Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau

Independent Study the second in The Testing trilogy, continues the story of Malencia (Cia) Vale after she has made it through the Testing phase and is now a university student.

 After six months in the Early Studies program being run in Tosu City (formerly Wichita Kansas), Cia, Tomas and Will, are part of twenty students taking their examinations that will place them into their area of study and the career path that has been chosen for them by the government. The career paths include Education, Biological Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Medicine or Government. Those who do  not pass will be "Redirected", which Cia and the others are led to believe means they will be either sent home or sent to another job.  Cia hopes to study Biological Engineering but is stunned to learn that after passing the eight hour examination she is placed in Government studies. Her friend Tomas is selected for Biological Engineering, Will for Government and Stacia for Medicine while Obidiah Martinez is Redirected.

Cia knows that her memories were wiped after passing The Testing which was run by the United Commonwealth Government. She made a recording on her brother's Transit Communicator that told what happened during the testing and she knows that the testing included murder. But she doubts what was recorded so to try to determine the truth, Cia surreptitiously follows Obidiah as he is escorted by a University official to the TU Administration building. She discovers Obidiah's redirection is simply a euphemism for murder as she witnesses his body being removed. Dr. Jedidiah Barnes who is in charge of the testing process ordered Obidiah's redirection and tells an official that this is unfortunate but necessary.

Cia decides that she needs to leave Tosu City immediately. But when she attempts to do so, she is confronted by Tosu official Michal Gallen who tells her she cannot run away. Cia confirms what Michal suspects - that she remembers her testing. He tells her that she must stay and reveals to her that there is a group of rebels under the leadership of Symon Dean, who are determined to put an end to the testing. Dean plans to do this by convincing the president and members of the Debate Chamber to change the law and bring the testing process back under government jurisdiction. Dr. Barnes will be removed as head of testing and the process to find leaders for the Commonwealth will be what it was once meant to be - a process that does not include murder. A second more volatile faction of rebels, led by Ranetta Janke,  believes that Barnes and all the top administrators must be removed in order for things to change.

Michal tells Cia that she can help by continuing on the path the Administration has chosen for her. He tells her that her internship might provide her with information that will help the rebels. Michal also reveals to Cia that besides the three students from the colonies, there are sixteen students from Tosu City who did not have to undergo the testing but who wrote the exam and who have been specially prepared and were selected for Government. This means that Cia's chance to get an internship will be slim.

Professor Verna Holt who is in charge of Government Studies takes Cia to meet her final-year student who is to take the nineteen students to their new home. Groups of students are assigned to a study guide and Ian Maas is to be Cia's guide. Shortly after arriving in her room, Cia faces her first test in what is known as the Induction. She also meets with Professor Holt who informs her that because she has scored so well on the testing, she will be taking nine classes. Ian whom Cia now knows is the person Michal sent to help her, tells her that she is being watched very closely. While the first test was relatively easy, the second test is much more complex as the students are divided into teams of four. The goal is to obtain possession of all four markers upon return to Government Studies. Cia is chosen as a team captain and picks Enzo, Will and Damone.  Cia's team wins the Induction challenge, returning to the Government Studies building first. Other teams are not so lucky. Four students do not return, part of one team who failed. There are now twelve students remaining.

Ian warns Cia that because she was able to figure out the final part of the Induction so quickly, she has aroused the suspicion of Dr. Barnes and Professor Holt. He tells her to work hard and to wait to see what her internship will be. That internship turns out to be with the United Commonwealth President, Anneline Collindar. Cia meets with President Collindar who tells her that she is disturbed that so many students fail to graduate from the University and she asks Cia to trust her. They travel to Collindar's offices which are adjacent to the Central Government Building. Cia is surprised to see Michal working there and after taking her on a tour he fills her in on what is happening in the government.

Michal explains to Cia that although President Collindar is in charge, the power is really held by Dr. Barnes who is responsible for selecting the potential future leaders through The Testing program. This means that Dr. Barnes and his people actually control the Debate Chamber. Collindar is attempting to regain control of the government and the Debate Chamber. Michal explains that she is trying to make The Testing program accountable to the government once again but that Dr. Barnes is doing all he can to thwart this effort. If she cannot change the law, President Collindar may lose the presidency through a lack of confidence vote.

Both Collindar and Barnes are aware of the rebel faction wanting to change the testing; Collindar wants the change to occur peacefully but Janke's group is prepared to force the change by violent means if necessary. Michal tells Cia that Symon Dean feels the only way to win over the Debate Chamber is to prevent evidence of what The Testing really is by either audio or video recordings.

Because of something she saw during the final Induction trial, Cia believes that the rebels are camped out on the abandoned airfield outside of Tosu City. When she decides to bike out there one night she is attacked by Damone who tries to kill her, but Cia is saved by Raffe. After her trip out to the airfield proves her suspicions correct, Cia contacts Michal. He tells her that the Debate Chamber vote is just days away. Cia knows she needs to get firm proof of what's happening during The Testing to the President. When Raffe offers to provide that proof, Cia, Michal and Raffe uncover a betrayal none ever expected.

Discussion

Independent Study is a face paced, exciting read that keeps readers on edge from beginning to end. Between the tension-filled action scenes there are plenty of unexpected plot twists. This second  novel is a strong second book in the trilogy, revealing the heroine's purpose (to expose the deadly Testing and stop or change it) and strengthening the overall storyline. 

Narrated in Cia's practical voice, it provides readers with more of the back story to the United Commonwealth that was formerly the United States of America. Readers also learn more about the way the government is set up and how the testing is organized. There are however weaknesses in the novel's basic storyline. For example, it seems puzzling that government struggling to recover from a war and environmental catastrophe would set about killing off some of its best young citizens through a testing competition and afterwards in university.  Charbonneau has left open the possibility that "redirection" might mean something other than death for those who have failed. Nevertheless, the penalty for failure seems extreme given the state of the country.

Cia is a strong heroine - in fact too strong and too perfect - and it's her characterization that is the main weakness of this novel. She's brilliant at math and sciences, highly intuitive, more perceptive than her peers, is physically capable, and morally superior. It's no wonder fellow student, Damone hates her. Although her voice as narrator is realistic and engaging, she's too perfect, especially in comparison to the other female characters in the novel. Only President Collindar seems to measure up to Cia.

There are plenty of other characters; Ian, Michal, Tomas, Raffe, Enzo and Will - most of whom we really don't get to know more about. They are all supporting characters who help the main character, Cia, on her quest to expose The Testing for what it truly is. Her arch-enemy is shaping up to be Dr. Barnes, although he has yet to confront Cia directly. His interactions with her are mostly passive-aggressive, warning her in subtle ways against going against him. Charbonneau excels at keeping her readers guessing as to which characters might be working against Cia; Ian, Michal and even some of the other students are all suspects.

Despite these weaknesses, this novel was enjoyable. The ending has set up the final novel for what will surely be the end game between Cia, President Collindar, Dr.Barnes and Professor Holt.

Book Details:
Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt     2013
310 pp.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

"To them, the people in our city are just containers of genetic material --just GD's valuable for the corrected genes they pass on, and not for the brains in their heads or the hearts in their chests."

The final novel in the Divergent trilogy picks up right where Insurgent left off. Tris, Christina and Cara are prisoners inside the Erudite headquarters from where Evelyn now rules the city. Tobias (Four) Eaton is not a prisoner but his mother (Evelyn) suspects him of being a traitor. The story is now told by Tris and Tobias.

Tris now knows that an ancestor on her father's side, Edith Prior made the video that revealed the origin and purpose of the factions in the city. She states that the inheritance her ancestor passed on to her is "...freedom from the factions, and the knowledge that my Divergent identity is more important than I could have known. My existence is a signal that we need to leave this city and offer our help to whoever is outside it."  Tris needs to see what's outside the fence.

Tobias visits Tris, Christina and Cara and tells them that Evelyn has the city on lockdown and doesn't believe that they should help the people who put them in the city. He warns the three women that Evelyn will be using truth serum and if it works, they will be convicted as traitors.

 After questioning under the truth serum, which she knows how to manipulate, Tris is set free by Evelyn. Cara and Christina are exonerated.

The factions are now dismantled, citizens are encouraged to mix the clothing of all the factions, no more than four members of a faction may live together, and the boundaries of the city are patrolled by the factionless to ensure no one leaves. Former faction members must move closer to the Erudite building. Evelyn tells Tobias that they have learned that there is a rebel organization within the factionless that wants to leave the city. This rebel faction is called Allegiant because they believe that people should live in factions and that they are allied with the original purpose of the city to send Divergent out to help.

Tobias is uncertain as to his mother's motives for telling him about the Allegiant but he tells her he will find out who the Allegiant are. Tobias and Tris meet and discuss the issues they have with honesty and trust, promising each they will do better. After a deadly brawl, Evelyn institutes a curfew with guards patrolling the streets. There will be no more factions and everyone will learn and do the jobs the factionless did on a rotating basis.

Tris is asked to meet with the Allegiant at the abandoned headquarters of Candor. She tells Uriah and Christina that she needs to leave the city because she needs to know who Edith Prior was and she needs to know what is outside the city. At the Allegiant meeting Tris learns that Cara and Johanna Reyes are the leaders of the rebel Allegiant which also includes Susan, Robert, Peter, Uriah, Zeke, Tori, and Christina along with her mother Stephanie and her sister Rose as well as many others.

Cara and Johanna believe in the factions and the Divergent mission directive of Edith Prior to send people outside the city once there is a large Divergent population. They want to overthrow Evelyn and the factionless to re-establish the factions and they also want to investigate outside the city. It is decided that Johanna will attempt to overthrow Evelyn, while Cara will lead a group that includes Christina, Tris, Tobias, Tori, Peter and Uriah to explore beyond the city limits. Tobias rescues Tris's brother Caleb who is slated to be executed in two weeks time as a traitor and they take him with them outside the city.

Traveling in two trucks with Tris, Tobias and Johanna in one with the Christina, Uriah and Caleb in the bed of the truck, while Robert, Peter and Susan travel in the other truck. Johanna reveals that Amity patrolled the outer limit beyond their farms and anyone who traveled past that was given the Abnegation serum to reset their memory. Robert and Johanna drop the others off and return to the city. They don't travel far before they meet up with two people, Zoe and Amar in a large black truck. Amar was Tobias's mentor when he first came to Dauntless but he thought Amar was dead. 

They are taken to a United States government compound, which used to be O'Hare Airport but is now the headquarters of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare. There David, the leader of the Bureau tells them that they have only part of the information. A few centuries early the United States government wanted to encourage certain desirable traits in its citizens, eliminating certain trains like cowardice and dishonesty. They attempted to do this through genetic manipulation but this only created more damaged genes. For example, by eliminating aggression, motivation was removed. 

This resulted in a civil war, called the Purity War, with the loss of almost half the country's population. The Bureau was then formed and "designed experiments to restore humanity to its genetically pure state" The genetically healed humans were called Divergent. Their city was one of these experiments and the most successful one. David relates that "The factions were the attempt to incorporate a 'nurture' element to the experiments." They did not expect the Erudite leader to hunt down the Divergent or for the Divergent to come to the outside world. He also explains that with the use of cameras, they monitored the experiment and watched everything that unfolded in the city. This last revelation shocks all of the Allegiant members but especially Tris because it means they watched while the Dauntless went about under the attack simulation serum murdering people to save their experiment.  

They soon realize that the Bureau is involved in a series of wide-spread sinister experiments which are supposed to repair the genetic damage of the population as a whole. The level of manipulation and deception is so great that the Allegiant who have left the city - which they now know is called Chicago, realize they must act quickly to stop the next step. Will they succeed and what will be the cost?

Discussion

Allegiant is the final book in the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. The story in Allegiant is told by the alternating narratives of Tris and Tobias. Unfortunately there isn't much difference in the style of the narratives, meaning that it's easy to forget who is telling the story. Roth devotes a great deal of the novel to explaining the history of the city and the new society that Tris and Tobias encounter in order to set up the shocking climax of the novel. While many readers will not like what happens at the end, the dystopian genre is about a dangerous world where all does not necessarily end well.  In this way, Roth has stayed true to the dystopian genre.

Allegiant is an exploration of the themes of identity, forgiveness, and sacrificial love. It also explores the nature of scientific experimentation, asking readers to consider the purpose of scientific experimentation, specifically experimentation on humans and what can happen when the experiment becomes more important than anything else. At the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, Tris and Tobias learn that their city, which they now know is called Chicago, is part of a widespread genetic experiment to create genetic purity with the goal of eliminating wars. The scientists at the Bureau believe that wars are the result of genetic damage and that repairing this damage will lead to genetically pure humans, called Divergent, who are not predisposed to war. This has resulted in a new class system in the Bureau of genetically damaged (GD) and genetically pure (GP) individuals. The GD do the menial tasks while the GP are the scientists and researchers. 

However, it becomes apparent that not everyone believes in this narrative. Matthew who works on the serums for the Bureau tells Tris, "Some of the people here want to blame genetic damage for everything...It's easier for them to accept than the truth, which is that they can't know everything about people, and why they act the way they do."  Juanita (Nita) demonstrates that the premise of the Bureau's entire experiment is incorrect and she proves this with archival footage showing poverty and war from centuries before the Purity War when the population was supposedly genetically pure. Tris immediately has reservations when she learns of the history of the Bureau and the experiments and this is only further solidified when she visits the Fringe and sees the tremendous poverty there. She confronts Amar about war existing before the Purity War, but he tells her that if this were the case the Bureau would know about it. This tells Tris that he is either being lied to or misinformed. When she asks if they ever help the poor people in the Fringe he replies that such help is only a band aid solution and "that the best way to help our world is to fix its genetic deficiencies."  To Tris the Bureau's focus on fighting genetic damage in the face of such poverty is immoral. 

It becomes clear to Tris, when the Bureau's Council discusses the Allegiant uprising in Chicago, that their entire experimentation has become grossly unethical. David, leader of the Bureau decides to use the "memory serum virus" to reset the experiment; this means widespread memory erasure for everyone in the cities. Tris is horrified at this plan. "...They want to stop a revolution, not to save lives, but to save their precious experiment...why do they believe they have the right to rip peoples memories, their identities, out of their heads..."  Earlier, when Nita was explaining  the reality of the experiments, she tells Tris and Tobias,  "their entire lives erased, against their will, for the sake of solving a genetic damage 'problem' that doesn't actually exist." Tris remembers what Johanna told her that when a person's memories are removed, this changes who they are. David sees the people in the cities as "damaged" and that, without considering other alternatives, he is willing to harm them. It is clear the scientists in the Bureau have lost sight of the goal of science, to be in the service of mankind, and not to enslave it. Instead of working to help those impoverished and to stop crime they are working on a problem that doesn't exist. 

All of this sets up Tris, Tobias and the others to make the difficult decision between two terrible choices; to allow the Bureau to erase the memories of those in Chicago and elsewhere, or to erase the memories of the scientists in the Bureau and give them the truth about humans,  "that human nature is complex, that all our genes are different, but neither damaged nor pure." It means doing to the Bureau what they know is wrong in order to achieve a greater good. They rationalize their choice as the only way to stop the evil that the Bureau is doing, because as Tris states, "... this would be so much easier if we were dealing with a completely different set of people who could actually see reason. Then we might be able to find a balance between protecting the experiments and opening themselves up to other possibilities."  One may not do an evil act in order to prevent another evil, even if it is a greater evil.  Unfortunately, there are not always easy solutions.

Allegiant explores the theme of identity. After the reveal of what their city was, a long-running genetic experiment, Tris notes, "Just after my mother died, I grabbed hold of my Divergence like it was a hand outstretched to save me. I needed that word to tell me who I was when everything else was coming apart around me. But now I'm wondering if I need it anymore, if we ever really need these words, "Dauntless,"  "Erudite,"  "Divergent," "Allegiant," or if we can just be friends or lovers or siblings, defined instead by the choices we make and the love and loyalty that binds us. " 

In the Bureau, people are divided into genetically damaged and genetically pure. For Tobias, who is now labelled genetically damaged, he struggles with his self worth but Tris tells him this doesn't matter to her because it doesn't change who he is. 

Tris Prior is the central character in the Divergent trilogy. Roth has crafted an intelligent, courageous character who is also vulnerable. As her world devolves into conflict, Tris finds herself struggling to find her place of belonging because she doesn't fit into any of the factions and therefore, her identity remains confusing.  It is a theme common to many young adult novels. She grows throughout the three novels, gradually maturing through her mistakes and in her relationships with others. She learns to forgive, and more importantly to love even if it means dying. 

When Tobias doesn't listen to Tris and sides with Nita, causing Uriah his life, she is angry that yet again he hasn't trusted her. However Tris begins to look at Tobias and try to understand how the abuse by his father Marcus and the abandonment by his mother Evelyn has affected him. "I was right to say that he was desperate, desperate for a connection to Evelyn, desperate not to be damaged, but I never thought about how those things were connected. I don't know how it would feel, to hate your own history, and to crave love from the people who gave that history to you at the same time. How have I never seen the schism inside his heart? How have I never realized before that for all the strong, kind parts of him, there are also hurting, broken parts. Caleb told me that our mother said there was evil in everyone, and the first step to loving someone else is to recognize that evil in ourselves, so we can forgive them. So how can I hold Tobias's desperation against him, like I'm better than him, like I've never let my own brokenness blind me?"  Tris realizes that if she and Tobias are to stay together, they will have to forgive one another again and again. 

While Tris can find the empathy that leads her to forgive Tobias for his lack of trust in her, forgiving her brother Caleb for his betrayal is much more difficult.  It is only when she sees Caleb as the brother he is, "smart and enthusiastic and observant, quiet and earnest and kind." that she knows for certain she can't deliver him to his own execution in the Bureau. She has forgiven him for betraying her to Jeanine Matthews so completely that she offers her life in place of his. Tris recognizes that she doesn't belong to any faction but that she belongs to those she loves.  "I don't belong to Abnegation, or Dauntless, or even the Divergent....I belong to the people I love, and they belong to me -- they, and the love and loyalty I give them, form my identity far more than any word or group ever would."

Author Veronica Roth seems to have struggled to craft her characters fully until Allegiant. Readers were introduced to those characters in Divergent, but that novel focused on the world-building aspect of the story.  Insurgent was so action-driven, the reader never got the chance to feel invested in any of the characters, many of whom died. In Allegiant we finally get some depth to Tris, Tobias, Caleb, Marcus and Evelyn. It is this depth that makes Tris's death so tragic, because the reader has come to admire her courage and her determination to do what is right. It's not the ending the reader wants.

Allegiant is a lengthy novel, but definitely an easier read than its predecessor, Insurgent. The more linear story line, the filling in of the back story and the addition of only a few new characters make Allegiant a mostly enjoyable read with a truly heart-breaking ending.

Book Details:
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Katherine Tegen Books    2013
526 pp.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire is the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy. It opens with Katniss and Peeta preparing to go on the Victory Tour which occurs halfway between the annual Hunger Games. Both Katniss and Peeta now have homes in the Victor's Village  with Katniss sharing her home with her mother and sister, Prim. 

Katniss would like nothing better than to forget the Games, "But the Victory Tour makes that impossible...it is the Capitol's way of keeping the horror fresh and immediate." She dreads being the star of a show that celebrates this horror knowing she will be facing families whose children she killed to survive.

Before meeting up with Effie Trinket, Cinna and the others to travel on the tour, Katniss visits the woods to check on the snare line for her friend Gale Hawthorne.  Gale now works in the coal mine every day except Sunday so he has no time to take in extra food for his family. Katniss has taken over this responsibility.  Katniss takes the snare line kills to Gale's mother, Hazelle and then visits the Hob to buy white liquor for Haymitch.  At Haymitch's house, she rouses him from a drunken slumber. Peeta arrives but it is evident that things are not well between him and Katniss, something Haymitch notes.

The situation is even more troubling when Katniss arrives at her house to discover an unexpected visit from President Snow. Snow indicates to Katniss her act with the poisonous berries in the Hunger Games, where she and Peeta threatened to kill themselves by eating the berries, has become a huge problem for the Capitol. Seneca Crane, the head Gamemaker did not kill them both but allowed two victors. While those in the Capitol viewed this as an act of love, in the Districts is was seen as an act of defiance. He tells her that "...if a girl from District 12 of all places can defy the Capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to stop them from doing the same?..What is to prevent, say, an uprising?" This comes as a complete surprise to Katniss who has no way of knowing what is happening outside of District 12. Snow warns Katniss that should the Capitol lose control over the districts, the entire system would collapse.

Snow reveals that he knows Katniss doesn't love Peeta and that she disappears into the woods every Sunday with her "cousin", Gale Hawthorne. Katniss and Peeta have resumed their cool relationship while she has continued to meet with Gale whom she considers as a good friend. He then threatens her that if the situation is not resolved satisfactorily and convincingly there will be deadly repercussions. President Snow warns Katniss that the upcoming Victory Tour is the only opportunity she will have to turn things around by demonstrating her love for Peeta thereby confirming the berries incident was an act of love rather than defiance. This will reduce the potential for uprisings. She agrees to this but Snow warns her she must convince him. Just before he leaves, Snow indicates that he knows about "the kiss" - a reference to the one time Katniss and Gale kissed in the woods. This tells her that she is being watched more closely than she realized.

Katniss tells no one about her conversation with President Snow until she is on the train setting out on the tour. On the victory tour several important things happen. When Katniss confides in Haymitch about her conversation with President Snow, he tells her she will never have a future with Gale and that she will have to marry Peeta. As future mentors, each year their "romance" and private life will be revisited. She will have to marry Peeta if she wants to protect those she loves. This is something Katniss had not realized. 

From the beginning, the Victory Tour is a disaster. When their tour arrives at District Eleven, Katniss and Peeta announce that one month of their winnings will go to the families of the two tributes from that district (Rue and Thresh). As well when Katniss apologizes and thanks the District for their support she is honored by Rue's mockingjay whistle and the three-fingered salute, considered by the Capitol to be an act of dissent. As they are leaving the stage, Katniss witnesses the man who initiated the mockingjay whistle being shot in the head. Intending to show her gratitude to the people of District 11, Katniss realizes that instead she has elicited dissent. 

At this point, Katniss and Haymitch tell Peeta about President Snow's threats and he is understandably furious. As the tour continues, Katniss recognizes the defiance of the people in Districts 8, 4 and 3, who see her as a symbol of resistance, chanting her name. When it ends in the Capitol, knowing they have not succeeded in quelling the defiance, Peeta and Katniss attempt a public marriage proposal. But according to President Snow, this is not enough. Desperate, Katniss decides she will flee into the woods, taking her family, as well as Gale and Peeta and their families and Haymitch.

At the party at President Snow's mansion, Katniss meets the new Head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee. As they are dancing, Plutarch shows her the face of his watch which has a mockingjay image, exactly like the pin Katniss wore during the Hunger Games. This strange encounter is puzzling to Katniss but she is preoccupied with her plan to escape from District 12 and so she doesn't realize what Plutarch is attempting to reveal to her. 

When Katniss returns to District 12 she visits Madge, the daughter of the district's mayor. In the mayor's home she is shocked to see television coverage of an uprising in District 8 which is brutally suppressed. In the woods, Katniss meets up with Gale who initially agrees to leave, but when he learns about the uprising in District 8, he changes his mind. Gale is determined to become involved in fighting against the Capitol and won't abandon those families who cannot leave.  Gale, now furious, returns home only to be caught by the new Head Peacekeeper, Romulus Thread with Unfortunately, Gale is arrested and whipped by Thread, a brutal man who is determined to enforce the Capitol's laws. 

After the Hob burns down and as Gale is recovering, Katniss meets two refugees in the woods, Bonnie and Twill who have fled the uprising in District 8. They show Katniss a round flatbread with the image of a mockingjay stamped on it, telling her they are on her side. Bonnie and Twill provide Katniss with more details about the District 8 uprising. They tell her they are headed for District 13 which they believe survived the war years ago, because they moved underground. Katniss is doubtful but Bonnie explains that District 13 has been left alone because they have nuclear weapons.  After helping Bonnie and Twill, Katniss discovers that in order to return home she must climb over the now electrified fence. Days later Katniss begins to suspect that Bonnie was telling the truth about District 13, because she is able to confirm Bonnie's assertion that any broadcast by the Capitol from District 13 is staged.

While Katniss is prepping for her bridal shoot, she learns that there has probably been a revolt in District 4 as well as District 3 and Haymitch reveals that District 7 and 11 have also rebelled. However, any thoughts of rebellion are cut short when President Snow announces that for the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games, the tributes will come from the existing pool of victors from previous games. This means that Katniss and either Haymitch or Peeta will have to compete again in the arena. Katniss cannot bear to face the horrors of the arena once again, but she decides that since she and Peeta will likely be the tributes from District 12, they must work to save Peeta. But unknown to Katniss and Peeta, this time the games will have a very different ending, if the rebels' plans work

Discussion

Catching Fire is the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy. It is well paced and unlike many second novels in a trilogy, it is well-written, furthering the plot while building suspense for the final novel. Catching Fire portrays the events that set up Katniss Everdeen as the Mockingjay, the symbol of rebellion against the Capitol. 

The novel picks up the story approximately six months after the Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta now have homes in the Victor Village, joining Haymitch who has been living there alone for years. Katniss and Peeta have resumed their cool relationship: Katniss remains cordial but indifferent to Peeta and is still focused on Gale Hawthorne who now works in the coal mines. But she quickly learns that any kind of life with Gale will never happen because the pretense of0 romance between herself and Peeta must be played out to the fullest if the three families are to survive unharmed.

In this second novel, the story focuses on Katniss gradually becoming the symbol of resistance to the Capitol, something she really doesn't want. The groundwork for this plotline was set up in the first novel when Katniss was given a mockingjay pin by her friend, Madge who knows only that it belonged to her aunt and was in their family for years. The mockingjay likely became a quiet symbol of resistance many years earlier. The mockingjay is a new bird that arose from the mating between the male jabberjays which were a Capitol muttation and weapon, and the districts' native mockingbirds. The mockingjays went on to survive and replace the jabberjays. As a result, people viewed the mockingjay as a symbol of overcoming the  Capitol. Katniss wore Madge's pin during the Games, believing it was simply a token from her district not realizing its significance. President Snow most certainly does.

Rue's mockingjay song, continues the mockingjay as a sign of resistance When Katniss and Peeta arrive in District 11 for the first part of the Victory Tour, they are greeted with Rue's mockingjay song as a show of support for what Katniss did in the arena. This results in brutal action by the Peacekeepers. The mockingjay appears unexpectedly in the Capitol when Katniss meets Head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee, who reveals the bird on his watch face. At this time Katniss simply believes  the Head Gamemaker is being superficial. 

However, Katniss doesn't want to become the face of resistance. She wants to flee. She believes it's her fault that the situation is becoming volatile. But Gale tells her, "You haven't hurt people -- you've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it. There's already been talk in the mines. People who want to fight. Don't you see? It's happening. It's finally happening! If there's an uprising in District Eight, why not here?"  

However Katniss begins to reconsider when District 12 is targeted by the Capitol. The new Head Peacekeeper brutally whips Gale for poaching, burns down the Hob and has the fence permanently electrified. Katniss begins to see that running away is an act of cowardice. While she never thought what she did with the berries in the Hunger Games was an act of defiance, she begins to realize that "it isn't enough to keep myself or my family or my friends alive by running away. Even if I could, it wouldn't fix anything....At some point, you have to stop running away. Even if I could, It wouldn't fix anything. It wouldn't stop people from being hurt the way Gale was today...At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it." Katniss realizes that there is no way to protect those she loves, that she must act and that Gale is right. "He's also right that since I have set it in motion, I could do so much. Although I have no idea what exactly that should be. But deciding not to run away is a crucial first step."

It is when Katniss encounters District 8 refugees, Twill and Bonnie who show her a wafer of bread with the mockingjay insignia and tell her "It means we're on your side." that she begins to wonder "Am I unwittingly the face of the hoped-for rebellion? Has the mockingjay on my pin become a symbol of resistance?"

The 75th Hunger Games and third Quarter Quell see the male and female tributes reaped from the existing pool of victors. This is done "...as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol..." Katniss realizes as a victor, she and the others "...are the very embodiment of hope where there is no hope. And now twenty-three of us will be killed to show how even that hope was an illusion."  It is clear that President Snow is determined to stifle the growing flames of rebellion against the Capitol. If he can kill off the victors, no one has any hope.

What Katniss is not aware of however, is that there are many people involved within the Capitol and amongst the victors who are working to advance the rebellion.  In the Capitol, preparing for the Third Quarter Quell Hunger Games, both Peeta and Katniss, their prep teams and the other victor tributes commit acts of rebellion. During their time with the Gamemakers, Peeta paints a picture of Rue to hold the Gamemakers accountable for killing her while Katniss hangs a dummy of Seneca Crane who was murdered by Snow to show she's not a game piece in their Games. Katniss wants to give hope to the rebels by making it clear that she's defying the Capitol the end. She doesn't want "...to play the Hunger Games by the Capitol's rules." She knows Snow wants her and Peeta dead but Katniss is determined that Peeta survive because he can win people to the rebellion.  

Cinna takes rebellion to the next level by reworking her wedding dress chosen by President Snow so that Katniss becomes the mockingjay - the symbol of the rebellion. And Peeta stirs up the Capitol even further by claiming not only are he and Katniss married but that she is pregnant. This causes chaos with all the victors joining hands "...in what must be the first public show of unity since the Dark Days." Everyone in the districts and the Capitol will have seen this unexpected act. Haymitch tells them that "Even the idea of opposing the Capitol's agenda is a source of confusion for the people here..."  Katniss knows Snow will not back down and cancel the games but that he will hit back hard. He begins by killing Cinna as Katniss is launched into the arena. 

It soon becomes evident that some of the victors are working to help Katniss and Peeta - something Katniss notes but cannot explain. She is puzzled by Finnick's apparent willingness to help her and Peeta: he doesn't kill her at the Cornucopia, and he saves Peeta's life later on. She also realizes that Beetee is working to destroy the arena's force field, although Katniss believes it is just an act of rebellion when in fact it allows District 13 to rescue her, Beetee and Finnick.

On her way to District 13, Katniss learns the truth about what is happening, that there was a larger plan by the rebels to save her and Peeta with the help of tributes from Districts 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 11. She learns that Plutarch Heavensbee has been working with the rebels for years - the reason for the mockingjay on his watch -  and that she has become the face of the rebellion. This enrages Katniss who feels used. "It's an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which I was a piece, just as I was meant to be a piece in the Hunger Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Hunger Games, I knew I was being played with." 

Plutarch explains that the tributes were working to keep her alive.  "We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Katniss...While you live, the revolution lives."   Katniss begins to realize her role. "The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion." She never understood nor was she meant to understand.

 

Collins continues to develop the main characters in this novel as believable, unique people who are faced with difficult choices. Katniss is struggling to process her experiences in the Hunger Games and her changing relationships with both Gale and Peeta, as well as with her mother and her sister Prim. Peeta, who is honorable and good,  and who loves Katniss, must process betrayal. Gale, who is Katniss's closest friend, is fueled by such intense anger that he's determined to be a part of any rebellion. Effie Trinket is the face of the Capitol, seemingly shallow and yet not quite indifferent to the suffering of the tributes, especially Katniss. She is beginning to view Peeta, Katniss and Haymitch differently.

The ending is the perfect setup for the final novel, Mockingjay. With Peeta and Johanna now prisoners in the Capitol, and District 12 bombed and burned to oblivion, Katniss must come to terms with what has happened. Will she step forward, to become the face of the rebellion ? How will the inner conflict she is experiencing over Gale and Peeta be resolved? This trilogy is likely to become a classic in the canon of young adult literature and unlike many book to film endeavours, appears to have a decent movie adaptation as well.

Book Details:
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Inc.     2009
391 pp.

Rise by Anna Carey

This novel is the third and final installment in the Eve series, picking up where Once left off. Caleb is dead and Genevieve has been married off to Charles, her father's right hand man. Genevieve's (Eve) father continues his draconian control of the City. Moss, a rebel who goes by the name of Reginald in the City, seeks out Eve as the plans for the attack by the rebels on the City move forward. He brings her a substance to poison and kill her father, so rebels can gain control of the City. They were unable to procure ricin, a deadly poison and instead Eve is given oleander extract to use. Moss instructs Eve to place the poison in her father's medication and that this will signal the start of the attack on the City. Once the attack begins, Eve is to leave and remain in a safe place for several months until order is restored.

Shortly after, Eve learns that she is pregnant. Her father believes this is Charles baby, however he is unaware of the true nature of Eve and Charles' "marriage". When Charles is told of the pregnancy, he does not reveal the truth that the baby is not his but tells the King that he is very happy.

Eve manages to place the poison in her father's medication and he becomes ill immediately afterwards. At this time the attack on the City by the Outlander rebels commences but does not appear to be succeeding. When Eve witnesses the execution of several rebel leaders and her father begins to suspect that she has played a part in both the attack and his illness, Eve knows she is in great danger and must leave. She barely manages to escape the City, taking with her Clara and many girls from the hospital. Originally, Eve had wanted to take Charles and his mother with her when she left, but that was not possible.

The group led by Eve travel west, hoping to reach Califia and safety. When they finally reach the colony of Califia, Eve is told by Quinn what has been happening in the City since her escape. Her father, in an attempt to discover her whereabouts, continues to arrest and interrogate Palace staff. Those who are interrogated do not return. The bodies of those executed remain hanging in front of the Palace. Eve realizes that unless she kills her father, she will never be safe, that he will continue to hunt her. She also knows that young girls will continue to be abused under her father's government. With this in mind, and despite being more than 3 months pregnant, Eve decides to travel back to the City with the expressed intent of confronting her father. Can Eve save what is left of her life and prevent other young women from meeting the same fate as Ruby and Pip?

Rise was a somewhat disappointing anti-climatic ending to the Eve trilogy. Readers will find themselves somewhat disappointed with the ending of the novel which is somewhat subdued, despite Carey tying up some of the lose ends. Readers are left with many questions; what happens in the City after its collapse, what happens to Eve, who were the fathers of all the babies, and is New America reunited? And what about Eve's a heart-stopping discovery? What comes of that?

Rise focuses more on action rather than the relationships between the characters, mainly because most of the important characters are absent in this third novel. Caleb is already dead, Moss is killed, and Charles and Eve's father remain in the city when Eve escapes. Carey removes all of these important characters from her story, thus taking away most of the emotional impact, the suspense and more importantly, the conflict and the romance. Eve spends most of her time traveling in Rise, as the novel focuses on her attempt to get nine girls to the safety of Califia. Focusing on the main character traveling from point A to point B and back to point A slows the pace of the novel, weakening the interest of the reader. There's almost no conflict and very little danger as a group of nine girls, one seriously injured and one pregnant, traipse through the wilds of post-apocalyptic America.

The death of Caleb in Once, turns out to be the emotional climax of the series, and yet is treated only superficially in that book. But Eve's discovery at the end of Rise should have been the emotional climax of the trilogy. Instead, it got a few bland paragraphs at the very end of the novel, leaving the reader disappointed. The same thing happens with Moss' death and also the death of another significant character in the novel. They are treated superficially, with almost no emotional investment by the main character, Eve. Overall, Carey had a good story but didn't take full advantage of opportunities to make her story really crunch.

Rise is not a bad effort, but it is a disappointment to those who truly enjoyed and were pleasantly surprised by the first two books of the trilogy.

Anna Carey is working on another set of books to be published in 2014 and 2015 called Blackbirds. You can learn more at her website, Anna Carey Books.

Book Details:
Rise by Anna Carey
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books 2013
310 pp.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

It is the day of the reaping. Panem is the country that was formed after a series of  environmental disasters and a brutal war over what land remained. Initially Panem was a peaceful, prosperous country. It consisted of the Capitol, located in what used to be called the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by thirteen districts.  However, the districts rose up against the Capitol in what came to be called the Dark Days. Twelve districts were defeated, and the thirteenth District was destroyed. 

The Treaty of Treason was signed in which the Hunger Games were implemented. Each year, on what is called Reaping day, each of the districts must provide a boy and a girl, called tributes, to be sent to the Capitol. There they fight to the death in the Hunger Games, in an outdoor arena. The last tribute alive is the victor who receives gifts and wealth. That victor is expected to mentor the next year's tributes from their district.

The Hunger Games are a punishment for the uprising of the districts and a reminder to them that the Capitol is in absolute control and rebellion will not be tolerated.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in the poorer part of District 12 known as the Seam with her mother and her twelve-year-old sister Primrose (Prim). District 12 is located in a region known as Appalachia. Their house is almost at the edge of the Seam, near a pasture called the Meadow. Katniss and Prim's father died in a mining explosion five years earlier. Their mother went into a deep depression and was unable to care for them, resulting in the family almost starving to death. However, Peeta Mellark, son of the local baker, saved Katniss and her family by providing them with two loaves of freshly baked bread, loaves that Katniss believes he deliberately burned so they could be discarded. It was after this that Katniss spied a dandelion and realized that she knew how to save her family from starving. She learned to gather greens from the meadow and to eventually hunt outside the fence that surrounded the district, bringing home rabbit and squirrel to eat or trade for other supplies.

Katniss has awoken early on this reaping day to meet up with Gale Hawthorne, a handsome boy who shares her love of hunting. The two share a goat cheese Prim has prepared and discuss the reaping. Gale suggests they consider running away from the district to live on their own but Katniss knows this is impossible as they both have younger siblings at home. After fishing. harvesting greens and strawberries they head back to the district and the reaping ceremony.

Those children between the ages of  twelve and eighteen are eligible for the Reaping. At age twelve, your name is entered once, at age thirteen, twice, and so on  until at age eighteen children have seven entries. But those who are poor and hungry can obtain extra food in exchange for a tesserae. One tesserae entitles one person a year's supply of grain and oil. Katniss has been adding three tesserae each year, so now at this Reaping her name is in twenty times. Gale who has younger siblings, has his name in forty-two times.

This is Prim's first reaping. The Reaping ceremony is held in District 12's square. Attendance is mandatory, with the children sorted into pens by age. A temporary stage has been set up in front of the Justice Building with chairs and two glass balls containing the entries. On stage is Mayor Undersee, and Effie Trinket, District 12's escort in her spring green suit and pink hair. The mayor reads the history of Panem and the list of the two past victors from District 12, only one of which, Haymitch Abernathy is alive. He arrives very drunk and stumbles to his chair. Effie begins the draw for the tributes and the first name called is that of Primrose Everdeen. 

Horrified that her young sister has been selected, Katniss runs to the front, screaming that she will volunteer instead. She is accepted but when Effie asks for a round of applause, no one complies. With Prim hysterically screaming, Gale hauls her away from Katniss. Suddenly and quietly, everyone in the square gives Katniss the old and rarely used gesture of respect in the District, that of three fingers on the left hand held to the mouth and then raised. Haymitch staggers over to Katniss, praising her before falling off the stage and knocking himself out. The boy tribute is Peeta Mellark, son of the baker. Katniss insists they are not really friends but she does remember how he saved her family from starvation by giving her two burned loaves of bread. After the reading of the Treaty of Treason and the playing of the national anthem, Katniss and Peeta are taken into the Justice Building to say goodbye to their families.

Katniss offers Prim advice on how to survive and asks Gale to help look after her family. She is also visited by Peeta Mellark's father who brings her cookies and tells her that he will watch out for Prim. Madge, daughter of the mayor quickly visits to give Katniss the gold pin she was wearing and has Katniss promise to wear it in the arena. Katniss realizes the pin is of a mockingjay. During the rebellion by the districts, the Capitol bred muttations which were genetically altered so they became weapons. The jabberjay was one such creature, used by the Capitol to spy on the districts. It could memorize and repeat human conversation. These male birds would return to the Capitol providing them with tactical information. When the rebels discovered the jabberjays abilities, they fed them misinformation, leading to the Capitol to eventually abandon them to die off. However, the jabberjays mated with female mocking birds, creating mockingjays who could repeat human melodies and bird songs. They became a sign of the rebellion's ability to outwit the Capitol. Gale also comes to say goodbye and urges Katniss to make sure she is armed either with a knife or better, a bow and arrows. 

Then she and Peeta are whisked away on the high-speed tribute train to the Capitol. On the train Katniss and Peeta are fed delicious rich food and watch the recap of the Reapings with Effie. Haymitch continues to be profoundly disinterested in helping them. Katniss begins to struggle with her feelings regarding Peeta who is kind to her. She reflects back on how his act of kindness saved her and her family, and led to her being able to find  food to allow them to survive. She was able to eventually master the bow and arrows her father made for her.

Eventually Peeta, but especially Katniss confront Haymitch who promises to help them as long as they don't interfere with his drinking.  Cinna and Portia work with Katniss and Peeta to make them unforgettable to the people and the Gamemakers, creating Katniss as "the girl on fire".  Meanwhile, Haymitch develops a strategy with Peeta to make them appear to be in love, creating the unusual angle of star-crossed lovers. This strategy, without Katniss's approval, leads to tension between her and Peeta. While Katniss wants to win the games so she can return home to Prim and her mother, she also doesn't want to harm Peeta. Can she pull off Haymitch's plan and win the Games?

Discussion

The Hunger Games is the first novel in the trilogy of the same name by author Suzanne Collins. The novel, a dystopia, explores the theme of children in war, reparations in war, and violence and terror as a means of control.

The Hunger Games is a contest held in a vast, open arena where children, between the ages of twelve to eighteen, from each of the twelve remaining districts of Panem, fight one another to the death. The games are both a punishment for the rebellion of the districts and a reminder of the power and absolute control the Capitol holds over all of the people from the districts. Any further rebellion will bring about total destruction like that of District Thirteen. 

The novel is divided into three parts, Part I The Tributes, Part II The Games, and Part III The Victor. It is narrated by the heroine, sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to replace her sister as the girl tribute for District 12. Katniss is a survivor, having almost starved to death after the death of her father in the coal mines, and the mental breakdown of her mother afterwards. Using the hunting skills and wood craft taught to her by her father, Katniss is uniquely prepared for the games in a way that none of the other tributes are. Although the "Career Tributes" who come from the wealthier District 1, 2 and 4 are physically trained for the games, they do not have the skills that Katniss has. She not only knows how to hunt, but how to hide and survive in the wild. Before she leaves District 12, Gale reminds her of her exceptional abilities as a hunter. But Katniss tells him she doesn't hunt people. " 'How different can it really be, says Gale grimly. The awful thing is that if I can forget they're people, it will be no different at all."

The selection of Peeta Mellark as the boy tribute for District 12 leaves Katniss conflicted. Her goal is to win the Hunger Games, but to do so means she will have to kill Peeta as only one tribute can win. However, she is alive because of Peeta's act of kindness several years ago that changed the fate of Katniss and her family. Katniss doesn't know why Peeta risked a beating to feed her and her family. He continues to help her in the Capitol: he steadies her in the chariot procession, covers for her when she recognizes the Avox girl, and reveals her hunting skills to Haymitch. In spite of this, Katniss doubts his motives. leading her to believe that this is a ruse to lure her into thinking he is not a danger to her. "Don't be so stupid. Peeta is planning how to kill you...The more likeable he is, the more deadly he is." 

Further complicating the situation is Haymitch's strategy to have them be close friends, something both Katniss and Peeta object to. Katniss and Peeta have never been friends and she doesn't see the purpose because eventually they will be adversaries in the arena. Haymitch's request causes confusion in Katniss who doesn't understand Peeta's apparent interest in her. "It's weird, how much he's noticed me. Like the attention he's paid to my hunting," She also notes that she too has kept track of him, noticing that at school he's good at wrestling. This leads to the inevitable comparison to Gale with whom Katniss has a deep friendship. She's never questioned Gale's motives, whereas she finds herself always questioning Peeta's. Things become even more troubling for Katniss when Peeta admits to loving her during his interview with Caesar Flickerman. This only serves to infuriate Katniss but Haymitch explains that Peeta has made her look desirable and the two of them as star-crossed lovers. When she objects to this false role, Haymitch reminds her that it is a show and that playing the part of lovers may help one of them to win.

Katniss and Peeta have different approaches to the Hunger Games. Peeta is "...struggling with his identity. How to maintain his purity of self." He believes he will kill when the time comes but he also wants "...to show the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games." Katniss is more concerned with the practical realities of surviving the Games. However, throughout the time in the arena, Katniss's view of Peeta gradually changes. During the Games, Peeta continues to help Katniss:  he signals to her not to run to the Cornucopia, he joins with the Careers who are determined to kill Katniss  to protect her, he fights Cato allowing her to escape resulting in him being seriously injured.  Katniss realizes he's not her enemy and she's grateful for the advantages he's given her but she now dreads the possibility she may have to fight him to win.

With the change in the rules, allowing two tributes from the same district to win, Katniss focuses on playing along with Haymitch idea of star-crossed lovers. However, when Peeta explains how he has had a crush on her for years, this further complicates the situation for Katniss because she now wonders if what he's saying is the truth and not made up for the Capitol's consumption. "For a moment, I'm almost foolishly happy and then confusion sweeps over me. Because we're supposed to be making up this stuff, playing at being in love, not actually being in love."  Eventually, after the Games and on the train back to their district, it becomes painfully apparent to  Peeta that Katniss was being coached by Haymitch and that her love for him was an act. "I want to tell him that he's not being fair. That we were strangers. That I did what it took to stay alive, to keep us both alive in the arena. That I can't explain how things are with Gale because I don't know myself. That it's no good loving me because I'm never going to get married..." The novel ends with Katniss's conflict over Peeta unresolved and deepening. She owes her life to Peeta but while she doesn't love him, she has experienced something with Peeta that Gale can never understand. At the same time where does this leave her with Gale who has had to watch their "lovers" narrative during the Games?

In this first novel Katniss is gradually set up to become a symbol of rebellion. Katniss has the right character to rebel: she's bold and courageous enough to force the Gamemakers to notice her. Prior to the Hunger Games, during her private session with the Gamemakers, she becomes angry at their cavalier inattention. The purpose of the session is to highlight a particular skill in the hopes of getting sponsors during the games and of being ranked. However, Katniss finds they are focused on the roast pig complete with an apple in its mouth. "Suddenly I'm furious, that with my life on the line, they don't even have the decency to pay attention to me. That I'm being upstaged by a dead pig...Without thinking I pull an arrow from my quiver and send it straight at the Gamemakers' table. The arrow skewers the apple in the pig's mouth and pins it to the wall behind it." She has defied the Gamemakers and broken the rules. She is a game piece they had better pay attention to.

Katniss's experiences in the arena begin to change how she views the Hunger Games and the Capitol. Prior to the reaping, Gale was angry at Madge, the mayor's daughter who has a very slim chance of being selected because she has so few entries in the reaping. At this time, Katniss considered Gale's rage pointless because it changes nothing. However, with the brutal death of Rue, a young tribute whom Katniss felt protective of, she begins to understand Gale's rage and Peeta's desire not to be a pawn with no way to resist. "Rue's death has forced me to confront my own fury against the cruelty, the injustice they inflict upon us. But here, even more strongly than at home, I feel my impotence. There's no way to take revenge on the Capitol. Is there?" 

Her revenge takes the form of decorating Rue's body with beautiful wild flowers, to show that a child lost her life in the most brutal way, as entertainment. Katniss does this "...to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do there is a part of every tribute they can't own. That Rue was more than a piece in their Games. And so am I."  Rue's death changes Katniss. Her compassion for the dying young girl, forces the residents of the Capitol to face the humanity of  the tributes who they see as uncivilized and barbaric.  "Something happened when I was holding Rue's hand, watching the life drain out of her. Now I am determined to avenge her, to make her loss unforgettable, and I can only do that by winning and thereby making myself unforgettable." 

Katniss does just that when the Gamemakers revoke the decision to allow two winners. Knowing the Capitol must have a victor for the Games, Katniss knows she cannot, will not kill the one person who was responsible for saving her and her family years ago. She also refuses this final manipulation by the Garmemakers who have tortured her and ten other tributes in the name of entertainment. So she defies the Capitol, outwitting them at their own game by having Peeta and herself decide to die by poison rather than kill one another. They call the Capitol's bluff and are allowed to live. 

After the Games, Haymitch reveals just how dangerous this has become. He tells her "Word is the Capitol is furious about you showing them up in the arena." He tells her that she must continue to pretend that she is madly in love with Peeta as this is her only defense for concocting the double suicide. Katniss was only concerned about outwitting the Gamemakers not making the Capitol look bad. "But the Hunger Games are their weapon and you are not supposed to be able to defeat it. So now the Capitol will act as if they've been in control the whole time. As if they orchestrated the whole event, right down to the double suicide. But that will only work if I play along with them." 

Despite all her efforts to force the residents of the Capitol to see the humanity of the tributes and the reality of what the Hunger Games are, it is evident the message has not landed. When she's being prepared for the Victory Tour by her prep team, Katniss notices how self-absorbed they all are, talking about what they were doing or where they were when a specific event occurred during the Games. "Everything is about them, not the dying boys and girls in the arena."

The Hunger Games is a dystopian novel whose story is set in a post-apocalyptic United States. In a dystopia, world building is of prime importance and in this first novel, author Suzanne Collins begins to develop that world, called Panem which was formed out of the ruins of the apocalypse. It was a country comprised of the Capitol ringed by thirteen districts. Between the Capitol and the districts in the east are the Rocky Mountains, forming a natural protective barrier. For some reason, not revealed, the districts rose up against the Capitol but were defeated. The president of Panem, Coriolanus Snow resides in the Capitol. Citizens of the Capitol are wealthy and well fed. Katniss describes the city as so grand, that the cameras "...have not quite captured the magnificence of the glistening buildings in a rainbow of hues that tower into the air, the oddly dressed people with bizarre hair and painted faces who have never missed a meal." This is in stark contrast to life in the districts: District 12 where people labour in dangerous conditions in the coal mines,  have no running water or electricity, and not enough food to eat. Peacekeepers are stationed in each district.  

As punishment for the rebellion and also as a warning to never rebel again, the Capitol instituted the Hunger Games, in which children from the districts, named tributes were to fight one another to the death, until only one, the victor, remained. They have been a feature of life for the past seventy-four years, suggesting the Capitol has successfully ruled with an iron fist over the people of the districts.  Collins seems to have drawn from Roman history for this element of the back story. The name, Panem is a reference to the Latin saying, "Panem et circenses" or bread and circuses, a Roman strategy to provide bread and entertainment to keep the people of Rome content and draw their attention away from problems within the Empire. In the novel the Hunger Games replace the Roman gladiatorial games. The children selected for the games are called tributes, which in  Roman times was a tax paid by the people to the government. In the Hunger Games, the children taken in the reaping, are therefore the payment to the Capitol for the lives lost in the rebellion and insurance against future rebellion. This reign of terror seems to have subjugated the districts totally, with only isolated acts of rebellion mentioned.

Collins has populated her novel with characters who are not only interesting but who have memorable names. The heroine, Katniss Everdeen, bears the name of a traditional native plant and the character herself may be Native American given her description as similar to that of Gale with "straight black hair, olive skin" and gray eyes. The plants form tubers which can be harvested as described in the novel.  Katniss's sister, Primrose is named for delicate flower that has medicinal uses. This name is not surprising given that Katniss and Prim's mother is a traditional healer. District 12 escort, Effie Trinket offers readers the perspective of a resident of the Capitol and their view of people from the districts. For example, on the train, Effie expresses shock that Katniss and Peeta don't eat with their hands.

The Hunger Games is a refreshingly well written novel, picking up on the trend of dystopian novels in the young adult category. It explores the role of tyranny in maintaining control of a population and the theme of rebellion while offering a solid story with engaging characters. The second book in the Hunger Games will most likely focus on the repercussions of Katniss's actions at the conclusion of the games, and the further development of what appears to be a love triangle between Katniss, Gale and Peeta. It is hoped that there will be more character development of other characters important to the story including Peeta, Haymitch, Effie and Gale.

Book Details:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
New York: Scholastic Press 2008
374 pp.

Germania by John Wilson

Germania is a  novel about a Roman legion ambushed and slaughtered in the wilds of Germania. .The story is told by Lucius Quintus Claudianus, a member of the 19th Legion Scorpio, specifically the IXth cohort. In the opening chapter of Germania Lucius, nearing 100 years of age is living at his sister's grandson's villa just by the northwestern gate of the town of Herculaneum in 79 AD - the year of Mount Vesuvius' famous eruption which destroyed both Herculaneum and Pompeii. 

Lucius decides to write his story, "I have just returned from the roof and it is what I saw there that has prompted me to begin this tale. Although the sun still shines above and the sky to the west is as blue as a robin's egg, the picture is altogether different to the east. There a cloud hangs, turning the landscape below it as dark as midnight. It is no ordinary cloud, such as presages a thunderstorm, but an unnatural one that blossoms up in a vast column from the unknown depths of the mountain."

And so Lucius begins to tell us about the events that led up to a long forgotten tragedy, all the while unaware of the disaster about to unfold before him in Herculaneum. As a young apprentice signifer to the IXth Cohort, Lucius and a group of warriors are ambushed and captured by barbarians while on their way to Vetera to join the 19th Legion. They are quickly rescued by Cherusci warriors who are loyal to Rome and are part of the Roman Auxilliary forces. 

It is at this time that Lucius meets Freya, a Cherusci warrior who is travelling with her uncle Arminius. It is through Freya that Lucius begins to understand what life is like for the barbarian tribes that live on the borders of the Roman territory and what it is like to serve Rome but never be accepted as a an equal in Roman society. When Lucius offers Roman ways as a means to be civilized, Freya questions what being civilized will mean to her way of life and her tribe. It is this struggle to see the benefits Rome offers in contrast to the loss of a way of life and freedom that precipitates barbarian rebellion against Rome.

When the 19th Legion enters Illyria, Bato, leader of the Bruesci tribe rebels and attempts to force the Romans out of Illyria. The ensuing battle is described vividly and provides thrilling insight to Roman warfare. Although Bato is seemingly defeated this time, Freya soon comes to understand what her uncle Arminius is planning. When Arminius must choose between Rome and Cherusci, Freya must decide who she will be loyal to, Arminius, the Cherusci and their way of life, or Lucius and Rome.

Discussion

Germania is a novel that explores the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest which occurred in 9 A.D. The battle was fought between Roman soldiers and the Germani people. The battle began when the Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus were ambushed by the Germanic chieftain, Arminius. 

Arminius was a prince in Cherusci tribe, the son of the Cheruscan chief, Segimerus who was an ally of Rome. He learned to speak Latin, had Roman citizenship and was well educated. He eventually served in the Roman cavalry and became a commander in the auxiliaries. Arminius returned to Gaul where he served sd an officer in Varus's auxilia as well as a trusted advisor to Varus who was governor of Germania. But behind the scenes, Arminius was rallying the various Germanic tribes including the Cherusci, Marsi, Bructeri and many others to form an alliance against Rome.

Varus was considered a ruthless ruler in Germania and Arminius was not really loyal to Rome. Along with the other Germanic tribes, a plan was devised to ambush the three legions under Varus's command. Since the Roman army was well armed and very well trained, special tactics were needed. Arminius convinced Varus to set up a summer camp in Cherusci lands where they could be observed by the tribe. The plan was then to attack the Romans on their way back to their winter camp.

Arminius set his plan in motion, having his allies create unrest, while he influenced Varus's actions over the summer months. Varus began his move to the winter camp on September 7, 9 A.D with the XVII, XVIII and XIX Legions. Arminius left Varus, telling the Roman commander that he was organizing the Cherusci auxiliaries but in fact was organizing men from the Angrivarii and Bructeri to attack. The next day as the Roman army made its way through the Teutoburg Forest, they were attacked. Because of the dense bush, the Roman soldiers were strung out along a long line which made attack not only easy but successful. It is estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 Roman soldiers were killed, with a small number likely being enslaved. The Roman defeat was so complete that it shocked Emperor Augustus. Although the Roman defeat in the Teutoburg Forest is often listed as the main reason for limiting the Roman incursion in Germania, there were likely other factors at work as well.

Wilson's writing is vivid, exciting and he manages to include a great deal of historical fact and information about Roman legions in Germania. The ending while tragic is supremely satisfying. Highly recommended.

Book details:

Germania by John Wilson
Key Porter Books Limited 2008
278pp