The Hunger Games audiobook with Tatiana Maslany

I had been meaning to read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins for ages. I had tried to read it a couple of times, but the first-person present tense thing always put me off. I then heard that Tatiana Maslany was going to read it as an audiobook, and thought I would give it another try.

Is The Hunger Games worth listening to instead of reading?

I generally think books are better than other media. Possibly because I am a writer – but then maybe I became a writer because of this belief. Books rule.

But when I tried and failed to read The Hunger Games multiple times and had recently found that audiobooks were actually pretty cool, so it seemed worth a try. Tatiana Maslany is a great actress, and the reviews were great.

The format worked for me for some reason. Not just worked – I loved it. The Hunger Games audiobook really comes alive thanks to Ms Maslany and her reading skills. I had read reviews of the previous audiobook reader that weren’t too flattering, so this version is definitely the one to go for.

What’s it all about?

I don’t normally like YA stuff, as they all seem to have some kind of love triangle bullshit going on. And The Hunger Games is no exception. Despite that, I really enjoyed it. So much so that I then listened to the entire trilogy in a couple of epic listen-fests. Separate days obviously; I’m not insane.

I’m going to take a mad guess here and assume that everyone knows roughly what the story is about. It’s a dystopian future where kids have to fight to the death in an arena. Because of reasons. It is essentially a Caucasian version of Battle Royale. Which is also awesome.

In the future, things are a bit shite and dystopian. Depending on where you live. So a bit like now. But one thing that keeps people in control is putting attractive people on TV and making them do horrible and distasteful things to each other. A bit like reality TV today. Except in this case, to make sure everyone knows their place, there is a fight to the death among teenagers in exciting and televised ways. This ghastly scenario is thankfully months or even a couple of years away in reality, so that’s nice.

The fact that forcing people to let their kids fight to the death for entertainment might piss people off, rather than placate them, seems to have skipped by the dystopian think-tanks of the future. Queue book two – Catching Fire – and book three – Mockingjay.

The protagonist is Katniss Everdeen who ends up representing her district in the Battle Roy- I mean, Hunger Games. Each district has two people, and her partner is a guy who is a baker and fancies her. Fortunately, she is a badass hunter and is able to hold her own against the others. Also, being a baker, he is brilliant at camouflaging himself. It’s a well-known baking thing.

So it the Hunger Games trilogy with Tatiana Maslany any good?

This question encompasses the trilogy, the story, the audiobook production, and the version I listened to with Ms Maslany.

The answer is yes to all categories. I’m sure if I had pushed on with the books, I would have gotten used to pronouns and tense. I also think, based on reviews, that if I had listened to the original reading of the trilogy I might not have been so keen. But the version I heard worked brilliantly in terms of performance and story telling. I think having a great actor reading first person present tense works superbly. And Tatiana Maslany is a great actor.

Highly recommended.

You can check out The Hunger Games (book 1 audiobook) by clicking on this link.

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