AIBU to think hunger games is shit, derivative + not worth the angst?

[alistron1]

My DD's are into this, have read the books and TBH it's not a patch on Stephen King/Margaret Atwood etc in terms of dystopic fiction. The only worry I have about it is that like Harry Potter, Twilight etc young people are being marketed substandard fiction.

never heard of it. what's it about?

It's bang on for early teens imo. I would not like my child reading Margret Atwood and Stephen King.

It's great for younger readers and it's so refreshing to have such a strong female character in a book aimed at the younger market

YABU

It's not comparable to TwiSHITE at all

My fiancee & I are both > 30 and we both really liked it.

I think ds is a bit young - he is nearly 11 and is half way through the book but it has provoked so many interesting conversations, it's great discussion material.

Sil has lent me this. Haven't read it yet not sure if I will, tbh. There has always been young fiction that's rubbish. There was a series of horror books that were typical teen trash. That was 20 years ago. There is good and bad teen fiction.

Ummm Harry Potter is not substandard fiction.... As I remember Rowling is credited with encouraging children, particularly boys, to take an interest in reading.

I have no idea, haven't read it, haven't seen and can't be bothered doing so.

No angst about it here

There's precious few children who would be able to get the same out of Lisey's Story as they would The Hunger Games.

Not to mention the fact that King writes in a totally separate genre.

You're wrong. They are excellent.

It's just a rip off of the Japanese film, 'Battle Royale', that I watched about 10 years ago. Nothing original about it.

I enjoyed the books but then I am a sucker for dystopian sci-fi - it's not groundbreaking but thank god it's not sodding Twilight, which I find far more disturbing (not the vampires, but the horrendous message it sends to girls).

It's just a rip off of the Japanese film, 'Battle Royale', that I watched about 10 years ago. Nothing original about it.

Presumably you haven't actually read the book, then...
Because there really isn't much more than a superficial plot device in common.

The book is better than the movie. It's obviously influenced by other dystopian fiction- there is an 1980s post nuclear children's book that was very successful but I cant remember the title! Also city of ember, the running man, etc. something like the stand is at a more advanced reading level IMO.

I will quote someone I found off amazon which sums it up quite nicely:

"The stories of battle royale and hunger games are very similar. Very. They are centered around teenagers forced to kill each other, and only one can survive. The government, which is all-powerful, has put them there because they are trying to control some aspect of the country. Those running the "games" can alter the environment so the chances of conflict is higher. The kids have access to weapons, though what they can get isn't always equal to what someone else has. There's a romance between the two survivors. The two survivors break the rules in order for both of them to leave the "games."

There are on more than 5 occasions carbon copy almost exact scene's in hunger games that were in battle royale. So similar in fact i felt uncomfortable and also angry that koushun takami's story had been repainted and re sold by collins, you're talking odds of millions that these 5 scene's were thought of separately. I don't want to say the scene's because i don't want to spoil either book. But read both stories i guarantee you will be just as angry at me that the story you fell in love with wasn't suzanne collins story it was koushun takami's."

Well 14 yo DD2 loved the Hunger Games books, and the film. She's a discerning reader, so I'll trust her judgement.

Particularly as she thinks the Twilight books are trite crap.

YABU. I liked them. I think they are appropriate for teens.

I consider myself well-read particularly in the dystopic/post-apocalyptic genre and while I love Atwood I don't think a teen would enjoy it so much. And bar The Stand I don't recall any King books that belong to this genre.

Incidentally Battle Royale is what I initially thought but the books are very different.

The book is very good I think. I haven't seen the film. Whenever a popular action movie comes out, some know it all on Amazon always posts about how it's basically a remake of some old Japanese classic.

Well HP was a rip off of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings so what? Everything gets rehashed and re written eventually.

red have YOU actually read both books?

I have seen Battle Royale BTW but it was some time ago, I don't remember 5 specific scenes that were lifted from BR and duplicated in THG, but I admit my memory may be flawed.

The stories are superficially similar, yes. But the thrust of the story is not the same.

Battle Royale is about two young people who are in love fighting to overcome their repulsion at the necessity of the slaughter they find themselves in. It is about the nature of humanity, in all the different stories that play out across the "Battle".

The Hunger Games is not about that. It's about rebellion, about the viewer/viewed relationship, about the power of belief. The story arcs over not just a single game, but years of the character's lives.
(By the way, I think the movie of The Hunger Games was mediocre, and didn't portray the story well at all.)

So no. Not all that similar.
I would be interested to hear these five scenes, though. I can't think of any.

I remember a Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) about children in poverty who elected to run in a never-ending marathon until only one was left alive. It was such a sad story and I immediately thought of it when I heard the plot of The Hunger Games.

It's intensely irritating when people write things off as "just of a rip off of X, Y, Z". It's also incredibly lazy and devoid of any kind of critical thinking.

The concept is nothing new at all - and? Do you think every single other book written / film ever made is a completely original idea? Things can be a) not original and b) valued in their own right, all at the same time. That's not to say that there are no original ideas left just that...it's OK if a concept is re-used as well.

Battle Royale is just brilliant. IMO, so are The Hunger Games. There are many similarities. But there are differences too. As far as I recall, BR was set up as a deterrent to what was seen to be an increasingly violent and anti-social youth - an extreme pre-justice for the Japanese government in that story.

The Hunger Games are set up precisely to remind the population that they are completely under the control of the government, following a long history of repression, rebellion and civilian defeat. That they can set these games up and force the population to watch their children killing each other, because that's how much the government has control.

As for not liking them, well you're entitled to your opinion. You're not unreasonable about that. But they are well written within their genre. They promote difficult themes and navigate through very dodgy moral ground, where there is no simple right/wrong, truth/lie option. They are intelligent, and I would be happy for my future teenagers to read them. I read LOTR at 11 yo, The Stand at 12 - through my young teen eyes, I was able to discern the same murky moralities, the reluctant complicity of the protagonists and questionable actions of characters where there is no steadfast answer to the moral/ethical questions posed that The Hunger Games offers.