May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor: April 2025 Book Recommendation

 

I've only read a quarter of Sunrise on The Reaping, the latest installment in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, it's a book so good so far in what I've read so far that I decided to recommend the entire series. Whether if you are reading it for the first time or revisiting after several years, it's certainly a modern classic, known for it's influences on the contemporary dystopian genre, and surprisinly deep and relevant themes. 

A very popular and often-shared fact about the origins of The Hunger Games was when Suzanne Collins was channel-surfing TV, where the juxtoposition of reality-TV shows and footage of the Iraq war seemed to be a key influence in the thematic messages of the series. It's a tough phenomena to describe into words, but it's the idea of a certain kind of dissonance that the priveledged can afford to joyfully ignore the tragedies that lie out there. My mom would always bring this example of Cambodia in the 1970s, where the Cambodian genocide occured while Americans experienced the cultural hedonism of that decade. I wanna call it "privileged dissonance", with a recent and apt example being the 2024 Superbowl, when the country of Israel launched multiple bombing on Gaza while Americans were being distracted by the match between the Chiefs and the 49ers. I would argue that this commodification and willful ignorance of tragedies is the main theme throughout the series, and I think Collins did a wonderful job.But other themes were also present as well, such as aspects of inequality, colonialism, the role of entertainment in society, and so much more, but I'm not in the mood to discuss those right now.     

The Hunger Games series returned back to the forefront of pop culture by fall of 2023 for two reasons: The film adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was released in theaters, and the advent of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict prompting comparisons to be made between the conflict and the overall themes of the series. A viral clip of one of the films went rival after the bombing of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, where a comparison was drawn alongside Katniss Everdeen's "And if we burn, you burn with us!” speech. Since 2023, the series went on a resurgence again, with more people being introduced to the series and old fans returning with newfound understanding of the themes.

Enough talking about the context, and now onto the books themselves. I would say the series is well-structured in both narratives, and worldbuilding, and throughout all five books in the series, Collins has given us a world that is rich in it's thematic messaging will not being in anyway too in-your-face on the messages it's trying to express. The series is a great introduction into the teen dystopia genre that was prevalent in the 2010s, but I think that given the notoriety of the series, The Hunger Games might have transcended beyond it's original genre and I'd argue that it can rightfully place itself in the pantheon of dystopian novels, alongside George Orwell's 1984, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. 

It's difficult to confidently say what was my first exposure to The Hunger Games, either that I saw to movie at a movie night program on TV, or through the various videos of Youtubers playing Minecraft Hunger Games. I guess the series is part of a much larger trend of the popularity of the battle royale genre of the 2010s and onwards. We see this beyond just The Hunger Games but also in game shows, reality TV, and video games such as Fortnite and Fall Guys and to other things such as Squid Game and Mr. Beast. 

One of the many things inspired by The Hunger Games

So far, Sunrise on the Reaping is shaping to be one of the best entries in the series so far, but then again, I have just finished Part One, so my thoughts on the book remains unfinished. Finals week is nearing closer and closer for me, so I really do not have much to share this month, but as for the series as a whole, I would give the rating of 5 stars.