Comparing my favourite post-apocalyptic novels – I

Spoiler alert – This post has literally soooo many spoilers that I’d need to be an alien to count all of them on one hand (assuming aliens have many fingers). I have spoiled the following series – The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games.

Author’s Note – This post has been divided into two parts, which not only helped me get two back-to-back posts out in a week but also because I can cover more ground this way.

Guess who’s back? That’s right, I am. Done with my final exams, I am officially a high school sophomore now ;). Gotta update them social profiles! This time I am going to review not one, but two amazing books! And it’s not just because I am too lazy to write 2 different reviews (emphasis on the just, if you know what I mean) but also because these books belong to the same category: post-apocalyptic i.e. many people died due to a number of reasons – sometimes a virus, sometimes zombies (yep.) and sometimes plain ol’ natural disasters like sun flares, some water leakage (what “fancy” people call tsunamis) and such. Now, the three series that I am going to be brutally comparing this time are: <drumroll> in the red corner, we have “The Maze Runner” or as I like to call it – The “Author loves to kill people” book. In the blue corner, we have “The Hunger Games” also known as “Too damn lucky protagonist with mommy issues” book. I know some of you will think about including Divergent or “Inventing a whole new system of differentiation because gender bias problems were just not enough” series. Well, I don’t actually like Divergent…I mean its good enough, but I don’t think it deserves to be here with these books. I have read these books within the last two years which means they are still fresh in my head. Now that I am done with that loooong intro that’s gonna justify the length of this post <wink>. LET’S RUMBLE!!! (gosh I so hope that’s not copyrighted)

Individual Summaries

The Maze Runner

Do you like to form a special bond with a character and then be bashed with a rock on your heart each time one dies? Well, this book is for you! It’s basically The Hunger Games, but we are a tribute…(not that you guys understood that reference…yet.) The author’s hobby is killing characters. And OMG, does he kill them! Basically, a guy called Thomas wakes up in an elevator and is dumped inside a maze filled with teenage boys (which we all know is a horrible idea). Next, he gets to know that to get out of that maze he needs to become a runner (it is exactly what it sounds like), needs to kill weird monsters and then find an exit to the maze, hopefully getting out safe and alive. Somehow with millions of problems and challenges and deaths and traps and twists and surprises and…..well, you get it. So after a lot of trouble, he somehow gets out of there alive and finally sees the planet, which is not exactly the sweet haven he was looking for but is actually a place filled with a really bad man-made virus called “The Flare” which turns people into brainless cannibals (a zombie) and he also finds out that he and all the people from the maze, even those who died were part of an experiment that a “government” (of sorts) was doing to search for a cure of this virus. Some of the people included in the maze were immune to the virus, to see what’s the difference between these immune and prone people, this agency put these two types of people in a maze and introduced bad situations and challenges to them to see how they react to it and what’s the difference because the Flare targets the brain and reacting to situations is the job of the brain. Unfortunately (or fortunately, it depends on whether u think torturing teens is right) the experiment couldn’t be completed because of “unspoiled” reasons and the kids finally have some relief. For a night. Because when they wake up the next day they found another group experimented on and the only difference being that those were all teen girls. After this Thomas and his friends (the undead ones) need to find other ways to fight the bad guys and saving each other before its too late.

The cruel, everlasting torture that the author has shown through his words is just amazing and actually gets to the reader. You must have noticed that by how passionately pissed off I was about these books. It is not because there is some problem with the book or it is bad, it’s exactly how the author wanted it to turn out. We can all hate on the fact that all the detailing in the book and its descriptions are too vivid for young readers but at the end of the day the book does its job – entertain, maybe a little too much, considering how I absolutely had to binge-read it.

The Hunger Games

This one is for my gamer bros. 12 districts. 1 boy and 1 girl chosen randomly from each district between the age of 12 and 18. 24 such “tributes” chosen. Inside an arena they go. But only 1 comes out. It’s a Minecraft SMP, my friends! You need to survive inside that arena and kill the other 23 tributes if you want to go home and enjoy the benefits of winning the prestigious hunger games.

The whole series is set in a futuristic era in the state of Panem (the only existing land remaining) which consists of 13 districts and the Capitol, which is the capital of Panem (a capital called Capitol, that’s innovative). Each district has its own special task. Unfortunately, there was a rebellion in Panem where the 12 districts fought for freedom from the Capitol. The Capitol nuked the 13th capital and destroyed it. And then it started the popular Hunger Games to remind the other 12 districts of what happens when they try to be rebellious (Oh come on guys! All of us saw what happens when you try to suppress freedom, don’t these guys read history?). The protagonist is a girl called Katniss Everdeen from District 12, the coal district. She is a hunter (a really good one), who uses a bow and arrow, traps, the whole deal. It’s compulsory for all boys and girls from 12 to 18 to enter their names for the competition. Her small sister gets chosen for the Games and to save her, Katniss volunteers as Tribute. Next, we see the whole story of the first book, surviving in the 74^th Hunger Games. But the real fun begins at the end. When Katniss doesn’t agree with the Capitol and on National Television defies the Capitol by attempting to take the life of both of the remaining two survivors and the Capitol can’t have no winner, can they? But they also can’t have an act of defiance during times where there is already unrest. What follows is a hell lot of politics and cover-ups. After going through hell and seeing things that an 18-year old would never see, Katniss goes home finally happy. Because once you win a Hunger Games, you have lots of money and you can’t participate again. But guess what? The President of the Capitol, President Snow arranges the next Hunger Games to be special, he invites all the previous winners of the Hunger Games as tributes to see who is the best (while secretly hoping to kill Katniss) out of these winners. A champion of the champions, if you may. Now, Katniss has to go in there to see horrors again. All of this leads to another outbreak of rebels, following Katniss and fighting for freedom. And The Girl on Fire doesn’t disappoint. The whole story turns from a Battle Royale to a Fight for Freedom and Rights. Weird, huh? Not enough for the author, because guess who survived a nuking and is living underground? Yep, you got that right!

Whenever you think that something is weird, just know in your heart that…IT’S NOT! INCREASE THE WEIRDNESS! YOU WANNA BE LIKE SUZANNE COLLINS OR NOT?

AKSHAT Kakade (2021)

Definitely one of my all-time favourite books. Hunger Games is a mixture of everything I love, a base of Game-LIT Fantasy Adventure, a sprinkle of action, a dash of challenges and “OH MY GOD WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO HER??” moments and to top all of it off, a cherry of underdog protagonist on top of it. You guys should definitely read this book right now. Whatever you are reading, drop it and read these books. Wait a sec…you are reading this post on my bl-as I was saying, complete whatever you are reading now and then move on to this book because what you are reading now should also be given equal time and you should finish it.

That’s pretty much it about these books…if I feel like adding something, I will probably just write another post. You guys can subscribe to this blog at the bottom of the page so that you’ll get notified each time I post. I’ll see you next time, Peace.