I recently finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – the series, now with a movie franchise to its name, that has been taking the world by storm since its release in 2009.
I absolutely loved the book. There’s no other way to put it. But since I’m supposed to talk about the cover, I’ll just cut to the chase.
Take a look at the cover below for a full 1 minute.
This is the version I currently have, and boy, do I dislike it greatly. For those who haven’t the foggiest of what Hunger Games is all about, this cover is as misleading as the title to this Daily Prompt: I honestly thought you were supposed to write your vision of Judgment Day, you know, end of the world, Armageddon and all that.
Back on track, is it me or does the cover imply that the Hunger Games is all about computer hacking, and that the girl pictured is being targeted by, let’s say, the FBI or any counter-intelligence agency or whatever (I don’t have much knowledge on these things). The cover totally doesn’t reflect the true nature of the Hunger Games, and instead portrays itself as a Cyber-punk novel with a dash of Hackers mixed in it – the Angelina Jolie movie.
The blood-stains don’t help, the radar-type circles around the character give hints that she may be a spy or an agent, the frequency/radio-wave effect in the middle give wrong hints as well. In short, everything about the cover, like I said, doesn’t reflect the pages inside. This cover belongs to a completely different genre.
Before I finish off, one more thing. Some might say the cover shows from the Capitol’s point of view, you know, tracking Katniss down, keeping her in view, being her main adversary and all that. But seeing that that The Capitol vs. Katniss “theme” doesn’t take life in the last few pages of the book, and that it is the main theme of the second book, the cover doesn’t do much justice here. Had this been the cover of the second book, Catching Fire, then I wouldn’t have said anything. In fact, Catching Fire’s cover is much more impressive, with the bird.
So, do you agree with me or not?
Hamza Ansari 