The Hunger Games: A Young Adult Revisiting Young Adult fiction

I wasn’t like most teens. I was never one for what was ‘most popular’ or the ‘in thing’. I was different, from the major to the minor. This extended into my hobbies, including reading. 

Whilst I loved books as a child, you’d never catch me reading the ‘popular’ titles for my age; whilst others went off with Young Adult fiction, I’d be tucked in the corner with an Agatha Christie title. Whilst others progressed to your Lord of the Rings or Twilight, I’d be exploring a minor character from the Star Wars universe in their latest novelisation.

This theme even continued into one of the most popular Young Adult fantasy series ever – The Hunger Games. Besides the initial few chapters of the first book that we read as a class in school, I have never read The Hunger Games. When my boss learned of this recently, a book enthusiast herself, she was aghast, and the next time we were working together, I was given a set of the trilogy (she’d recently got a new set of collector’s editions!). So at the considerable age of 23, a young adult older than a young adult, it was time to dive in and catch up on yet another thing in my childhood I missed out on.

For context, I really enjoy The Hunger Games films; I grew up watching them, instantly clicked with the concept and enjoyed all four of the films as they came out in the early 2010s. 

Despite this, I had never read the books, but I already knew when I turned the first page that this was likely to be a book and a series that I’d enjoy. I had also read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes already, so Suzanne Collins’s writing was not entirely new to me. 

So, 18 years after being published, and a decade after I should have read it, how does The Hunger Games hold up to modern reading?

To put it simply, these books will be core young adult reading for decades to come. A wonderful exploration of humanity, morality, society and what it means to grow up under a repressive regime, The Hunger Games remains an exciting and engaging tale, suitably for young and old. The development of such complex characters in a way that’s not just entertaining, but appropriate to reach audiences without sacrificing the grittier, darker nature of their realities is a great exploration of humanity, even in a world so devoid of it.

The joy of re-reading this soon-to-be classic also speaks to the nature of reading ages, content guidance and development that I had never previously appreciated. At the age of 23, reading a book intended for a 13-year-old, this book is far below an appropriate level of challenge for me, but in doing so, as well as being aware of the general plot, allowed for a new level of appreciation. Remove the distinct challenge of tackling a challenging read and needing to understand a story for the first time, and you find yourself much more prepared to enjoy the language itself. To lose your hours in a book that is a technically-easy read, but one which allows you to immerse yourself fully, relax and become one with what you’re reading.

Despite my love of reading, I often struggle to find the time to read as much as I would like to, due to other commitments and tasks that need more immediate attention. Yet as I worked my way through The Hunger Games, I simply could not put it down. I would put off important tasks for an extra chapter, take it into work and stay up later than I should to get it read.

Finding a book that does that is difficult for my brain, especially one which struggles to focus on anything for extended periods of time. Yet even after all this time, despite being aimed for an audience half my age, The Hunger Games is still a shining beacon of Young Adult excellence.

So forget the age ratings. Forget what you ‘should’ be reading. Revisit your childhood, fill in the gaps of what you’ve missed, and go back to those titles you always wish you’d read – you never know just how enjoyable it might be.

Written by, Sophie Layton (she/her)