Showing posts with label Twilight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twilight. Show all posts

Friday, September 30, 2011

May the odds be ever in your favor.

I've been meaning to write a review of The Hunger Games for a while now, but this week seems especially perfect. I finished the third book of the trilogy, Mockingjay, on Tuesday, and it also happens to be Banned Book Week. In some places, The Hunger Games trilogy has been banned for these reasons:

"sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group"

Source: google.com.ph via Tippi on Pinterest

Well, after reading all of them, I don't see how they are sexually explicit. Unless of course, kissing at the age of 16 is considered sexually explicit, but I don't really see that holding up against some of the other "young adult" books that are published today. As for violence, I can understand. When my friend first told me they were banned for violence, this particular line from Mockingjay came to mind:
"Weapons fall from their hands, fingers clutch their faces, as blood sprays from all visible orifices - eyes, noses, mouths, ears.... I grit my teeth and run, leaping over the bodies, feet slipping in the gore." Mmm, yummy.
In light of passages such as that, I can see why some people might think the books are "unsuited to age group." After all, when I encourage my peers to take time out of their busy college schedules to read the series, I always tell them: "It's a really fast read. I read the first book in two days during recruitment! [And if they're Greek, they understand how impossible it is to do anything except recruitment during recruitment.] Think Twilight, but better. Much better." I only compare The Hunger Games to Twilight because they are both written at a very low reading level but enjoyed by an older age group. It is there that the differences end.