Note: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This is my honest opinion, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

I recently read the first two books of the Hunger Games series and was interested in this collection of essay dissecting Katniss's identities.

The first chapter was really interesting. The author discusses the role of reality TV in The Hunger Games series and analyzes the parallels between the universe of the book and our modern society today. It was a really thought-provoking chapter.
I also liked the chapters: "Katniss Onscreen" (analyzes the movie adaptation) "Katniss the Hungry- Food in the Hunger Games", "Katniss Lives the Roman Histories" (explains how many characters in THG are based on characters in Roman history), and "Katniss the Teen Soldier".

I wish the author spent a bit more time discussing the audience's reaction to Rue and Thresh's skin color, and the issues surrounding that. But I like that she discussed Katniss's "olive skin" becoming white in the film.

Overall, a great supplement to fans of THG.

The Obvious Choices: Hermione Granger, Katniss Everdeen, Daenerys Targaryen

Hermione Granger, as I'm beyond sure any book blog reader knows, is the main female character of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, one of protagonist Harry Potter's two best friends. In the film adaptations, she was played by Emma Watson.

To nail this one, you'd either have to use one of Emma-as-Hermione's iconic outfits (for example, the pink jacket and jeans look from Prisoner of Azkaban or her pink Yule Ball dress from Goblet of Fire) or, unlike the movies, stick to the Hogwarts robes (the movie version of which is pictured on the left).

Hermione's frickin' awesome, so this is a great option just for that reason, though of course it's going to be a well-used one for at least a few more years to come. If you happen to have some friends willing to dress up as Harry and Ron (and/or Luna, Ginny, Neville, etcetera), this could be part of a totally awesome group costume.

With Mockingjay Part 1 coming out next month, The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen is undoubtedly going to be a very popular costume choice. As I'm sure everyone knows, Katniss is the protagonist of the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and she's played in the films by Jennifer Lawrence.

There are a few options here. There's Katniss's Catching Fire "wedding" dress, its transformed black, winged version, either of her Games uniforms, and her District 13 uniform. Some of the coolest ideas are out of the realm of possibility for most people, such as actually making the "wedding" dress transform, but anything that could evoke "Girl on Fire" imagery would be pretty awesome.

Daenerys Targaryen is the female tritagonist of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, played by Emilia Clarke in its television adaptation, Game of Thrones. This is a blonde one, so it'd take a bit more work for me than a natural blonde, and I think I'd rather opt for Clarke's own method of becoming blonde--a wig--to dying my hair.

In any case, Daenerys is a fallen princess seeking to reclaim her homeland, which is awesome, and she's got dragons, which is also awesome. And if you show up to a party with a Jon Snow, you'll be the shit (though don't be surprised to see other Danys and Jons there), and if you show up with a Jon and a Tyrion, you officially win Halloween. (You lose points if your Tyrion is not, in fact, played by someone with dwarfism.)

The Gothic Choices: Bellatrix Lestrange and Violet Baudelaire

Bellatrix Lestrange is a supporting villain from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter franchise; in the movie, she's played by the unconventionally beautiful Helena Bonham Carter, though her book counterpart is described as having lost her looks by the time she appears in Order of the Phoenix.

If you want to dress up as someone generally gothic and don't mind being a villain, Bellatrix is a great way to go. Especially if you've already got the curly dark hair that Bonham Carter rocks in the role!

If you shy away from villains but still want to go for something vaguely gothic, Violet Baudelaire is an option. She's a protagonist of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, a teenage orphan and inventor, and was played by Emily Browning in the film adaptation of the series. This one would be particularly awesome if you can dress up with friends and/or siblings willing to be Violet's own younger siblings, bookish preteen Klaus and toothy infant Sunny.

As for the costume itself, you could base it on one of Browning's film outfits or opt for something more in line with Brett Helquist's illustrations.

The Badass Choices: Alanna of Trebond and Mew Zakuro

Alanna of Trebond is the lady knight from Tamora Pierce's first feminist fantasy series, Song of the Lioness (which is one of my childhood favorites and long overdue for a reread on my part). She's never been adapted in film, television, or any other official art beyond the various book covers, so there's no iconic outfits to choose from here, but Alanna has two distinctive features: copper hair (and a boy's haircut for much of the series) and purple eyes.

That's more work than I'm willing to do, honestly, but I'd love to see someone really go for this! Alanna is freakin' awesome.

Zakuro Fijiwara is the fifth and final team member of Mia Ikumi and Reiko Yoshida's magical girl manga series, Tokyo Mew Mew. She's a magical girl style superhero genetically enhanced with the DNA of a grey wolf, so she's got a serious wolf motif, including a wolf's ears and tail when in her transformed "Mew Zakuro" identity.

This one really would work best if you're Japanese, obviously--which I'm not--but a purple wig, a replica Mew Zakuro uniform, and costume wolf features will get the point across no matter what race you happen to be. And she's got a pretty awesome weapon that's used as a whip, so there's that.

The Childhood Nostalgia Choices: Mrs. Jeepers and Ruth Rose Hathaway

Mrs. Jeepers is the creepy, possibly vampiric teacher from The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones, first appearing in Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots.

While Mrs. Jeepers may or may not be a vampire, she definitely does wear polka dots, and her other most distinctive features are her green brooch and thick Romanian accent. This is a costume I have never heard anyone even consider using before, nor one that I've ever thought of until today, but I would love to see someone do it!

If you've got curly and/or poofy red hair, Mrs. Jeepers is a great choice (on that note, so is Mrs. Frizzle!)--though don't be surprised if you find yourself having to explain who you're supposed to be! If I ever find a good wig or muster up the courage to go red and curly, I'd totally give a Halloween as Mrs. Jeepers a shot!

Ruth Rose Hathaway is a main female character of Ron Roy's A to Z Mysteries series. Though she's a small child, I'd be totally on board with playing an "all grown up" version of Ruth Rose. She has a super distinctive style of dress that I'd love to see translated to adult fashion: she wears one single color on any given day, from her hair accessories to her clothes to her shoes. You'd need to have (or fake, of course!) her curly black hair to pull this one off, though, and I certainly don't.

I'd love to do this one year.

The Classic Choice: Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew is a the girl detective. She's from the 1930s, was revitalized in the '50s, and she's still going strong today. She's been played by various actresses since her conception, starting with Bonita Granville in the 30s and ending (so far!) with Emma Roberts in 2007.

If I were doing this costume, I'd definitely go with a 50s aesthetic, though that's certainly not a requirement. Her blonde hair, though, is definitely a requirement. (And I will resoundingly ignore any assertions that Nancy is "titian-haired". Get your retcons out of here!).

BOOK:

Once again, I get to say this: "This is one of those films I have been meaning to watch since it come out and I cannot believe I only now got around to watching it". I feel like that is pretty much my mantra these days when it comes to these new "blockbuster" type of films. 

 

Now that I read the book again and it was in my fresh memory, I finally decided to give this one a go. I was pretty skeptic about it - other recent YA film adaptations I have seen (Beautiful Creatures, Twilight films) have been horrible, so I was not so sure this one would impress me either. But now that I have seen it, I have to say I was positively surprised. Of course it is not as good as the books, but still it managed to be entertaining and I think well embodied the most important relationships and events of the novel.

 

What I liked most about the film was the world building and the visuals. The scenes from District 12 were a lot more haunting than I imagined the district to look while reading the novel - the soundtrack, the very toned down colors and the way the film was cut added to this effect, making the environment very hostile and militaristic - for some reason I almost got vibes of like a concentration camp type of setting, with the similar outfits, the "branding" of the youth (taking the blood) and the very propagandist video clip shown to the people before the reaping. The distinction between The District and Capitol was also well established through the glamour, but also through the technology available at Capitol. The scenes from the game center were among my favorite - it was great to see also this side to the story even though it is not given to the reader in the book.

 

Jennifer Lawrence makes a great Katniss. She is gorgeous, there is no denying that, but I think she was still able to look a bit "savage" or dirty or however you want to say it. She is able to tone down her gorgeousness and look like someone who does not take a bath every day, who hunts and occasionally eats raw meat, someone who cares more about her well being than her looks. I really do no have anything negative to say about Jennifer Lawrence and I am happy that she was cast as Katniss because even though she might not perfectly fit the description of Katniss from the novel, it is nice to have someone likable to play such a likable character.

 

 

 

Liam Hemsworth is okay as Gale even though he is not at all like I imagined Gale to look like. If I was asked who I think looks like Gale then, I don't think I could even answer. And that is mostly due to the fact that I am so in love with Peeta that I do not really give that much attention to Gale. I know some people do not like him at all as Peeta (I think Iina has also said that she is not really happy with the casting) but I think Josh Hutcherson is pretty much perfect, despite the fact that he is shorter than Jennifer Lawrence and does not perfectly fit the description of Peeta given in the novel (the height thing seems like a big issue for some people). I find Peeta to me more adorable than hot, more like the guy-next-door, the guy who secretly has a crush on you, than some sexy hunk everyone drools over. That is how I see Gale. Just out of interest, I did some research on this and found several lists which listed people that could have been better as Peeta. I found the following names of several lists: Freddie Stroma (he was in Harry Potter), Kellan Lutz (Emmett from Twilight Saga), Zac Efron, Hunter Parrish (I think he was in Weeds) and Alex Pettyfer. Okay, so let me break this down:

 

- Cannot really say much about Freddie Stroma - I have seen him in Harry Potter and then in this modern Cinderella remake which also had Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars. He is hot for sure, but I cannot really imagine him as Peeta.

- Kellan Lutz - Thank the Gods he was not cast as Peeta. His head is like a square and he is way too muscular in my opinion to play Peeta. He is like Conan the Barbarian or something - Peeta is strong but he still needs to be somewhat vulnerable and in need to help.

- Zac Efron - I do like Zac, but naahh...

- Hunter Parrish - Cannot say anything about him

- Alex Pettyfer - Looks too snobbish

 

So, I don't know was it the fact that I kept imagining Josh Hutcherson while re-reading the book or what, but I think he is perfect. Just perfect. (And I feel somewhat weird lusting over him because he is younger than me). 

 

Other things I really liked about the movie: Stanley Tucci (I really have a soft spot for this man. He is perfect in Easy A), Woody Harrelson (I think he was perfect Haymitch - a drunk, but manages to be charming if needed) and Lenny Kravitz (for real, I cannot believe I am saying this, but he was, after Hutcherson and Lawrence, my favorite from this film. AND A PERFECT CINNA). 

 

So, to summarize: I really liked the film and I am looking forward to seeing the next one. I still have not watched the trailer for it, and I won't before I have read Catching Fire.