Whoa. I have to admit, I knew that this novel had captured the imagination of millions but I wasn’t expecting to be absorbed into the world this quickly.

Chapter One-October 14th, 2011:

Where I began: “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course she did. This is the day of the reaping.

Where I ended: Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smooths the slip of paper and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it’s not me. It’s Primrose Everdeen.

So we begin with the first twelve words of the series. “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.” How gorgeous of a start to a story that will eventually find a girl in an arena where two dozen people are trying to kill her. She is alone. I obviously don’t know how this will turn out, but I imagine that she will find a way into the Hunger Games, and when she does she will wake up cold more than once, so it’s fitting that she already knows that world and that feeling.

I waged a bet in the last post that Katniss would be an orphan, but it turns out that Collins had an even sadder story in store. Katniss has been forced to not only be a teenager in this terrible new world, but she has been forced to care for her family after her mother has seemingly lost hope. The depressing thing is that this outcome has far more of a stake in reality than being an orphan. Orphanry almost seems convenient compared to Katniss’ task of keeping her family alive while her physically able mother just stews in her own misery.

A few pages in, we’re introduced to a few rules of the world. I am still not absolutely sure about every rule and regulation, but the basics have been made terribly clear. Leave your district, you get a bullet to the head. Skip the reaping, you get taken away forever. Are you in your teenage years? Too bad, the government is stealing them from you. Oh yeah, can we talk a little bit about the government?

Okay, this fictional government is abundantly spooky. I am a very politically active American, and it is insane to see a fictional government in a young adult novel be so meticulously thought out, be so obviously totalitarianistic, and yet maintain a sense of stringent realism throughout. This whole re-imagining of a revolution is fascinating. Recently we have seen Egyptians and Syrians stand up against their rulers, and even more recently the occupiers of Wall Street fight what they believe to be a massive injustice.

We’ve seen revolutions work and we’ve seen them fail, but this futuristic North America has taken it an extra mile. The nation was crushed by its government to the point of near annihilation. Modern tolerance, understanding and compassion has been entirely engulfed by power and greed in the upper class, despairity and hopelessness in the lower class. Add the economic ingredient of a tessera (a political tool used to further separate the lower and upper classes) and you have all the ingredients of your standard dictatorship. I wonder if we’ll meet the ultimate leader of Panem. Will this person prove to be a huge part of the novel?

Okay, so I would have to be a fool to assume that Gale is in the first couple of pages and not the rest of the novel, so I find it very plausible (if not a little predictable) that he’ll end up being the male contender for the Hunger Games. How could Katniss possibly deal with the drama of having to kill or be killed when it comes to Gale, someone who she obviously taken with? Gale seems very distant and utilitarian, but then again so is Katniss, so it is possible that the two may end up working together for the good of their district. It has been forever since the last time their district won, so this seems very likely.

Oh, but wait they called motherf***ing Prim. I didn’t even know how to handle myself when I read that part since it seemed so obvious that it would be Katniss. It’s Prim’s first time entering her name and she’s just so delicate, how could she possibly fend off 23 other hungry competitors? Will Katniss dress herself up as Prim and enter herself into the games Mulan style? Will the book mark the first time that a district recruited two female contestants? Will the book turn into a sister act that centers around Katniss protecting her kin?

Guess I’ll find out right now. Here I come Chapter 2!

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