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amethystbookwyrm's review against another edition
2.0
This and my other reviews can be found at http://amethystbookwyrm.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks to Netgalley and BenBella Books, Inc. for giving me this book to review.
The Panem Companion is an (unofficial) critical look at the world of Panem, as written in the Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins. This book looks at the social dynamics of Panem, and how Panem has evolved from the world we know today.
This book is quite interesting, and looks at how modern day America could possibly transform into Collins’s Panem and how long this would take. There is a lot of carefully planned out information, and insightful commentary, however this is eclipsed by the authors views on race. In the book, it seems as if every issue in Panem is based around ethnicity. This gets very repetitive after a time, and it would be very interesting to see how other factors affected the creation and current society of Panem.
I found The Panem Companion okay, however it would be a good study aid for students evaluating the Hunger Games. I am unlikely to read any more by this author as a leisure activity. I would recommend this book to anyone who liked The Rivan Codex by David Eddings, or the Silmarilion by J. R. R. Tolkien, or who are studying the Hunger Games.
Thanks to Netgalley and BenBella Books, Inc. for giving me this book to review.
The Panem Companion is an (unofficial) critical look at the world of Panem, as written in the Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins. This book looks at the social dynamics of Panem, and how Panem has evolved from the world we know today.
This book is quite interesting, and looks at how modern day America could possibly transform into Collins’s Panem and how long this would take. There is a lot of carefully planned out information, and insightful commentary, however this is eclipsed by the authors views on race. In the book, it seems as if every issue in Panem is based around ethnicity. This gets very repetitive after a time, and it would be very interesting to see how other factors affected the creation and current society of Panem.
I found The Panem Companion okay, however it would be a good study aid for students evaluating the Hunger Games. I am unlikely to read any more by this author as a leisure activity. I would recommend this book to anyone who liked The Rivan Codex by David Eddings, or the Silmarilion by J. R. R. Tolkien, or who are studying the Hunger Games.
jennagrace_m's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely LOVED this book! Arrow brought up so many interesting points that I didn't even consider after I plowed through The Hunger Games for the first time. I loved all of the fan theories, thought Arrow's analysis of the sociological and economical implications behind Panem was extremely interesting, and simply couldn't put this book down! Now with all of these new theories fluttering about in my mind, I need to go re-read the series again!
apetite's review against another edition
5.0
I truly wanted this to be the first book I read in 2013, yet Amazon couldn't deliver it in time in Brazil, so I bought the Kindle version. Now I'm just sad, because I want to hug and smell this book and maybe sleep with it under my pillow.
Just to add a bit of context, it is important to say that my major is International Relations, my research focus is social control and I had just finished reading [a:David Galula|65693|David Galula|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1310541844p2/65693.jpg] and his laws for counterinsurgency when I first read The Hunger Games. Obviously, my mind was blown and I may or may not have read the series more than ten times since then.
The Panem Companion was exactly what I needed. It's hard to find an analysis that goes this deep outside academic publications and most of the latter only scratches the surface when compared to this. In fandom, V. Arrow doesn't dip her toes to test the waters, she dives in head first and the result is a break through the age, gender and socioeconomic barriers placed on Young Adult Dystopian literature.
Reading this, my mind went back and forth between "You know, I thought about this before." and "WHAT? HOW? WHEN? OMG, this makes so much sense." I particularly adored The Architects of the Rebellion and Accountability for Acts of War, I fell in love with Cinna all over again and I thought the district analysis were brilliant. Gender roles, race and ethnicity are themes that cannot be stressed enough in light of the THG movie castings and society in general, if we are being honest.
As the first book of the year, The Panem Companion set the bar really high and I cannot wait to read what V. Arrow writes next. Seriously, I cannot wait. Where is it? Give it to me.
Just to add a bit of context, it is important to say that my major is International Relations, my research focus is social control and I had just finished reading [a:David Galula|65693|David Galula|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1310541844p2/65693.jpg] and his laws for counterinsurgency when I first read The Hunger Games. Obviously, my mind was blown and I may or may not have read the series more than ten times since then.
The Panem Companion was exactly what I needed. It's hard to find an analysis that goes this deep outside academic publications and most of the latter only scratches the surface when compared to this. In fandom, V. Arrow doesn't dip her toes to test the waters, she dives in head first and the result is a break through the age, gender and socioeconomic barriers placed on Young Adult Dystopian literature.
Reading this, my mind went back and forth between "You know, I thought about this before." and "WHAT? HOW? WHEN? OMG, this makes so much sense." I particularly adored The Architects of the Rebellion and Accountability for Acts of War, I fell in love with Cinna all over again and I thought the district analysis were brilliant. Gender roles, race and ethnicity are themes that cannot be stressed enough in light of the THG movie castings and society in general, if we are being honest.
As the first book of the year, The Panem Companion set the bar really high and I cannot wait to read what V. Arrow writes next. Seriously, I cannot wait. Where is it? Give it to me.
biobibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
I hope that the grammatical errors and some muddled language got corrected in the final version since it was actually noticeable and, at times, a hindrance to understanding the point being made in the advance review copy. Overall, I think this book would be great for a parent or teacher or older sibling to read alongside of the books with preteens; this work is a good jumping point to have conversations about media and government control and culpability of atrocities in the world with a younger audience. But mostly it reads like threads on a fandom message board, but tries to include a more academic angle to support the theories.
Edit: I received this as an ARC through Goodreads First Reads for free.
Edit: I received this as an ARC through Goodreads First Reads for free.
poorashleu's review against another edition
4.0
Originally posted at Nose in a Book (blog)
This is the type of book you read and then want to go re-read the main books over again because you missed some major points. This blog is a huge fan of The Hunger Games Trilogy so I was quite excited when I heard that this book was coming out. I love and adore books that go deeper into books I have read. Now, yes, I understand all books I read don’t need background and research, but certain books, such as The Hunger Games do.
Arrow goes on the path of looking into as much as she can in a short period of time, and yes, she covers a lot. Arrow discusses various different districts, such as 4 and 11, and also discusses gender roles, Panem in general and certain characters such as Cinna. Arrow also includes maps and graphs to keep the reader engaged throughout the book, along with drawing many parallels that may have nothing to do with The Hunger Games but are too similar to not at least discuss.
It is clear throughout reading this book that Arrow has a passion for not only pop culture, but also The Hunger Games as a whole. Many reviewers have stated that this book is dry. I think reviewers are overlooking the fact that this is a compelling critical analysis of a book series. Maybe, I’ve read too many boring history textbook in my undergraduate career, but I found this to be a very compelling read. My only pet peeve, and reason I didn’t give this five stars is personal preference. I am not a fan of when authors’ use “I” in professional work; however, Arrow’s writing style and talent almost made me overlook that and give it five stars, because it was that good.
This is the type of book you read and then want to go re-read the main books over again because you missed some major points. This blog is a huge fan of The Hunger Games Trilogy so I was quite excited when I heard that this book was coming out. I love and adore books that go deeper into books I have read. Now, yes, I understand all books I read don’t need background and research, but certain books, such as The Hunger Games do.
Arrow goes on the path of looking into as much as she can in a short period of time, and yes, she covers a lot. Arrow discusses various different districts, such as 4 and 11, and also discusses gender roles, Panem in general and certain characters such as Cinna. Arrow also includes maps and graphs to keep the reader engaged throughout the book, along with drawing many parallels that may have nothing to do with The Hunger Games but are too similar to not at least discuss.
It is clear throughout reading this book that Arrow has a passion for not only pop culture, but also The Hunger Games as a whole. Many reviewers have stated that this book is dry. I think reviewers are overlooking the fact that this is a compelling critical analysis of a book series. Maybe, I’ve read too many boring history textbook in my undergraduate career, but I found this to be a very compelling read. My only pet peeve, and reason I didn’t give this five stars is personal preference. I am not a fan of when authors’ use “I” in professional work; however, Arrow’s writing style and talent almost made me overlook that and give it five stars, because it was that good.
brendaclay's review against another edition
4.0
If you're a Hunger Games fan with a habit of intensely overanalyzing your favorite fiction, you will love The Panem Companion! This is an in-depth look at every level of the Hunger Games universe. It begins with musings on how Panem could have evolved from our current society (including maps and graphs), and goes on to examine the social, economic, and political structures of Panem, as exhibited both in the society as a whole and in the individual lives of the characters. Some of the topics I found most interesting were: district and race relations, the mystery of Cinna's origins and true role in the rebellion, a comparison of Panem and District 13 (as in, how different are they really?), and the question of who's ultimately responsible for a certain character's death. Given Suzanne Collins' military background and love of Greek and Roman mythology, those parallels are explored as well. As if all this wasn't enough to chew on, there's an entire appendix on the origins of the characters' names. My hat is off to V. Arrow for her thoroughness and insight. I felt a little weird devoting so much brainpower to a work of fiction, but man was it fascinating. Thanks Netgalley!
angelreadsthings's review against another edition
3.0
While I can't say that I absolutely hated this book, I can't say that I enjoyed it either. I finished the book extremely frustrated by Arrow's use of an inconsistent foundation for her interpretations, disregard for canon when canon did not provide enough fodder for her theories, and unwillingness to approach the series with a psychological lens (in conjuction with the sociological and historical lenses she did use) even when doing so would have provided a fuller understanding of the aspect of the series she was analyzing. I will admit that I found her consideration of how Panem could have come to be a country and some of her analyses of race and class quite interesting, but, by the end, I was more than anything else, fed up with this book. I very strongly do not recommend this book to anyone, especially if you've spent as many hours as I have thinking about the world of the Hunger Games. Either you will be as frustrated by it as I was or you will accept and consequently promote some of the wild stretches Arrow erroneously presents as canonically founded which will frustrate me and people like me.
proffy's review against another edition
4.0
The Short and Sweet of It
An unofficial reflection on The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Panem Companion combines academic analysis with fan response to further explore the world and characters of Panem.
A Bit of a Ramble
I rarely read companion pieces to books, but I may have to change my mind about that after reading this. While there is nothing in the book that is particularly mind-bending, I very much enjoyed learning more about Katniss and the rest, and even beyond "learning" I adored the reasoned conjecture throughout.
The book discusses the origins of Panem, the socioeconomics of Tesserae, gender roles and sexuality in Panem, and more, each in its own chapter and each with some obvious, textual claims and some extrapolation that is both reasonable and fun. In each chapter, what I really found interesting was the comparison to our society. In some ways, the world of Panem is an exaggeration of our own. As the book states: Part of the "reason for [The Hunger Games] popularity in our own world is that it is the most effective mirror of our own culture that has been produced since the advent of reality television and celebrity social media." This is not newsbreaking for anyone who has read it, but seeing the individual ideologies pieced out and discussed was interesting.
Definitely a fun read that I would recommend for those who read and loved the trilogy.
An unofficial reflection on The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Panem Companion combines academic analysis with fan response to further explore the world and characters of Panem.
A Bit of a Ramble
I rarely read companion pieces to books, but I may have to change my mind about that after reading this. While there is nothing in the book that is particularly mind-bending, I very much enjoyed learning more about Katniss and the rest, and even beyond "learning" I adored the reasoned conjecture throughout.
The book discusses the origins of Panem, the socioeconomics of Tesserae, gender roles and sexuality in Panem, and more, each in its own chapter and each with some obvious, textual claims and some extrapolation that is both reasonable and fun. In each chapter, what I really found interesting was the comparison to our society. In some ways, the world of Panem is an exaggeration of our own. As the book states: Part of the "reason for [The Hunger Games] popularity in our own world is that it is the most effective mirror of our own culture that has been produced since the advent of reality television and celebrity social media." This is not newsbreaking for anyone who has read it, but seeing the individual ideologies pieced out and discussed was interesting.
Definitely a fun read that I would recommend for those who read and loved the trilogy.
katsmiao's review against another edition
3.0
A combination of facts and opinions, this book reads more like a thesis than a companion book.
I found this book to be equal parts fascinating and difficult to read. I admire the author for their meticulous research and attention to detail, but at the same time I'm not sure if Collins really put THAT much thought into every little detail of the Hunger Games Series when she wrote it.
Some parts of the book riveting, some seem far fetched, but they are all interesting in their own way.
I found this book to be equal parts fascinating and difficult to read. I admire the author for their meticulous research and attention to detail, but at the same time I'm not sure if Collins really put THAT much thought into every little detail of the Hunger Games Series when she wrote it.
Some parts of the book riveting, some seem far fetched, but they are all interesting in their own way.