta. Worse, she learns that President Snow has completely destroyed Katniss’s home, and that District 12 has been obliterated off the map.

Mockingjay – Book 3
Katniss — suffering from post traumatic stress disorder — visits the ashes and rubble of District 12 under the protection of the Rebels, who live and operate out of District 13 (a district once believed to have been destroyed by The Capitol). Gale managed to save some of the people in District 12 before it was bombed, including Katniss’s mother and sister, Prim, which provides Katniss with some comfort. Believing Peeta to be dead, however, Katniss displays no desire to become the Mockingjay — the face of the Rebellion. She forces herself to function only because of her sister, Prim. Gale, now a soldier of the Rebellion, also helps Katniss recover as they slowly regain their old friendship. Katniss hates the rebels for not saving Peeta, but when President Snow airs television propaganda showing that Peeta is indeed still alive and being held prisoner, Katniss agrees to film propoganda for the Rebels in retaliation. In short, she agrees to become the Mockingjay.

As the Capitol airs more and more disturbing footage of Peeta, showing that he has been tortured, Katniss has a mental break down. Haymitch then convinces the Rebels to rescue Peeta and the other hostage Tributes from The Capitol to help Katniss recover. However, Katniss’s reunion with Peeta is spoiled when he tries to kill her. Peeta has been brainwashed into believing Katniss is the enemy. His undying love for her is gone.

Finally broken by this, Katniss decides her last act in life will be to personally kill President Snow and begins training with the Rebels to accomplish this. As she trains, doctors work on reversing Peeta’s condition, with little success. His new hatred for her pushes Katniss to train harder. Eventually, Katniss succeeds in reaching The Capitol and President Snow, and that’s when — pardon my French — all hell breaks lose.

Of course, there's more to Mockingjay than that, but that's the gist of it, and I truly don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who might read this.

I'll post my reaction later...