The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy [Paperback]

Leah Wilson (Editor), Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Contributor), Mary Borsellino (Contributor), Sarah Rees Brennan (Contributor), Terri Clark (Contributor), Bree Despain (Contributor), Adrienne Kress (Contributor), Cara Lockwood (Contributor), Elizabeth M. Rees (Contributor), Carrie Ryan (Contributor), Ned Vizzini (Contributor), Lili Wilkinson (Contributor), Blythe Woolston (Contributor), Sarah Darer Littman (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2011

Katniss Everdeen’s adventures may have come to an end, but her story continues to blaze in the hearts of millions worldwide.

In The Girl Who Was on Fire, thirteen YA authors take you back to Panem with moving, dark, and funny pieces on Katniss, the Games, Gale and Peeta, reality TV, survival, and more. From the trilogy's darker themes of violence and social control to fashion and weaponry, the collection's exploration of the Hunger Games reveals exactly how rich, and how perilous, protagonist Katniss’ world really is.

• How does the way the Games affect the brain explain Haymitch’s drinking, Annie’s distraction, and Wiress’ speech problems?
• What does the rebellion have in common with the War on Terror?
• Why isn’t the answer to “Peeta or Gale?” as interesting as the question itself?
• What should Panem have learned from the fates of other hedonistic societies throughout history—and what can we?

The Girl Who Was On Fire covers all three books in the Hunger Games trilogy.

CONTRIBUTORS: Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Mary Borsellino, Sarah Rees Brennan, Terri Clark, Bree Despain, Adrienne Kress, Cara Lockwood, Elizabeth M. Rees, Carrie Ryan, Ned Vizzini, Lili Wilkinson, Blythe Woolston, Sarah Darer Littman

Editorial Reviews

Review

A fascinating collection of essays about the Hunger Games series … This book is LEGIT. All of the essays are thought-provoking and they really get into the heart and soul of the series. In fact, I’ll even bet you that you’ll come away from this book liking the series more than you did already.
—Forever Young Adult

My copy is completely highlighted, underlined, written in the margins, and dog-eared. You don’t know how many times while I was reading it I said emphatically to myself, “Yes!!” as I underlined or highlighted a quote or passage.
—Book Nerds Across America

A must-read for those interested in the Hunger Games.
—Hunger Games fansite The Hob

About the Author

Leah Wilson graduated from Duke University with a degree in Culture and Modern Fiction and is currently Editor-in-Chief, Smart Pop, at BenBella Books. She lives in Cambridge, Mass.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Smart Pop; 1 edition (April 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935618040
• ISBN-13: 978-1935618041
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Expanding on The Hunger Games... April 5, 2011

By Cat H.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I ripped through this little book in a day and found that it only deepened and textured my understanding of The Hunger Games! The trilogy, understood through the eyes of these YA essayists, is so much more than just an action tale or even just a story about rising up against your oppressors or finding your voice or etc.

For instance, in this 13-essay mini-anthology, you'll find a piece about the role of fashion and appearances in everything from a Capitol-constructed death game to an American presidential election to the courtroom visits of Lindsay Lohan and Lil Kim, a piece examining how choosing love is an act of political defiance, and an essay treating The Hunger Games as a cautionary tale against the screwy science that produced tracker jackers and the other mutts of Panem. There's even an essay addressing the psychological roots of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder almost every character suffers by the end of Mockingjay. So...fashion, politics, science and psychology in the span of four essays!

If you love The Hunger Games, I can guarantee you'll love at least one piece in the book. My own favorite was the book's first essay "Why so hungry for the Hunger Games?" which examines which themes laced throughout the books really capture the imagination. It also delivers a wonderful analysis of Katniss, Peeta, and Gale separately as well as illuminating what each romance means in the larger picture of revolution-torn dystopia.

Sigh. I just wish I could read them all over again for the first time...

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great new addition for The Hunger Games fans! April 8, 2011

By cynthia (A Blog about Nothing)

Format:Paperback

The Girl Who Was on Fire is a well written and engrossing anthology by several very talented YA authors who are also big fans of The Hunger Games Series. I knew that I wanted to read this because some of my favorite authors like Carrie Ryan, Sarah Rees Brennan and Jennifer Lynn Barnes were in it expressing their thougths on the series, but I didn't know if I was going to love it since I'm not used to non-fiction anthologies, but I was wrong. I loved reading this book and was surprisingly captivated and sucked in from the very first essay, I found it hard to put down and all along it kept me wanting to go back and dive into the amazing series that is The Hunger Games.

While reading this anthology I felt like I was having a very thorough discussion about one of my favorite and most memorable series with a bunch of friends. I know in real life these authors are not my friends, but there were so many things that you can agree and disagree with while reading this book that it made it so familiar and very easy to read, just like when you go out for coffee with your friends and talk about books. There were things that I agreed and some that I disagreed about in some of these essays but they were all very well explained and researched, some of these authors even added a bit of humor into their opinions which actually made me laugh and some were so emotional and brought all those feelings I had while reading the series that it made me tear up a couple of times. This book covers everything in all three books of The Hunger Games series, and you can feel while you're reading it that the authors felt very passionate about their opinions on each subject in their essay.

These authors break the series up in little pieces and dissect and analyze everything with detail, emotions and lots of research. It covers every topic from the political part of the series to the love triangle, the will to survive, and so much more that I didn't even realize was in the series until reading this book. One that resonated with me the most was Jennifer Lynn Barnes' essay about being on Team Katniss and not being about just Gale and Peeta but about much more than just the love triangle, it brings out so many emotions about Katniss and why we love her so much that it actually brought me to tears. It will definitely open your eyes about so much that goes on in The Hunger Games, things that we can already see happening in the world. I definitely recommend this one to every Hunger Games fan, it will make you look at the series in a whole new light and love it even more.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE GIRL WHO WAS ON FIRE July 25, 2011

By MirandaHannah

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was amazing. It really added to the whole Hunger Games experience, if possible. I fell in love with the Hunger Games trilogy and figured I would read this. It sounded interesting and I was dying for more.

I didn't expect this.

All these different authors wrote essays about different topics in the Hunger Games trilogy such as style and symbolism, reality and unreality. It literally blew me away, and my respect for Suzanne Collins and her writing skyrocketed.

I immensely enjoyed every essay....except one.

I felt the third to last essay written by Sarah Darer Littman didn't meet the score that the essays before it in the book had set. In fact, it didn't come close. When she actually mentioned the Hunger Games or anything about it (in passing) it was something we had already learned or could actually deduce ourselves while reading the books.

So how did she fill up a fifteen page essay? She pretty much mentioned everything America has done wrong, what our previous president (Bush) did wrong, or her hate mail to the newspaper she writes political articles for and why all those people are WRONG. I bought this book to learn more about the Hunger Games. I DID NOT buy this book to hear about the letter she received from an American Veteran from WWII telling her she needed to keep writing forever and ever. Which I also learned in this article is taped above her desk.

I am sorry to those of you who may have thought her article was genious, but I prefer to not know famous people's political views because it changes my view of THEM. But Sarah Darer Littman talked of nothing else and in my book, that seems to be asking for my criticism. Apologies.

THE GIRL WHO WAS ON FIRE should NOT be read before the Hunger Games trilogy but should definitely be read after. It was, in one word, BRILLIANT. (: