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The Hunger Games, series of dystopian best-selling young adult novels by American author Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009), and Mockingjay (2010) became international bestsellers, each book selling more than 100 million copies in print and digital formats. The books, which have been translated into more than 50 languages, explore power, violence, war, media manipulation, and authoritarian political systems, while also telling a coming-of-age story that includes a romantic subplot. While written for teen and young adult readers, the books have been praised by adult readers as well. Although the series started as a trilogy, one prequel (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) was released in 2020, and another (Sunrise on the Reaping) was released in 2025.

Backstory and main plot

The Hunger Games trilogy is told from the perspective of Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl who lives in District 12 of the country Panem, which is located on a landmass once called North America. Readers learn that a long time ago a series of environmental and climate disasters devastated the continent, causing survivors to fight a war for the scant remaining resources. Following the end of the conflict, Panem was established.

Panem initially consisted of the Capitol—the wealthy, decadent federal governing district—and 13 outlying districts. The districts eventually rebelled against the Capitol (70 years before the events of The Hunger Games), but the latter put down the uprising and seemingly destroyed District 13. The Capitol grew increasingly authoritarian and fascist to oppress and control the districts. Citizens were robbed of basic human rights, treated as de facto slave labor, and forced to live in poverty, especially in higher-numbered districts. After the death of her father in a coal mine explosion (an event that also occurs before the start of the series), Katniss becomes a skilled provider for her family, illegally hunting and gathering in the woods outside District 12 with her friend (and love interest) Gale Hawthorne.

To punish the districts for daring to rebel and to remind them of the Capitol’s total control, the Capitol invented the Hunger Games. Every year, a girl and a boy from each district are chosen as “tributes” through a lottery system to compete in the televised Hunger Games. These 24 children, ages 12 to 18, must fight to the death, in an arena that changes from year to year, until only one remains. The winning tribute is allowed to return home and live in luxury for the rest of his or her life. The citizens of the Capitol treat the Games as a sporting event, eagerly watching and discussing them; the government forces the people of the districts to watch as well.

At the beginning of The Hunger Games, Katniss’s beloved 12-year-old sister, Prim, is chosen as a tribute in the 74th Hunger Games, and Katniss frantically volunteers as tribute in her place. The book follows Katniss’s journey through the Games with fellow District 12 tribute (and other love interest) Peeta Mellark, and the two sequels detail how Katniss’s actions help to spark a second rebellion against the Capitol and the villainous President Coriolanus Snow.

Notable Characters
  • Katniss Everdeen: main character and symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol. She is known for her bluntness and her skill with a bow and arrow.
  • Peeta Mellark: the baker’s son and a love interest of Katniss who competes in the Hunger Games alongside her. Throughout the series, Collins emphasizes his kindness and steadfastness.
  • Gale Hawthorne: Katniss’s best friend in District 12 and a fellow hunter. From the beginning of the series, Gale experiences feelings of anger and frustration toward the Capitol.
  • Haymitch Abernathy: winner of the 50th Hunger Games and mentor to District 12 tributes. Haymitch struggles with alcohol use, leading many to view him negatively, but ends up becoming an important guiding figure to Katniss and Peeta.

Collins’s inspiration

Collins’s father, Lieut. Col. Michael J. Collins, was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a military historian who spent a year on active duty during the Vietnam War. When he returned, he had recurring nightmares about his wartime experiences that lasted for the rest of his life. He taught Collins and her siblings about war and its consequences—lessons that Collins later incorporated into The Hunger Games books.

In interviews, Collins has said that her inspiration to write The Hunger Games came while she was watching television one night, flipping back and forth between reality TV shows and footage of the Iraq War. At the time, she was finishing another book series, the Underland Chronicles (2003–07), in which she had been exploring the theory of “just war”—the notion that war is justified under certain conditions but that it should be limited in certain ways. The jarring juxtaposition of the reality TV competitions with actual war footage gave Collins the idea of another angle she could use to explore just war theory.

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Collins was also inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus, who was chosen by a lottery system with other girls and boys of Athens to be cast into a labyrinth with the half-man, half-bull Minotaur. In addition, Collins found inspiration in the historical figure Spartacus, an enslaved man who became a gladiator to fight for others’ entertainment, and then led a rebellion against ancient Rome.

Social critique

In The Hunger Games trilogy, Collins offers a social critique of power and violence, examining what people and governments will do to obtain and hold on to power. More than one character in the books observes that the Capitol uses various methods—including economic—to pit the districts against one another to prevent them from forming alliances, which could seemingly threaten the Capitol’s authority. Characters experience the terror of absolute state control and the attempts of the authoritarian government to shift blame for the deaths of tributes onto the children who are forced to fight rather than the system that forces them to fight.

Throughout the series, readers learn the terrible effects of dehumanization, especially how believing that others are less than human makes it easier to kill them. Although tributes of wealthier districts look down on their poorer opponents with derision, Collins portrays them as victims of the same system. Collins also critiques the media’s role in violence, emphasizing that citizens who treat the Games as entertainment play into a corrupt system and pointing out how watching such violence can cause people to lose their humanity. At the same time, the novels comment on the power of empathy, selfless acts, and community, suggesting solidarity as an effective method to defeat fascism.

Film adaptations

The film adaptation of The Hunger Games, for which Collins wrote much of the screenplay, was released in 2012, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss and Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015) soon followed. All four films enjoyed enormous commercial success.

Prequels

In 2020 Collins published a prequel novel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, set 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games. The novel explores the early days of Coriolanus Snow, before he becomes Panem’s corrupt leader, and his mentoring of District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird during the 10th Hunger Games. The corresponding film was released in 2023, starring Tom Blyth as Snow and Rachel Zegler as Baird. Another book prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, was released in 2025 and delves into the events of the 50th Hunger Games, in which Katniss and Peeta’s mentor Haymitch Abernathy competed.

Karen Sottosanti
Also called:
YA literature and YA lit

young adult literature, a genre of literature geared toward readers between 12 and 18 years old. Young adult (YA) books, especially fictional works, are typically written in the voice of or from the perspective of a teenager, and they are characterized by their authors’ efforts to capture the experience of adolescence. Encompassing many subgenres, from fantasy to memoir, YA literature became a lucrative publishing market at the turn of the 21st century. At the same time, many YA books have been among those most challenged in censorship and freedom of speech battles.

Background

In the 19th century several novels featuring teenage or preteen protagonists were popular with both children and adults. These books ranged from adventure stories to didactic novels that offer moral instruction to young readers through the experiences of characters who are on the verge of adulthood. Some notable examples of 19th-century “coming-of-age” novels include Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (1861), Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868–69), Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Bootblacks (1868), and Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).

However, the concept of “young adults” as a distinct category of readers with a specific set of tastes did not emerge until the 20th century. In 1930 the American Library Association (ALA) created the Young People’s Reading Round Table, a subdivision of its organization that, among other things, produced an annual list of book recommendations for young readers. In 1941, for example, the list featured such novels as The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather and The Yearling (1938) by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, handbooks about college and sports, and memoirs by aviator Amelia Earhart and boxer Jack Dempsey. That same year the ALA established the Association of Young People’s Librarians, which encompassed both children’s and young-adult services. In 1957, however, the ALA created a separate division called the Young Adult Services Division (known since 1992 as the Young Adult Library Services Association).

Seventeenth Summer and the rise of youth culture

After World War II, best-sellers such as Seventeenth Summer (1942) by Maureen Daly, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith, and The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger demonstrated the lucrative potential of teen readers. Seventeenth Summer, in particular, is considered to be the first book written with that audience in mind. The novel tells the story of a first-love summer romance from the perspective of its 17-year-old protagonist, Angie Morrow. Considered racy at the time of its release, Seventeenth Summer also depicts teenager characters smoking and drinking. Its realistic portrayal of contemporary teenage life was regarded as innovative, and it was an integral part of the book’s marketability. In a 1959 survey of school and public libraries, Seventeenth Summer topped the list of the most popular titles in their collections. By the end of the 20th century, the book had sold more than 1.5 million copies.

The cultivation of teenagers as a distinct—and profitable—market was further reinforced by the rise of youth culture in the 1940s and ’50s. This was evident in the establishment of teen magazines such as Seventeen (founded in 1944) and the popularity of radio programs (Meet Corliss Archer [1943–56]) and movies (The Wild One [1953], Rebel Without a Cause [1955], Blackboard Jungle [1955], and Crime in the Streets [1956]) that feature teenage protagonists.

The Outsiders and the birth of contemporary YA literature

As the baby boom generation began to come of age in the 1960s, the demand for books that appealed to teenage consumers increased. In Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism (1996), Michael Cart notes that this era ushered in a taste for realism, typified in the novels of S.E. Hinton.

In 1967 Viking Press published Hinton’s debut, The Outsiders. Hinton was a junior in high school when she wrote the book, a gritty yet sympathetic account of the social warfare between rival teen gangs—the working-class Greasers and the rich Socs (short for “Socials”). Its characters were based on several boys Hinton knew in school in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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Initially marketed to adult readers, The Outsiders had disappointing sales in its first run. Over time, however, the book was routinely assigned by teachers as part of middle-school and high-school reading lists. By the 21st century, it had sold more than 15 million copies and continued to appear on the curricula of many school libraries. Because of its successful reception by teenage readers and its sensitive acknowledgment of social groups and themes that had been overlooked in earlier books, The Outsiders is often credited with modernizing YA literature.

Judy Blume, “the golden age of YA literature,” and censorship battles

By the 1970s publishing had entered what is often called “the golden age of YA literature.” Authors such as Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, Paul Zindel, Lois Duncan, Robert Newton Peck, Alice Childress, and Lois Lowry crafted stories that broke new ground in YA fiction, addressing sensitive topics with complexity and frankness.

Blume’s novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), told from the perspective of Margaret Simon, an 11-year-old girl whose family has moved to a new town, depicts Margaret’s struggles to understand her developing body and her relationship with religion. (Margaret’s mother is Christian, and her father is Jewish.) Blume’s later novels, including Deenie (1973), Forever (1975), and Tiger Eyes (1981), explore topics such as disability, masturbation, teen sex, birth control, and parental death. Many young readers wrote her to tell her that they identified with her characters, and her books sold well. Some adults, however, deemed her subject matter inappropriate, and Blume’s novels became a prime target of book-banning campaigns.

Challenged YA Books

The American Library Association compiles an annual list of books that have been targeted in book bans. Among the popular YA titles that have been challenged have been:

Two of Cormier’s novels, The Chocolate War (1974) and I Am the Cheese (1976), frequently appeared on annual lists of challenged books. The Chocolate War, which centers on a teenage boy who refuses to sell chocolates in support of his prep school’s fundraiser, has been accused of being anti-authoritarian and pessimistic by some adults. Likewise, I Am the Cheese, which focuses on a traumatized teenage protagonist, has drawn objections for its language and dark subject matter. In the 1980s I Am the Cheese was one of several books that were banned by a school district in Florida, resulting in a federal class-action lawsuit brought by students who claimed that the school district had violated their First Amendment rights.

Other acclaimed YA works of this era that were targeted in book bans include Zindel’s novel The Pigman (1968), which follows two teenagers who befriend a lonely widower, and Childress’ novel A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich (1973), which features a teenage protagonist struggling with a difficult home life and addiction.

Sweet Valley High and popular YA book series

In the 1980s a number of book series debuted that focused on the everyday experiences of teenagers, such as high-school friendships and sibling rivalries. Among the more popular of these was the Sweet Valley High series, created by former television soap-opera writer Francine Pascal in 1983. The books follow identical twin sisters, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, who attend the fictional Sweet Valley High School in southern California. Although the series’ plots sometimes address social issues such as substance use, the books were more often considered “frothy” melodramas. The first Sweet Valley High novel, Double Love, introduces the Wakefield twins as sisters fighting over the same boy. The series comprises more than 180 books and produced several spin-off series and a TV show.

Another popular book series for teens that debuted in the 1980s is The Baby-Sitters Club, created by Ann M. Martin in 1986. Initially, the series was to end at four books. Instead, it produced about 250 titles, four spin-off series, a Netflix TV series, and graphic-novel adaptations of several of the books.

Harry Potter and the resurgence of YA literature

In 1997 J.K. Rowling published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the United Kingdom. Centering on a boy wizard, the novel was the first in what would become a seven-book series and a global phenomenon comprising eight film adaptations. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (2007), the last novel in the series, sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release.

Indeed, the first Harry Potter book ignited an explosion in YA literature. In the years that followed the debut of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the number of YA books published per year increased dramatically, from 3,000 in 1997 to 30,000 in 2009. Among the best-selling titles of the “new golden age of young-adult literature” (as experts such as Michael Cart have dubbed it) have been the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (1995–2000), the Twilight Saga (2005–08) by Stephenie Meyer, The Hunger Games series (2008–25) by Suzanne Collins, the Divergent trilogy (2011–13) by Veronica Roth, The Fault in Our Stars (2012) by John Green, and The Hate U Give (2017) by Angie Thomas. Notably, this YA boom boasted a variety of subgenres, including dystopian thrillers, horror, romance, science fiction, and fantasy.

Diversity in YA literature and changing readerships

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the trend toward greater diversity was also reflected among YA authors and the characters they created. More YA books began to feature young people of color, teenagers with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ teens as their protagonists, and plots more often addressed topics such as immigration, racism, sexual abuse, gender identity, and queer sexuality. Among the celebrated books that were published in this era are Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak (1999), Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (2014), Erika L. Sánchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (2017), Akwaeke Emezi’s Pet (2019), and George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue (2020). However, these books have not been without their critics, and book banning remains a hot-button issue in YA literature.

In the 21st century the popularity of YA literature has been spurred by trends on social media such as #BookTok, in which readers share their book recommendations on TikTok and YA authors themselves can reach out to fans directly to market their books. Yet many of these fans are not among the genre’s traditional target audience. In 2024 The Millions reported that more than half of YA book buyers are people over age 18, and of those, a majority are between 30 and 44 years old. Meanwhile, school librarians have noted that the age range that classifies YA readership has shifted from 12 to 18 years old to ages 14 and up; moreover, the average age of protagonists in YA books of the 2020s is 17 years old. The genre also continued to evolve in the variety of subgenres, with YA graphic novels becoming increasingly popular.

Leigh Goldstein René Ostberg