Suzanne Collins - Blog Posts

the hunger games films tore out the books teeth. like it does the series such a disservice when it stands for nothing, says nothing, passes no judgement.. katniss speaks so plainly in the books about what she thinks of the capital. of what they do to her and her family and the districts. of the different worlds she witnesses as she’s straddled between 12 and the capital.. she calls it barbaric. she calls it disgusting and wrong and horrifying, over and over, and the films were like how do we market this teen romance.

I think the Hunger Games series sits in a similar literary position to The Lord of the Rings, as a piece of literature (by a Catholic author) that sparked a whole new subgenre and then gets blamed for flaws that exist in the copycat books and aren’t actually part of the original.

Like, despite what parodies might say, Katniss is nowhere near the stereotypical “unqualified teenager chosen to lead a rebellion for no good reason”.  The entire point is that she’s not leading the rebellion. She’s a traumatized teenager who has emotional reactions to the horrors in her society, and is constantly being reined in by more experienced adults who have to tell her, “No, this is not how you fight the government, you are going to get people killed.” She’s not the upstart teenager showing the brainless adults what to do–she’s a teenager being manipulated by smarter and more experienced adults. She has no power in the rebellion except as a useful piece of propaganda, and the entire trilogy is her straining against that role. It’s much more realistic and far more nuanced than anyone who dismisses it as “stereotypical YA dystopian” gives it credit for.

And the misconceptions don’t end there. The Hunger Games has no “stereotypical YA love triangle”–yes, there are two potential love interests, but the romance is so not the point. There’s a war going on! Katniss has more important things to worry about than boys! The romance was never about her choosing between two hot boys–it’s about choosing between two diametrically opposed worldviews. Will she choose anger and war, or compassion and peace? Of course a trilogy filled with the horrors of war ends with her marriage to the peace-loving Peeta. Unlike some of the YA dystopian copycats, the romance here is part of the message, not just something to pacify readers who expect “hot love triangles” in their YA. 

The worldbuilding in the Hunger Games trilogy is simplistic and not realistic, but unlike some of her imitators, Collins does this because she has something to say, not because she’s cobbling together a grim and gritty dystopia that’s “similar to the Hunger Games”. The worldbuilding has an allegorical function, kept simple so we can see beyond it to what Collins is really saying–and it’s nothing so comforting as “we need to fight the evil people who are ruining society”. The Capitol’s not just the powerful, greedy bad guys–the Capitol is us, First World America, living in luxury while we ignore the problems of the rest of the world, and thinking of other nations largely in terms of what resources we can get from them. This simplistic world is a sparsely set stage that lets us explore the larger themes about exploitation and war and the horrors people will commit for the sake of their bread and circuses, meant to make us think deeper about what separates a hero from a villain.

There’s a reason these books became a literary phenomenon. There’s a reason that dozens upon dozens of authors attempted to imitate them. But these imitators can’t capture that same genius, largely because they’re trying to imitate the trappings of another book, and failing to capture the larger and more meaningful message underneath. Make a copy of a copy of a copy, and you’ll wind up with something far removed from the original masterpiece. But we shouldn’t make the mistake of blaming those flaws on the original work.

Hunger Games is trending again LET'S GOOO !!!

"It's Not Over Until the Mockingjay Sings."

"I'm a couple of days into the plan, making good progress, when something unexpected happens. I begin to sing. At the window, in the shower, in my sleep. Hour after hour of ballads, love songs, mountain airs. All the songs my father taught me before he died. [...] My voice, at first rough and breaking on the high notes, warms up into something splendid. A voice that would make the mockingjays fall silent and then tumble over themselves to join in." - Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay (pg. 376)

In which Lucy Gray Baird comes as an apparition to Katniss in her sleep. Set during her solitary confinement after killing Interim President Coin, thus ending the cycle of tyranny in Panem.

***Content Warning: Fictional depiction of blood stains/ bullet wounds under the cut*** Unfortunately I'm a Lucy Gray Baird was killed by Snow truther :(

Edit: Redid this piece since there were some parts of it that I wasn't completely happy with, but I love how it turned out now :)

"It's Not Over Until the Mockingjay Sings."

"I'm a couple of days into the plan, making good progress, when something unexpected happens. I begin to sing. At the window, in the shower, in my sleep. Hour after hour of ballads, love songs, mountain airs. All the songs my father taught me before he died. [...] My voice, at first rough and breaking on the high notes, warms up into something splendid. A voice that would make the mockingjays fall silent and then tumble over themselves to join in." - Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay (pg. 376)

In which Lucy Gray Baird comes as an apparition to Katniss in her sleep. Set during her solitary confinement after killing Interim President Coin, thus ending the cycle of tyranny in Panem.

***Content Warning: Fictional depiction of blood stains/ bullet wounds under the cut*** Unfortunately I'm a Lucy Gray Baird was killed by Snow truther :(

Edit: Redid this piece since there were some parts of it that I wasn't completely happy with, but I love how it turned out now :)

"It's Not Over Until the Mockingjay Sings."

"I'm a couple of days into the plan, making good progress, when something unexpected happens. I begin to sing. At the window, in the shower, in my sleep. Hour after hour of ballads, love songs, mountain airs. All the songs my father taught me before he died. [...] My voice, at first rough and breaking on the high notes, warms up into something splendid. A voice that would make the mockingjays fall silent and then tumble over themselves to join in." - Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay (pg. 376)

In which Lucy Gray Baird comes as an apparition to Katniss in her sleep. Set during her solitary confinement after killing Interim President Coin, thus ending the cycle of tyranny in Panem.

***Content Warning: Fictional depiction of blood stains/ bullet wounds under the cut*** Unfortunately I'm a Lucy Gray Baird was killed by Snow truther :(

Edit: Redid this piece since there were some parts of it that I wasn't completely happy with, but I love how it turned out now :)

"It's Not Over Until the Mockingjay Sings."

"I'm a couple of days into the plan, making good progress, when something unexpected happens. I begin to sing. At the window, in the shower, in my sleep. Hour after hour of ballads, love songs, mountain airs. All the songs my father taught me before he died. [...] My voice, at first rough and breaking on the high notes, warms up into something splendid. A voice that would make the mockingjays fall silent and then tumble over themselves to join in." - Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay (pg. 376)

In which Lucy Gray Baird comes as an apparition to Katniss in her sleep. Set during her solitary confinement after killing Interim President Coin, thus ending the cycle of tyranny in Panem.

***Content Warning: Fictional depiction of blood stains/ bullet wounds under the cut*** Unfortunately I'm a Lucy Gray Baird was killed by Snow truther :(

Edit: Redid this piece since there were some parts of it that I wasn't completely happy with, but I love how it turned out now :)

I saw this tiktok about the hunger games and how the people in capital didn’t care about the children in the games until Peeta said that Katniss was pregnant. How them caring more about an unborn fetus than actual kids was a critique of the current world.

Reading tbosas and coryo‘s inner monologue absolutely cracks me up, like he‘s so bitter and also so funny??

Lucy Gray Baird

Lenore Dove Baird

Art by: @/revslie on twt

Foxface

Wyatt Callow

Artwork by: -@lyra_nii

Maysilee Donner 💛🌼🤍🌼💛

Lenore Dove

Just finished this book… I’m unwell

The Covey

Maude Ivory

I just started sunrise on the reaping and I’m so scared but so excited

Clove 💚💚💚

Lucy Gray Baird 🤍🤍🤍

Cinna 🤎🤎🤎

Haymitch 🤎🤎🤎

I haven’t gotten the chance to read his book so no spoilers please.

Catching Fire 🖤🩶🤍

Effie Trinket 🩷🩷🩷

Lucy Gray Baird 💜🩷💙💚🩵🤍

Tigris 🩷🩷🩷

Annie Cresta 🩵🐚🤍

Peeta Mellark 🧡🧡🧡

Johanna Mason 🤎🪓🤎

Finnick Odair 🩵🩵🩵

Katniss Everdeen 💚💚💚