Monthly Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is a science fiction thriller, action packed, and romance tale about a young teenage girl named Katniss, who lives in a post-apocaltic world and competing an annual event called the Hunger Games. To win the game, Katniss must first fight along twenty four other contenders to the death in a battle royal.

Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.
Katniss Everdeen is the main character and narrator of this book called "The Hunger Games." She is only just sixteen years old and already the main supporter of her family. She takes care of her mother and her younger sister, Prim, in District 12 the mining sector. Her father was killed in a mine explosion, which forced her to support the family at the age of eleven. As for her mother, she was overcome by the death of her husband and unable to take the role to support the family, which made Katniss resented her mother as a failure of parenting. Katniss is a very skilled hunter who hunts in the forbidden forest in order to keep her family alive, and trade some of the games from the community. She is an excellent archer which helps her survive the hunger game, and got one of the highest score in training. She also learned how to gather herbs/plants and set up traps from her deceased father.
I like the characteristic of Katniss for her strong minded personality, and her cunning ability to survive in the horrible district. She is very caring for her family and will do anything for them, even risking her own life to participate in the hunger game to supply her family with food. She detest the Capitol's harsh treatment toward all the districts, while they lavishly spend their lives in luxury, and how they toy with the people in all the district to participate the horrible game each year. Unfortunately she entered the game in exchange for her sister not to be the one. Luckily, with the help of her mentor, her cunning skills to survive in the environment and her partner, Peeta, they both were able to win the game. Katniss is very strong, kind, and will overcome any obstacle that will come in her path.

What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
After reading this book, the thing that hits me the most is that love will always triumph, even if its fake love. I do agree with this and that love is the greatest weapon to use. The author was very clear in her purpose about love conquering all, and she put it to work in the book. There were many events in the story that explains love is the most important thing and will do anything for it. For example, Katniss's love for her younger sister, Prim, made her volunteer and took the place of entering the game. Against all odds, if it wasn't for Katniss and Peeta love thing going on, they wouldn't have made it that far. The audience who are watching the hunger game wouldn't be that much interested in them if it weren't for their love, which spark some excitement. The tragic love couple who are in the game together and are suppose to fight each other to the death. Wouldn't that grab your attention or at least want them to win together? Well it sure worked for them, which made the game markers change the rules so they can have a chance to win together, instead of a battle royal where last one stands win. Their love was the most important factor in the game that made them both victories.
Reading this book was great, and the love thing going on with the couple certainly grabbed my attention. The idea of putting the element of romance into this was brilliant. I was very intrigued with the love thing going on and that love will always be number one. I kept on asking myself when I'm reading if their plan was going to work, and if they truly love each other. In the end, their love made them won the game and that love will always overcome any obstacles that are in its way.

After reading this book, what do you think will happen in the second book?
There are so many possibilities about what will happen in the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It could describe about Katniss's life on how the hunger game changed her life, or even a rebellion within the districts toward the harsh treatment that the Capitol gives. For me I say both of these will probably happen in the second book. Katniss and Peeta will probably live in luxury for winning the game and will experience a change in their life. Their lifestyle will change and will have to find something new to do. Of course the mass media will still talk about their victory and their life now after winning the game. Katniss and Peeta will still have to play the "love couple" thing going on whenever the media shows up. I think that Katniss's feeling for Peeta will grow later in the book, but will have other problems like her best friend, Gale. Gale and Katniss probably love each other, but can't show it to the media because of the Peeta thing. If the media ever finds out about that, their life will be horrible. The people of the Capitol will mostly likely be upset that two people fooled them into thinking their couples only to win the game and gain their side, which was true. Well some of it since Peeta truly love Katniss, but she didn't have that kind of feelings toward him. There probably be a love triangle going on between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale.
Also, I think a rebellion will emerge in the second book because they talk about people who tried to betray the Capitol called anvox. Anvox are mostly prisoners who serve under the Capitol for trying to betray them. I think something like this will happen in some districts trying to rebel against their harsh leader or the Capitol. Katniss and Peeta will most likely be involved with this and trying to change the ways the Capitol has been doing. Just hope the second book, "Catching Fire," will be fantastic when I'm going to read it.

Lit Circle, Letter 3: The Hunger Games

Well I finished the book, absolutely amazing by the way, and still I'm craving for more. Of course the main character, Katniss, won the game not a surprise there, but the outcome was different from what I thought it would be. Not just one winner but two with Katniss and Peeta, with the help of the rules changing due to the audience loving to watch the "couple" in the game, and Katniss's sly plan to outwit the gamemakers. I'm surpraise on how the book ended, because I thought it would be something more tragic or romantic, like Peeta sacrificing his life to save Katniss. Instead, Katniss and Peeta both made it out as winners of this year hunger game. I'm reading the second book "Catching Fire" and everything is getting intense. The ending of the Hunger Game was great, and now another obstacle(second book) is in their way which is the president of the Capitol.
I read some of my Lit circle partners, and I do agree that Katniss seems to be falling in love with Peeta only a little bit. They did spend time together during the game only to fool the audience in order to survive. But I do think they began bonding with each other and knowing them more better. For sure Peeta loves Katniss, but she doesn't have that kind of feeling for Peeta. She might slowly begin to have feelings for him, but not now. The ending where Katniss told Peeta about not having that kind of feeling like Peeta does was a bit sad. After reading this book, I realized that Peeta is kind of useless in the game. The only thing he did was show his feeling toward Katniss and protected her like once. After that, he got himself injured and have to be taken care of for mostly the whole time. I don't mean that he should die, but I just want him to be useful and all.

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is the best post-apocalyptic,action, and role-playing game that I have ever played. It was developed and published by Bethesda Softworks as the third installment in the Fallout series. This game is made only for computer and consoles(ps3 and xbox 360) I love the storyline, exploration, game play, and the free will of mostly doing anything in the game. It doesn't give you a straight forward mission wherever you have to go and mostly do whatever it tells you like a few other games. In Fallout 3, you can do mostly anything you want and gives you a lot of options to keep you occupy in the game, so you will never get bored. You can just forget about the main mission and still have a great time playing it.
The storyline takes place in a post-apocalyptic, Washington, D.C after a nuclear war between the US, China, and other countries. It caused a great deal of damage and destruction everywhere on Earth. After a period of time, the lands have changed, and a few people have survived this horror. You start off in the game living with your father as a young inhabitant of Vault 101, an underground fallout shelter to keep the people away from the dangerous radioactive exposure outside. One day, your dad has vanish into the outside world without an explanation, and now your trying to search for him in the dangerous unknown world. You will encounter many things in the game as you proceed forward and explore new things. There are about over 100 locations in this game that will take you hours of exploring every single one. I love this kind of exploring, because it gives you so much things to do and learn while not getting bored easily doing one thing. It's so much fun playing this game, because you will learn new things every time and still have many more to explore.
The game play is pretty unique where you can either play first person mode or third person. There is also a V.A.T.S system where you can fight your enemies in one move, sometimes showing it in slow motion and even the bullet of your gun traveling to the target. There is also a karma system, which affects your player's status in the game. You can be either good or evil depending on your action toward conversation and combat choices.
In the game, you get to customize your character on how he/she looks which gives you a lot of options for the person. You get to customize every detail of the person to the head, eyes, nose, mouth, and even the size of every part on your face. Its just incredible on how many things the game gives you to do. I love playing this game every time because of the many different possibilities you can do and still be something new to you. This game will never get old to me and I'm already excited for the new one coming out called Fallout: New Vegas.

Lit Circle, Letter 2: The Hunger Games

So far, reading this book never gets old. The storyline is getting intense with the Hunger Game starting (where the contenders or tribute fight to the death with each other) and mostly every man or woman for themselves. I love the plot-driven blend of suspense in this book every time I turn the page. Its unpredictable and you won't knows what's going to happen. I love the action and romance in this book because it gives a spark to this which makes it very interesting. I love every part of it as I keep on reading and can't take my eyes off of the book.
In the book so far, the game has just began and already its a bloodbath where eleven tributes were already killed. Of course the main character, Katniss, have survived the ordeal, and now just getting everything prepare for surviving this horrible game she's in. Other tributes, called career tributes, were trained for these games just to win and take the glory for the pride of their district. The career tributes mostly stick together and hunt down all the other regular tributes in the game. Once done, they fight each other in the end. Katniss discovered that Peeta, her partner and "lover" is working with the career tributes. When I read this, I was surprise, since they were working together and suppose to be lovers for the audience that will help him ensure their survival.
I came across a question that one of my partner have said before which I'm going to answer. The question is do you think the people who are "betting" on the winner, knows if its scripted or not? Well when you say the "people" you must mean the sponsors, however there are some people in their own district also giving money to help the contenders, but they usually don't have enough money to actually help them due to them being poor. My answer is no, they know its all real and not scripted, since each contenders are randomly picked from the twelve districts. The game makers don't make the script and it's mostly a reality show or something. The gamemakers make a lot of profitable money that way, when the people bet to help their player to win, by buying expensive items that will help the person in the game. It would be a complete waste and nonprofitable to the gamemakers if the people who are betting knows it is scripted. Because if they know, the gambler will just bet on the winner side instead of some unlucky players that will make them lose their money for nothing.

The Box -Part 2

Walking side by side, away from those goons, and disguised in the tight crowd of people in the street. Tora and Syrol dressed like the commoners of these people with raggy clothing, obviously not a rich and wealthy town. Poverty and famine roam these streets as Tora and Syrol walks by, seeing the sick or the homeless on the sidewalk. Merchants and venders pass by the city once in a while trying to sell something decent to live off by. All of them at least hold any sort of weapons to guns, knives, or a wooden nail board to defend themselves against thieves or the poor which occur commonly here. One without a weapon, would mean certain death to those sellers.
Syrol leading the way to their destination, and Tora still following with absolutely no clue on where their suppose to deliver this box to, or whats inside of it. She scanned the box carefully to get any piece of information about it on why to risk their lives on a small little box, instead of stealing something more valuable that will surely enrich their lifestyle. The box was nothing special, only a few stripes of colors at each side all connecting to the center of the box with a golden crest that's shaped like an old fashioned winged shield. Next to the golden crest, is a small initial label as J.M., it must belong to someone important since it was guarded by those people that were ready to kill if anyone stole it. Tora's curiosity was killing her, she really wanted to know what's inside of that box that made Syrol so serious in this mission. Syrol, her only hope and savior from this horrible life she lives in. If it wasn't for him who found her on the streets clinging to life, she would've been dead long ago.
This world, where the human race is overpopulated, the earth can't sustain this kind of amount. Natural resources are being depleted, trees are being cut down for homes, pollution is everywhere killing our environment, animals are being extinct due to the low level of food, and last my not least global warming. The government don't even try fixing these problems, and instead compete with other nations for resources or land. They care for no one, only to become stronger then the rest. The people of this world too seem to not even care anymore, and just live on with their life trying to survive. Of course there are a few people who actually do do something to help this inevitable world, but its futile. Their number are small and no one seems to actually listen on what their saying anymore. Soon those people too, just stopped trying and joined with the others who don't even care, losing hope. This made Tora detest everyone in this world and just want them all to die, sick of seeing these people destroying their own world and not even care. If it weren't for Syrol giving her a meaning to live in this despicable world, who knows what she would do.
Finally, Tora couldn't stand the agonzing mystery that was in the box. Tora glance at Syrol making sure he won't look back and catch her opening the small box. She tried to open the lid of the box, but it won't budge. She gave it another couple of attempts, furiously she still couldn't open the box.
"You know, you can't open that box without a password. It's voice command" laugh Syrol. Tora jumped and was surpraise that Syrol already knew what she was doing. Better yet, Syrol is back to himself again and not all serious
"What is the password then?" responded Tora, trying to regain her composure.
"Not sure, but the person who were going to deliver the box do." said Syrol walking away from the crowded people and into another alleyway "Come on were almost there"
Tora followed him and soon after saw two men standing at the sides, assuming their the people they are suppose to deliver the box to. Tora immediately saw one man with a sword and thought to herself, this could be troublesome.

Lit Circle, Letter 1: The Hunger Games

Well since my other LC (Lit Circle) partners have already told you the summary of the book called The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (Which I highly recommend others to read), might as well just tell you what I think about it. Oh before I tell you about my opinion, here are some of my partners websites about this book's summary/etc., Annly and Nathan.

The book is amazing and I'm loving every part of it as I keep on reading, even passing the checkpoint for the first week already. The story is exciting and thrilling mostly about survival in this particular game that the Capitol (Rich and powerful city) had set up for the twelve districts (poor cities and under the Capitol rule) to fight to the death in an arena. The book is not too slow or too fast for readers that makes you not understand what's has happened and have to reread it again to finally get it. It's easy to understand and have no special writing style that some authors do. As I kept on reading, it's grabbing me every time that makes me want more and more to find out what will happen next. I like mostly every part of this book with its amazing storyline, the detailed background, and the characters in this books.

I like to read these kind of books of post-apocalyptic where a civilization is set after a devastating disaster, just like The Hunger Games. Their world is so much different from ours and who knows, maybe something catastrophic might happen to us that might be similar to this. So far I'm pretty ahead of the book with my partners and have no questions at all as I'm reading this, just that what will the outcome of the winner in that game be (directed to my partners)?

The Box

She touched the box in her pocket and smiled.
"There she is!" the man pointed, running toward her and a few other following behind him. "Don't let her escape or our heads will be on the line!"
Tora put the small box back into her pocket and starts to run off into the condense alleyway. She twist and turn in every direction trying to lose her persuaders in every step she takes. After sprinting a great deal, Tora looked back and saw no one was chasing after her, thinking she lost them in the complex maze. She finally relaxed and began walking as if nothing had happen in the last thirty seconds. Before taking a few more steps until she could get out of the maze and onto the crowded street safely, she stopped. Two men appear in front of her, blocking her only exit to escape and away from danger, probably working for the others who were chasing her. At the corner of her eyes, she was looking for the entrance where she came from while her body was still facing the two, but the others who were chasing her have caught up blocking her only exit left. She had no where to run, but only took a step back from the two men who were starting to come toward her. The man on the left took out a knife from his pocket looking at her with his blood thirsty eyes just waiting to have a chance to slice her. Tora was in a bad situation and was trying to think of anything to get out of this mess. There were no misplaced bricks that stood out or any kind of obstacles she could jump onto the roof top to escape. Her only option was to fight, even though she was outnumber and weaponless to the armed enemies. Tora was getting ready as the two men in front were now charging at her, suddenly a small ball drop from the sky in front of Tora's toes. The black smoke violently burst from the ball, rushing in, filling the ally with its dark cloud. Tora was as confused as the other men who stopped in their track, distracted and unable to find her in the hidden smoke. The men desperately tried searching for her, but kept on bumping into each other thinking it was their target. Even though Tora was confused, she was calm and used this to her advantage to analyze the surrounding.
"Pshhh hey! Up here" whisper the voice Tora knew for so long. She looked up and saw the dark silhouette up on the rooftop.
"Hurry up before the smoke clears." he tossed the rope down and pulled her up as fast as possible.
"Thanks Syrol" she said, still breathless from the previous run, as Syrol walk off to the stairs, leaving those confused men still down there.
"Come on let's go, we still got work to do" responded Syrol emotionless. Tora listened and followed right after him still clutching the small box in her pocket.