In the newest book in The Hunger Games series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, we dive into the world of Coriolanus or President Snow’s past. To redeem his family name and secure a scholarship at the university, Snow gets pulled into mentoring Lucy Gray Baird, a female tribute from district 12 in the 10th hunger games.
Catching Fire is an amazing second book in The Hunger Games series. It shows Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark’s victory tour and their struggles with being a “fake couple” for the media. It shows them returning to their homes in District Twelve. Katniss later has a forced meeting with President Snow. He says he doesn’t like the trick she pulled with the berries to show her defiance from the Capitol, and it’s starting an uprising.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a thrilling dystopian novel about a sixteen-year-old girl named Katniss Everdeen and her journey to survive the Hunger Games. Katniss lives in the broken, North American country of Panem, which comprises twelve districts and one Capitol. Each district produces a different good, such as coal or fish. These goods are later sent to the Capitol for them to have, and the districts are left with barely any food or money for themselves.
Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner presents a unique take on science fiction. It alternates between fast action and slow, rich, thoughtful, and visually stunning exposition and plot development. The movie, based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is set in 2019 Los Angeles, in an alternate future where flying cars, rain, and animated advertisements dominate the skyline.
The Giver is a novel written by Lois Lowry. The main character, Jonas, lives in a seemingly utopian society. This community is rigorous, has many rules, and is all about order. Many of the privileges given to the children are decided at different ages. When turning 12, the "Elders’ assign the kids their jobs. Jonas is assigned a rare job, the Receiver of Memory.
The Giver is a dystopian novel written by Lois Lowry. The main character, Jonas, lives in a seemingly perfect society where everything is the same and emotions are not experienced. After receiving his assignment as the new receiver, he is exposed to how fragile his community is and the true nature of the world. While training with The Giver, he learns more and more about the past. The harsh reality makes him question how his community works and what they value.
“They had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
Believe Me, by Tahereh Mafi, brings an end to the young adult dystopian Shatter Me series in the form of a novella centering around Juliette and Warner.
“Life isn't fair…It's taken me a while to get that. It's always going to disappoint you in some way or another. You'll make plans, and it'll push you in another direction. You will love people, and they'll be taken away no matter how hard you fight to keep them. You'll try for something and won't get it. You don't have to find meaning in it; you don't have to try to change things. You just have to accept the things that are out of your hands and try to take care of yourself. That's your job.”
