The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is an astonishing achievement and a hugely impressive piece of writing. Suzanne Collins is the consummate story-teller, and Katniss Everdeen is a brilliantly voiced heroine. Written in the first person and in the immediate present Collins carefully constructed prose gives her protagonist both a believable voice and a thrilling sense of immediacy. You find yourself drawn into the book through an invisible magnetic bond that you cannot shake off.

As I read the book I found a strong echo of Stephen King, particularly in his earlier novels such as The Shining and The Stand. When I was a teenager King had an ability to grab me by the throat; I was unable to stop reading until the early hours of the morning as I breathlessly finished many of his novels. Although the Hunger Games is purportedly targeted at the “Young Adult” audience I think its themes are universal and transcend any notion of narrow audience boundaries.

Set in a dystopian near-future the plot revolves around The Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death game show where a boy and girl are chosen as “Tributes” from each of the twelve surviving districts of North America (which Collins calls Panem), to provide a gladiatorial entertainment for the masses. When her younger sister’s name is drawn Katniss volunteers in her place, alongside Peeta Mellark, a boy with whom she shares a history and their adventures begin.

If I had two very minor criticisms of the book they would be that the minor characters within the games are fairly one-dimensional, most being killed before their characters can be fully established. The other point that irritated me was the lack of any mention of the cameras that must be filming every move for the reality show. This seemed like an opportunity missed by Collins as I felt that the awareness of these cameras (and their possible destruction) could have added another dimension to the piece and a greater sense of realism. However these are very minor gripes in what was otherwise a truly remarkable book.

Suspend all belief and allow yourself to be carried away into The Hunger Games. Just remember to breathe (at least between chapters!).

Books to Read

I feel as though I need to develop insomnia if I’m to make any headway with my “To be read” pile, which stretches skywards in my study like a particularly malicious game of Jenga.

I’m currently reading “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins, having read both “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire” over the weekend. I don’t know which particular rock I was hiding under when these were first published but I’m slightly embarrassed that I missed out on them. However I’m really enjoying them now, hence the slightly obsessive blast through them. 

In some vague sense of establishing a sense of order the rest of the pile currently lines up as follows: -

1. Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé – Joanne Harris
2. The Light Between Oceans -  M. L. Stedman
3. Gillespie and I – Jane Harris
4. The Red House – Mark Haddon
5. Keeper – Andrea Gillies
6. About Last Night – Adele Parks
7. The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes
8. The Reconstructionist – Josephine Hart
9. Sweets from Morocco – Jo Verity
10. Your Blue-eyed Boy – Helen Dunmore
11. The Girl With Glass Feet – Ali Shaw
12. This isn’t the sort of thing that happens to someone like you – Jon McGregor
13. Unless – Carol Shields
14. The Accidental – Ali Smith
15. Strandloper – Alan Garner
16. Nail Your Novel – Roz Morris
17. From Pitch to Publication – Carole Blake.

Wow! I think I need to take a month off work to try and attempt a catch-up. Either that or a very long flight…Australia maybe?

blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris

I find that a novel is far more enjoyable if it offers a challenge and Joanne Harris’s ninth novel offers a host of them. It is a multi-layered book that will make you constantly re-assess exactly what you’ve been told whilst you try to fathom exactly where you’re being taken. It requires you to trust the author’s innate sense of truth and balance, and it doesn’t disappoint.

It has the feeling of a fiendish Japanese puzzle where all of the parts tessellate, but none seem to fit. Indeed Harris herself has likened to novel both to a Rubik’s Cube and the Lemarchand Box from Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” series. It is certainly as fiendish and in my view Harris’s writing has never been stronger or more deftly constructed.

I’ve always loved unreliable narrators (from Nick Carraway to Holden Caulfield) and in her two main protagonists blueeyedboy and Albertine Harris has created two deliciously unreliable storytellers. In a modern take on an epistolary novel they communicate through alternating blogs on a website called Badguysrock, and we all know that in the virtual world of the internet people are often not who they claim to be.

It’s difficult to comment on the intricate plot without revealing massive spoilers (a task which even the book jacket failed to achieve). However it is brilliantly plotted, and will keep you guessing at every turn, following the pattern that she established with Gentlemen and Players.

The book has attracted conflicting reviews, and Harris refers to it as her “Marmite” book (you either love it or hate it). Having now read it three times I’ve enjoyed it at every reading, despite the fact that I now where it’s going. I think it’s a work of genius and I feel privileged to have joined “#Team Marmite”.

Everything in the Garden by Jo Verity

Jo Verity’s debut novel is a fascinating read. The story is a straightforward tale of four sets of middle-aged friends who jointly buy a large rambling farmhouse in Wales, intending to grow old together. However, tensions grow within the group, particularly for the main protagonist Anna when her best friend’s husband Bill starts making passes at her.

For any novelist it’s quite a challenge having a group of eight main characters and creating sufficient differentiation between them that a reader can easily remember them and readily identify just who is who. I must admit that I resorted to making a little list of the four couples, just so that I could remember who was married to whom.

Also Peter and Mark are hardly mentioned, leaving just the six main characters to juggle, along with a large supporting cast of daughters, boyfriends and friends. The good news is that Jo Verity juggles with consummate ease, and she creates a readable and plausible story which relies more on emotions than upon simple plot devices.

Not everything in this particular garden is rosy and eventually the plot takes a progressively darker tone. I’d be interested to see Jo try writing a dark thriller; I have a feeling she’d be quite successful.

If I am being picky I think she could have concentrated a little more on the character of Prosser in the earlier stages of the book, particularly as he has such a key part to play later on. But her real strength as a writer is revealed in her deft handling of the character of Anna who is utterly believable with a credible voice. I found myself rooting for Anna on many levels, which must be a testament to the empathy that Jo manages to create.

If I’m being honest I think I would have to say that as a novel I preferred “Not Funny Not Clever” more. However given that this novel is a much earlier work it is well worth reading to see a writer honing her craft. For me “Everything in the Garden” is well worth cultivating.