The Hunger Games: A Modern Fairy Tale?

Victorian woman reading

I have been caught up in the hubbub surrounding The Hunger Games. Members of my book club are planning to go see the movie after Spring Break, and I can’t wait. We’re thinking that this will give teens a chance to go see it, so we aren’t the oldest people in the theater. (We might be the oldest despite putting it off!) I’ve seen many movie adaptations of books I’ve read, so I used a gift card to buy the whole trilogy for my Nook to try to read at least the first book before I see the movie.

I first heard about The Hunger Games a while ago. I had been avoiding reading the books, mostly because I had heard that it involved a fight to the death among teenagers. Reading this post about the movie’s rating on BlogHer reminded me of this reason. As a mom and a teacher, I really don’t want to read about teens killing other teens.

I’m reminded, however, of the kind of stories I used to love. Original fairy tales held such allure for me, and were so different from the Disney movies. One of my favorite stories was Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl”. This poor little child freezes to death at the end of the story, and is brought to Heaven to be with her grandmother. Fairy tales were told orally and passed down from one generation to the next, and so were changed by the tellers. One of the endings of Snow White has the wicked step mother dance to death in red hot iron shoes as her due reward for her wickedness. Hansel, locked up in a cage, uses a bone to fool the nearly blind witch that he is not getting fat enough for her to eat him. Fairy tales are pretty gruesome, aren’t they?

When I was in high school, I graduated to books like Lois Duncan’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, about a group of teenagers involved in a hit and run scenaro. She also wrote Killing Mr. Griffin, a book about teens intended to scare a disliked teacher only to accidentally kill him off. These books were not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure.

It is in remembering these stories that I know why The Hunger Games trilogy has become so popular among its readers. I was drawn to similar stories when I was young, too. Why are these stories so appealing? Is it because we are facing our darkest fears? Perhaps, although some of those fears are darker than the ones I face in reality. Is it because of the way we think of ourselves? That we would be the ones strong enough and good enough and wise enough to survive?

While I have yet to read these books, I think I will forge ahead despite my reservations since upon reflection they sound just like the kind of story I have been drawn to in the past.

Have you avoided reading The Hunger Games like I have? Or have you read the book and seen the movie? What did you think?

The Fault in Our Stars {BlogHer Book Club}

I was sitting in recovery in a comfy recliner, my dad sitting on my right side, Mom on the left. The surgeon came in with news. I already had an inkling as to what he would say; after all, I had been awake in the operating room. My mom burst into tears and draped herself over my lap. In retrospect, Mom was extremely embarrassed about her reaction to my cancer diagnosis. Thirteen years before, she had also been diagnosed with breast cancer. To hear her daughter had cancer was almost more than she could bear.

There is only one thing in this world shittier than biting it from cancer when you’re sixteen, and that’s having a kid who bites it from cancer.

My memory from the hospital’s recovery room popped into my head as I read Hazel Grace’s words above in John Green’s novel, The Fault in Our Stars.
Hazel Grace is a sixteen year old girl who was expected to die when she was younger, but because of a miracle (and fictitious) cancer-fighting drug, she is granted extra time. While she would rather sit on the couch and watch episode after episode of ANTM (America’s Next Top Model) or reread her favorite book of all time (more about this book in a moment), her mom forces her to go to a cancer support group for kids.

Through Support Group,  Hazel Grace meets Augustus Waters. He is a former high school basketball star in Indiana (think Hoosiers). Bone cancer successfully ended his basketball career by taking his leg. Hazel tells him to read her favorite book, AIA (An Imperial Infliction) written by Peter Van Houten. Van Houten writes about a teen aged girl with cancer; however, in Hazel’s opinion, this is not your typical cancer book because it does not suck. Hazel’s obsession with this book soon becomes Augustus’ obsession. There is one problem; the book ends in the middle of a sentence. Hazel has many unanswered questions about the book and dreams of traveling to Amsterdam to talk with the author. Augustus tells Hazel to use her WISH as a child with cancer to go to Amsterdam. However, Hazel already used her WISH. Since she thought she would die when she was only thirteen, to her chagrin she used her WISH to go to Disney World.

I really enjoyed reading this book; the witty banter between Hazel and Augustus was so fun even though it seemed too mature for teens. I could argue that cancer had made them grow up too fast, and so they are not normal teenagers. I knew this book was about cancer and I swore I wouldn’t cry…but I cried. It was well worth the tears.

This book about cancer definitely didn’t suck.

signatureJoin The Fault in Our Stars discussion at BlogHer Book Club! Disclosure: I was compensated for this BlogHer Book Club review but all opinions expressed are my own.

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