My reading the book, Hunger Games got delayed by a few months simply because the book had been unavailable in Manila bookstores ever since the movie hit the big screen. So when I was in the US, the book was available but quite pricey. Price ranged from $15 to the hardbound edition which was $24.95. The trilogy edition was also available for $39.95. I did not want to part with the money, especially considering the price of the book in Manila is around 300 pesos. (or less than $10).
Walmart saved the day. A lone copy was sitting on the shelf at $5.99. Was a golden find.
I learned that the movie was huge in the Philippines. And the direct impact was people started to buy the book. This is actually a common trend among Pinoys (watching the movie then reading the book), probably with the exception of the Harry Potter series.
When I learned that Hunger Games was a teenager book, I got really scared. I have avoided the Twilight series on purpose because am not really a big fan of saccharine-sweet love stories. It was a delight that Hunger Games is none of that. Of course it has a love plot, in fact a triangle, but set in a completely different tone. Less of "I love you till the day I die", but more of "I will kill them for my love for you".
After reading the book, I learned that there was a controversy about the movie version. A rather serious one as it was about sexism and racism. Apparently, several readers of the books expressed thru Twitter their dissatisfaction on the movie casting. First were questions on the casting of Jennifer Lawrence in the title role. Some tweets argue that she was unbelievable as Katniss Everdeen given her body size. Honestly, I could have never imagined Jennifer as Katniss while reading the book. I actually did not recognize her right away since I know she has blonde hair. But she gave a riveting performance that made me forget that she is on the voluptuous side in real life. Her characterization also made me forget that the actress was 4 years older than the character, Katniss. She was a darn good actress and I fell in love with her character. She was adorable when she cared for others. She was adorable when she was feisty with others. So I did not understand the criticism.
The second and graver controversy was about the casting of Rue, Tresh and Cinna of black actors. Apparently, many readers had different images of the characters when they were reading the book. Although the book explicitly described Rue with dark skin, and Tresh with the same skin tone as Rue, readers complained and question why black actors were cast in the roles. Obviously, this I completely do not understand. The controversy arose from how the tweets were written, and they were outright racist, not even on the gray area.
Here are some coverage of the issue on the net:
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