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When I advised my buddies it’s been 15 years since the first Hunger Games guide got here out, all of them responded with shocked variations of “What? No…There’s no way it’s been that long.” When I advised my center school-aged college students, all of them responded with shocked variations of “What? No…I didn’t know the book was that old.” Despite the disbelief from each camps, it’s true. It’s been 15 years since 2008 when The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was first revealed. In that point, the collection has bought over 100 million copies, and it’s nonetheless on The New York Times Best Seller List, the place it’s been for the final 297 weeks. That’s greater than 5 years with out lacking every week! The collection stays widespread sufficient for the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to attain bestseller standing itself in 2020. A film model of the prequel is popping out this month.
But the influence of the collection may be measured in additional than simply motion pictures and guide gross sales. It’s a guide that retains inspiring and connecting with new readers, like my college students, who’re presently writing Hunger Games fanfiction despite the fact that they weren’t alive when the books had been first launched. It’s a guide that lives on in the minds of the followers who learn the books once they got here out. The Hunger Games additionally had a serious affect on the trajectory of the publishing business and what we learn.
Increased Popularity of YA Books & Dystopian Stories
The Hunger Games books got here out in 2008, 2009, and 2010. They had been on the spot hits and matters of dialog. The YA guide market was already increasing at the moment. But the immense success of this collection was half of what drove the enormous enhance in gross sales.
To put the numbers in perspective, between 2002 and 2012, the quantity of YA gross sales from the earlier decade greater than doubled. Young Adult books turned a powerhouse in the publishing market. The quantity of authors expanded. Publishing homes and literary companies additionally invested deeply in rising their workforce on this class.
The Hunger Games, specifically, catapulted YA dystopian novels into the highlight. Future bestselling collection like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Selection by Kiera Cass, The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancy, Legend by Marie Lu, Matched by Ally Condie, and Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi constructed some of their readership from followers of The Hunger Games. Dystopian and YA books had, of course, been matched up earlier than in books like The Giver by Lois Lowry, Feed by M.T. Anderson, and Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. But none of them had the similar monumental gross sales of The Hunger Games to actually create such a publishing phenomenon.
More Adults Reading YA Books
This enlargement of books and readers is partially on account of the adults who started studying YA books as a result of of The Hunger Games. Harry Potter and the Twilight collection had been each (clearly) enormous publishing sensations beforehand. And each vastly expanded the quantity of adults who learn YA books. But The Hunger Games constructed on this pattern.
Yes, the books contained elaborate descriptions of trend and a love triangle. But the bigger philosophical questions and social critique inside the books appealed to each teenage and grownup readers. They nonetheless do. While many of the different mega-series of that point have turn into extremely problematic or fallen out of favor, the characters and the messages inside The Hunger Games stay accessible and related.
A 2012 research discovered that 55% of YA readers at the time of publication had been adults. In reality, the hottest demographic of YA readers was 30-44. This was one of the largest causes for the enhance in YA readers — and YA books — throughout this time interval. One long-lasting consequence was for characters to age up, with extra YA characters being 16-19 as an alternative of 14-16. Older readers additionally created a pattern of extra mature content material inside YA books, which stays controversial amongst some readers.
More Unlikeable Female Heroines
It’s variety of exhausting to think about now, however having an motion/dystopian guide with a feminine most important character was not the norm earlier than The Hunger Games. Not solely was it uncommon for the most important character to be feminine, Katniss Everdeen was not at all times perceived as “likable.” In the books, she may be annoying, chilly, unemotional, egocentric, and gruff. Above all, she is indignant. And, of course, she has each proper to be. She lives in a deeply unequal society, and she or he is being despatched away from house in opposition to her will to struggle in a battle to the loss of life for different individuals’s leisure.
But Katniss represented a brand new archetype for the extremely flawed, unlikeable feminine heroine. Some readers hated her. But others beloved her — and we didn’t love her as a result of she was good. We beloved her as a result of she was human.
This archetype turned vastly widespread in dystopian fiction and different YA fantasy and science fiction tales.
There’s much more I might write about on this matter. I haven’t touched on the manner the guide has bled from the web page into up to date protest actions like the three-finger salute being given in Myanmar protests in 2021. I haven’t talked about facet braids or the elevated participation of younger girls in archery. But The Hunger Games affect continues inside publishing and lives of the books’ readers.
Now it can proceed with the movie adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which I’ll admit I wasn’t 100% jazzed about. But my college students, the subsequent era of Hunger Games followers, are over the moon enthusiastic about the newest installment.
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