Finally just finished Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. I've written before about its similarity to Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, but now that I've read them both, it's time to throw them into the arena for a head to head battle to the death. Only one book survives! (And may I add, man, this would be a lot easier if I knew how to do columns on this blog.)
Round One: Originality
Battle Royale, a tale of teens forced to fight each other to the death in a dystopian future by a totalitarian government, hits print in 1999.
The Hunger Games, a tale of teens forced to fight each other to the death in a dystopian future by a totalitarian government, arrives in 2009.
Battle Royale 1, Hunger Games 0
Round Two: Characters
Battle Royale features cardboard characters who never seem real.
Hunger Games features skillfully drawn, interesting, three dimensional characters.
Battle Royale 1, Hunger Games 1. (ooh, this is getting interesting!)
Round Three: Prose Styling
Battle Royale is so poorly written it's hard not to cringe on every page. Wooden dialogue abounds, and the book features this, the single worst simile I've ever read. During a car chase, "The truck spun around like a car in a car chase."
Hunger Games is very well written throughout, thus allowing the reader to get lost in the story and not be distracted by the colossal ineptitude of the prose styling.
Battle Royale 1, Hunger Games 2!
Round Four: Moral Quandaries.
Battle Royale: I've said this before , but one of the things I most admired about this book was the way in which it made all of the things that merely seem like life-or-death issues to 14-year-olds actually be life-or-death issues. Since it's a class that's been together for years that is forced to fight to the death, all the alliances and old hurts resulting from crushes and tween/teen cliquishness become key to the action.
Hunger Games: Overall, I felt that the main characters never really have to confront the moral quandaries involved in what they are doing. Through a variety of plot contrivances, the kills we see end up fairly clean from a moral perspective. I think this is a missed opportunity.
Battle Royale 2, Hunger Games 2!
Round Five: Gore
Battle Royale: Incredible, stomach-churning gore all over the place. Every kill described in vivid, technicolor, blood-spattered detail. To the point where it's over the top and starts to seem like a desperate plea for attention on the part of the author.
Hunger Games: Some descriptions of wounds dripping pus, but, overall, the book is pretty clean. I think this is actually a weakness--I think killing should be gross. I think the violence is a little too clean, which makes it somewhat dishonest.
No points awarded this round.
Battle Royale 2, Hunger Games 2!
Round Five: Editing
Battle Royale, despite taking place over three days, clocks in at a staggering 624 pages. It's just way way too long.
Hunger Games: A comparatively trim 374 pages
Battle Royale 2, Hunger Games 3!
Round Six: Putdownability
Battle Royale: Definitely a compelling read, but I had to take a lot of breaks, primarily to rest my brain from all the bad writing.
Hunger Games: Compelling doesn't even begin to cover it. I read this faster than I've read books half as long. I simply couldn't put it down.
Battle Royale 2, Hunger Games 4!
Round Seven: Sequel Hunger
Battle Royale: Ends with definite sequel potential, but I really don't think I would pick up the sequel. Without the kill-or-be-killed scenario that carries this book, I don't think you'd have much left.
Hunger Games: The sequel, Catching Fire, is already making the rounds in advance reader copies. I can't wait to pick it up and find out what happens next.
Battle Royale 2, Hunger Games 5!
The Victor: The Hunger Games!
And so, with the sun setting over the arena where our books had been unjustly shipped to battle to the death, Hunger Games stood victorious over the immobile body of Battle Royale. Hunger Games pulled out its knife and sliced Battle Royale open, pulling the steaming intestines from its abdomen. With deliberate cruelty, it unwound the intestines and streteched them tight, then wrapped them around Battle Royale's windpipe and slowly squeezed the life out of the unworthy book.
The Hunger Games stood over the bloody corpse of its dead opponent and loosed a cry to the heavens. A cry of triumph, certainly, but also of pain at the horror it had been forced to endure, and of impotent rage at the authorities that had forced it to become something it never wanted to: a cold-blooded murderer.
Hey, that was fun! Let's do it again sometime! Suggest other competitors if you have some good ideas!
