The hunger games

To skim the surface, a stone must be very flat, and very light. The angle at which its cast is critical, of course. Nearly the same as the water, but just a little higher. When you cast a stone correctly, it skitters and skips and lands in the shallows at the other end of the pond. And when the sun comes out and dries up the edges, the stone ceases to be a part of the water. Much of the young-adult fiction I read is like this. It skips and skims, resonates in part and casts a few ripples, and then is cast on the other end of my awareness, to slip away forgotten.

And then there are books like The Hunger Games. Small and dense, they sink to the bottom of the water, rippling out unsettling questions as they settle into my world-view. On the surface, the story is a simple one- A girl with two boyfriends, a contest and heroic acts and victory. Sparking a rebellion that changes her country forever, battling danger and death and remembering to save the pet cat as she runs from her annihilated family home. And to add to the fun, there is fashion and drama, reality TV and romantic conflict.

Though I skimmed through the first book and was a little disappointed with the second, the finale of the trilogy is what made me want to write this. The girl who was on fire is burning out, and the book captures the hero's conflict more truly than the magical worlds of Harry Potter. What happens when you take teenagers and throw them into a battle-field? Are children really resilient enough to bounce back from killing and destruction to the innocent playgrounds of their childhood?

The protagonists of the book are no heroes, perhaps. Un-magical and ordinary people, who break down with torture and the constant killing that surrounds them. They wake up screaming every night. The sound of sirens sends them hiding behind warm pipes in laundry rooms, holding themselves together until it is gone. They are lost, and vengeful, and entirely human in their attempts to live. They hold up fragmented memories and question "Real, or not real"?

As teenagers, they question the nature of love. They question government policies and parental choices and popular opinion. And they cast both youthful glow and grim shadow, as they reflect on inane game shows, the price of war and the reality of heroism. It's not just the girl who is on fire. They all shine equally, even as they move towards the end of burning.

(The books: The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins)