Thursday, May 6, 2010

Battle Royale vs. The Hunger Games


I would like to preface this by saying that I believe my interest in books involving controlling governments stems from reading The Giver when I was in school. Out of all the books we were assigned to read, few of them really struck me. But I'll still flip open The Giver (as well as A Wrinkle in Time, the only other book to leave a lasting impression on me from school) every now and then.
Originally, I had intended to write a comparison of Battle Royale, the novel, and Battle Royale, the movie. I started rereading the book, taking notes and then I realized that by the time I'd reached page twenty, I already had three pages of notes. It's 576 pages long. You can see where I'm going with this, right? That's what lead me to this comparison instead.
For a while now, I've been debating whether or not to read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I finally caved and began reading it on Monday. I finished it on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the book is only 374 pages. I've always enjoyed reading, and I never want books to end. I suppose it's forgivable, as the story is continued in two other novels, Catching Fire (which I have not read, but I did order it this morning) and Mockingjay (to be released in August). For the sake of this post, and also because I have no idea what happens after the first book, Catching Fire and Mockingjay will not be taken into consideration and I will treat them as if they don't even exist. All I know is what occurred in The Hunger Games.
There are massive spoilers ahead for both Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, so I suggest you stop reading this now if you don't want to know how either ends.