The Girl Who Was on Fire (Movie Edition)

*I received a copy through Netgalley for an honest review.

I love analysis. It's probably why I always loved English class. I like to pick things apart and know the deeper meaning, and I like having a lot of difference points of view given to me on a piece of literature. I haven't really read much literary analysis before, not like this, but I definitely would if they have one of these books for each YA serious and great book. Seriously, can someone get started on a series of essays on all of John Green's novels? I feel that is necessary. Nerdfighters, let's get started!

The essays were more than I thought it would be. I wasn't expecting such serious commentary connecting back to the world. These authors related the Hunger Games to themes of community, war, scientific advancement, and plenty of others. I actually learned about things I wouldn't have connected to Hunger Games: game theory, genetic engineering, the Bush administration and the Iraq war, and how the brain works. The essays were both informative, interesting, and easy to read.

Recommended to Hunger Games fans. There are spoilers for the books in here so I would read the series first.

3.5 stars

I actually didn't know this was a selection of essays discussing different themes in The Hunger Games. For some reason I always thought it was a selection of fan fiction written by other YA authors about THG. While I would have definitely loved some fan fiction, I did mostly enjoy reading other author's thoughts on the trilogy. I loved some more than others, in particular Sarah Rees Brennan's Why So Hungry for The Hunger Games?, Mary Borsellino's Your Heart Is a Weapon the Size of Your Fist which looks at how love is used as a political weapon throughout the series and also Gale: Knight, Cowboy, Badass by Jackson Pearce.

Not So Weird Science by Cara Lockwood and Bent, Shattered and Mended by Blythe Woolston were both interesting in the fact they were more studies into the realities of genetic engineering in our world today and then the real symptoms of PTSD and how it's portrayed in the book and which characters show the classic signs. Others like Ned Vizzini's Reality Hunger didn't click with me because, particularly with this one, the author ended up talking about stuff in their own life and I didn't really care. I think Vizzini could have talked about Katniss's media training without constantly mentioning his own experience of being through it.

Overall, it was an interesting read for the most part. I just felt a bit drawn out in some parts when some of the essays started mirroring each other slightly but it was a fantastic insight into how other authors can look and dissect a trilogy that became a phenomenon.

Interesting and fascinating to see how others, specifically Young Adult genre authors read into The Hunger Games trilogy, and movie too, since this review is the movie edition. I loved The Hunger Games trilogy. I didn't always love it, because it was "dark" for me when I first read The Hunger Games. It took an additional read for me to REALLY like it, and then love it. It says something about a book, when you didn't think you love it, but you can't help but taking a second look. This is how I feel about this collection of essays. Not that I love it or I took a second look. It was the fact that these are opinions of others, and it helped broaden my view of certain aspects of The Hunger Games trilogy that I did not see or overlooked. Some, I don't fully agree on, but some are fairly spot on. This is one for any THG fan that wants to dive deeper into the magneticism of it.

I was excited when I saw this as an option on NetGalley, especially after finishing the Panem Companion. Not only did it help me dig deeper into The Huger Games series, but it also caused me to take a deeper look into all of the books I read, especially YA books, whether it be taking note of their cultural norms, gender roles, other societal structers, or more depth to the characters.

This is not one book, but a series of essays written by popular YA authors about The Hunger Games series. I love that, having read the Panem Companion, I has a background knowledge of Susan Collins' intentions and meaning behind THG, but this book is not just a repeat of that. This book focuses on the readers'/watchers' views, opinions and feelings about THG.

One of the first things that stuck out to me was focusing on media truths/lied. At first, Katniss has a hard time lying at all about her and Peeta's relationship, but by Mockingjay, she betrays even the readers with ehr intention to create a new Hunger Games and kills Coin instead of Snow. With this, Sarah Rees Brennan points out, in the first essay, Peeta's position in Mockingjay. His perception has been so altered that he must rely on other telling him what is "Real or not real?"

His position is horrifying, and yet it is just a magnified version of everyone's position in THG - of our own positions as consumers of entertainment that pretends to reflect reality.

I am very glad that Jennifer Lynn Barns focused on the love triangle angle. I have also become tired with the endless triangles.

I AM TEAM KATNISS!

THG trilogy has less to do with who Katniss ends up with and more to do with who she is - because sometimes, in books and in life, it's not about romance.

THANK YOU JLB!

I also didn't like how I saw so much Team Gale and Team Peeta. These books were not, at their core, about love. They were about society, war and rebuilding a better society. Katniss was not all swoony, like most YA heroines, today. (Thank God!) She stick to what is important in a time of crisis, which is not who she should kiss.

JLB comes to an excellent conclusion as to why readers picked this question to represent the series, though. Since Katniss was so hard to figure out, readers did as the Capitol did and labeled her a girl in love, making it an either/or situation that would easily tell us who she is.

Maybe for a lot of readers, the questions if Peeta or Gale, who are "so different from each other that it is easy to imagine that a girl who would choose Gale is a completely different person than one who would choose Peeta."

I love that JLB refers to Gale as a firecracker and Peeta a dandelion!

This book gave me an epiphany that Susan Collins might have (perhaps?) been combatting the Peeta vs. Gale argument.
Katniss knows that the world - and many of the trilogy readers - reduce her to that one thing - romance - and that she expects better of those who know her best.
Because if you think about it, Katniss is not interested in love and romance throughout the series, as many YA heroines are.

Even more than I am Team Katniss, I am TEAM BUTTERCUP!
Buttercup is a better comparison to Katniss than her namesake (a potato-like root plant) or the mockingjay. The cat who refused to die. Because, that's what Katniss is, a survivor. I think one of the reasons THG is so popular is because Katnis is unlike most YA heroines. She doesn't find insta-love and really doesn't think much about romance at all.
If anyone doubts Katniss is more driven by family than anything else - including romance- all you have to do if look at the role that Prim plays in almost every major turning point in the series.
Ultimately, even to the other characters in the book, Katniss isn't The Girl who Chose Peeta. She's not the Mockingjay or The Girl on Fire or the Girl Who Didn't Choose Gale.
She's a girl who survives something horrible and loses far too many people along the way. This was a lighter read than The Panem Companion. This explores the feelings behind the characters more than the inspiration for the characters and the facts.

If you like THG, you will most likely enjoy this book. I recommend reading the Panem Companion, first, though!

I received this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.