Recently I shared that one of my intentions for 2024 is to devote some time to rereading. Studying literature and teaching English required me to revisit many books over the course of my reading life—some that I gladly returned to again and again, and others that I met with an unwilling grimace each time I picked it up. But whether it was a book I loved or one I deeply struggled with, I always got something from my rereading experiences.
I loved this piece! #1 especially struck me-- there are so many parallels between Katniss and Bathsheba I completed missed since I didn't read Far from the Madding Crowd until years after completing The Hunger Games. It makes who Katniss ends up with make a whole lot more sense to me now!
Love this analysis! We just rewatched the series a few months ago, and now you got me thinking about re-reading this! I still remember reading these on my Nook e-reader (anyone remember that?!) and getting the follow up IMMEDIATELY after finishing the previous one late into the night. This was during the time when I was working at Barnes & Noble in 2012 and seeing the rise of YA fiction as books like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent, etc. flew off the shelves. Where/when I worked, they didn't have the YA shelving yet so all those books were put in the children's section. People were very confused!
You’ve officially convinced me to pick up The Hunger Games! This was such an informative analysis; thank you, as always, for all of the time and thought you put into your newsletters. I truly feel joy every time I see a new piece from you!
I relate to so many points you made in this post. I also read Hunger Games (Twilight, and Divergent) as an adult. I love dystopian novels and it does seem like you don't see as many of them, at least with great commercial success. In some ways, it seems like the current state of our world hits too close to home to some of the old dystopian novel tropes. Jetting off to the moon to escape global warfare seems like something we might be faced with, instead of something we have to imagine in a far-off future. Could speculative fiction be the new dystopian?
I loved this piece! #1 especially struck me-- there are so many parallels between Katniss and Bathsheba I completed missed since I didn't read Far from the Madding Crowd until years after completing The Hunger Games. It makes who Katniss ends up with make a whole lot more sense to me now!
Love this analysis! We just rewatched the series a few months ago, and now you got me thinking about re-reading this! I still remember reading these on my Nook e-reader (anyone remember that?!) and getting the follow up IMMEDIATELY after finishing the previous one late into the night. This was during the time when I was working at Barnes & Noble in 2012 and seeing the rise of YA fiction as books like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent, etc. flew off the shelves. Where/when I worked, they didn't have the YA shelving yet so all those books were put in the children's section. People were very confused!
You’ve officially convinced me to pick up The Hunger Games! This was such an informative analysis; thank you, as always, for all of the time and thought you put into your newsletters. I truly feel joy every time I see a new piece from you!
I relate to so many points you made in this post. I also read Hunger Games (Twilight, and Divergent) as an adult. I love dystopian novels and it does seem like you don't see as many of them, at least with great commercial success. In some ways, it seems like the current state of our world hits too close to home to some of the old dystopian novel tropes. Jetting off to the moon to escape global warfare seems like something we might be faced with, instead of something we have to imagine in a far-off future. Could speculative fiction be the new dystopian?