The World Of The Hunger Games, by Kate Egan

As always, when you read a book, a fair question to ask is, “Why does this book exist? Does it serve any purpose that is not already being met by another book?” In preparation for the new Hunger Games movie coming out, I was looking to re-acquaint myself with a world that I have not paid a great attention to now for several years, and thought this book might give some information on the world of the Hunger Games, as a bit of a refresher. That is not what I found, despite the name of the book being what it is. I must admit that for what this book is, it is by no means a bad book. It is probably an inessential book, because it completely spoils the movie adaptation for The Hunger Games, while not providing the literary charm of Suzanne Collins’ book. I found myself, while reading the book, wondering who this book was aimed for. If you wanted to see the movie, you could just see the movie, and if you wanted to read the book, you could just read the book. Instead, this book serves as a sort of hybrid between the book and movie, containing a lot of still photos from the movie itself but also containing a lot of text as well that summarizes the basic plot of the movie. Whether or not that appeals to you, that is what it is.

The contents of this book are pretty straightforward. In about 200 pages, many of them photographs, the book provides the entire plot of the first movie of the Hunger Games trilogy. The book begins with a brief introduction before plunging the reader into Panem, providing life in the districts, life in district 12 to begin with, and some of the people of district 12. It has always struck me that there are not nearly as many people in District 12 as one would expect there to be for a functioning nation. The book then turns its attention to focus on Katniss Everdeen, her home life, and the traumatic events of reaping day. After that there is a discussion of life in the capital, the people of the capital, as well as the experience of the tributes in the Capital. There is a look at the training the tributes undertake for the Hunger Games, which then introduces the strange and troubling creatures of Panem. A discussion of the perils of the Hunger Games takes up a considerable amount of space, which includes a look at the cornucopia, fear, injuries, alliances, defiance, rule changes, love, lies, and the last move of Katniss and Peeta. After this, there is a closing discussion of the game of love, what happens after the games, and a glossary of the important people and words in the book relating to the series.

It is perhaps unsurprising that Kate Egan, whoever she is, chose to thank Suzanne Collins in her acknowledgements of the book. One wonders, indeed, how many of the royalties of this book went to the supposed author and how went to the actual author of the Hunger Games itself. It is by no means surprising to see novelizations of the script for movies, or even to read the script of movies–as I have read the scripts of more than one movie and play that have been released as part of various movie series that have interested me. Indeed, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if the movie for The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes would be suitable to receive a book like this to help market it before the movie comes out–one would not want to reveal everything about the movie, but it is a movie that definitely needs hype and attention, which The Hunger Games had more than enough of, it must be admitted.