First update gogogogo.
Part I: The Tributes
Chapter 1
Pages 1-20
”I try to forgive her for my father’s sake. But to be honest, I’m not the forgiving type.”
Summary:
In the first chapter we’re introduced to who I assume is our scrappy little heroine, 16 year old Katniss Everdeen. Katniss explains how she basically lives in a coal filled dirt hole called The Seam, and how pretty much everyone is really, really hungry all of the time. We’re also introduced to Katniss’ apparently negligent mother and her allegedly adorable 12 year old little sister Prim. We also discover that poor Katniss’ father was blown apart in a coal mining accident when she was just a little girl, but not before teaching her how to hunt and making her some sweet bows to shoot dogs with. Awe yeah. But I guess weapons of any kind are frowned upon by the government, so she has to be secretive with her animal slaughtering and selling for sweet profit.
Additionally, we meet Gale, an 18 year old guy that Katniss calls her best friend. Gale is a girl’s name.
At the end of the chapter, the whole population of The Seam gathers in the town square to hear who will be playing in The Hunger Games. The Games are a Battle Royale type tournament held once a year in which one boy and one girl, ages 12-18, from each of the 12 Districts is selected at random to participate. They all kill each other until only one is left; the winner being showered with food and riches for I guess the rest of their life? In addition, the winning District also receives very much needed governmental aide in the form of food and goods. And guess who is selected? Why Katniss Everdeen of course! No. Wait. That’s not true. It’s Prim.
Thoughts:
Only 20 pages in, but I’m digging this so far. Katniss seems like a bad ass already, so I hope that continues on. What’s up with the parents in this place? Katniss and Gale both talk about how they’re pretty much the only ones providing for their families. Katniss also mentions how she used to rage at her mom for letting she and her sister basically waste away to skin and bones. I don’t know if this point will ever be addressed, but I just found it kind of odd.
I really like how the drawing for the Games was set up. Rather than just having it be a straight lottery each year where 1 person = 1 slip, an additional slip with your name is added every year older you get. So when you’re 12, one slip with your name on it is in the pot. 13 = 2 slips. 14 = 3 slips, etc. And the slips are cumulative, so instead of resetting each year, the number is just added to your previous total. So really when you’re 13, you’ve got 3 slips. 14 you have 6 slips, and so on. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you’re allowed to add additional slips for yourself in exchange for a year’s worth of meager rations, and you can add one slip per person. So at this point at 16, Katniss has like 40+ slips in the drawing. Gale has like 60+. This also means people with enough money to feed themselves automatically have less of a chance of being called, since they don’t need to put in the extra tickets. I thought it was a pretty interesting take on just a simple lottery system.
Onward!
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http://img.imgcake.com/crimjpgpe.jpg Mo' buildings mo' problems
ocean kinda grew on me like a flesh eating ...fungus. -BIGPUN9999