3. Katniss Everdeen - The Hunger Games
I have an older sister who does not often recommend books to me. On a recent trip, I provided the
Harry Potter audiobook that we used for driving entertainment and brought her Brandon Sanderson books. I am the future librarian of the family who is always trying to foist her interests off on someone else. So when this sister recommended
The Hunger Games on a number of occasions, I took note. It wasn't until a few months later that I followed her advice and that's only because of a friend's intervention. I was hired/asked to play for her wedding ceremony and she welcomed me to Kansas with her copy and told me that I could borrow the first two books if I got
Catching Fire back to her before she left for her honeymoon. This led to me playing the violin at her wedding with the second book propped open on my music stand. I had Schubert's
Ave Maria and most of the other music memorized, so could get away with it, but I always wonder if there's a picture of the musicians from St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Wichita playing for my friend's wedding where you can see that I'm not looking at sheet music at all. So, yes, I'm a
Hunger Games fan. I cheered when a panel of authors added her to their list of best female characters at the Life, the Universe and Everything symposium two years ago. Some time ago, Twist Magazine interviewed the actress who plays Primrose Everdeen in the movies and she had something great to say about her fictional older sister: TWIST: Team Gale or Team Peeta? WS: I'm team Katniss. Everyone thinks of the book being such a romance and thinks that there's such a huge love triangle, but I don't think of it that way. I think of Katniss fighting for her family and being a strong character for young girls. If you read the books, it's a lot clearer that the love triangle is completely secondary to Katniss' missions in life. She is bent on survival and keeping Peeta alive long enough for them to win, but she keeps forgetting that she's supposed to be in love with him. In the second book, she focuses more on the relationships, but that is again because of her loyalty to family and District. In the third book, we're so caught up in the Mockingjay storyline that we don't have time to care if she gets snogged. Katniss is a savior. She is the one who kept her family alive when her father died by foraging, hunting or even attempting to dumpster-dive. She built the business relationships with everyone from the black marketeers at the Hob to the baker that ensured their loyalty to her family while she was in the Games. In the arena itself, she was single-mindedly loyal to her allies, even to the point of calling the Capitol's Bluff by attempting simultaneous suicide with her fellow District 12 tribute. In the end, she does get one of the guys. She does find love and healing after the war. But she is another character who comes out of struggle with her integrity and for that, I respect her.