The Panem Companion: An Unofficial Guide to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, From Mellark Bakery to Mockingjays

The best part of "The Panem Companion" is the map of Panem. Though this book raises some interesting points, it is hobbled by extreme political correctness and an excess of jargon (think school paper from someone trying to prove how smart he/she is). The author contradicts herself - on the one hand stating that each district of Panem is essentially its own nation-state, completely separate from the other districts, and on the other hand stating that because something is the case in District 12 it is reasonable to conclude that the something holds true for all the other districts as well. After reading each essay in this book, it appears Arrow's main thesis is that only the darker-skinned people in Panem suffer - every lighter-skinned person lives on Easy Street.Although there is no doubt racism exists in some form in Panem (along with all the other nasty bits of human nature), there is nothing in canon to support Arrow's assertion that all the tributes in the Hunger Games are darker-skinned (in fact, the books actually contradict this). She even claims that the only reason the Capitol took Katniss to their hearts was because a "white boy" told them he loved her, thereby making it "okay" to love her, too. The reason the Peacekeepers are so strict in District 11? It's because all the residents are darker-skinned, not because they are a large district providing an essential item (food) for the Capitol. There is no proof that there are no lighter-skinned workers in D11. The story is told from Katniss' point of view and that girl tells us next to squat. Arrow is also ignoring that only four districts escape the worst of the cruelty imposed by the Capitol - the three districts that are favored by the Capitol and District 12, because it is small and doesn't produce an essential item (coal's nice but Panem has other means of producing power). District 12's immunity disappears after Katniss and Peeta win the Hunger Games and the Capitol begins treating them the same way they've been treating the other eight districts.And if the Capitol is prejudiced against darker-skinned people, then why is District 4 favored? According to Arrow's own map of Panem, District 4 is comprised of what remains of current day Mexico - that would make its inhabitants darker-skinned than the "fair" people she claims are the only ones who get a good life in Panem. Oh, and being lighter-skinned makes a character an awful, hateful person, wherever that character lives. The fact is overlooked that the inhabitants of the Capitol regard everyone who lives outside the Capitol as an "other". Everyone who lives in the districts is denied personhood, and is subject to the whims and caprices of a cruel dictator, regardless if some get a little more to eat than others in their districts.Arguments against racism and bigotry are more effective when an author uses actual examples instead of made up ones coming from too much "reading between the lines" (and their own prejudices). This book isn't really a companion because it goes off on multiple tangents, speculating wildly while often ignoring what is outright stated in the books. When it's not doing that, it's ignoring logic. Hey, there aren't any openly homosexual people in the trilogy, so let's make Cinna gay and for his lover - oh, let's make him Finnick because of the gold bracelet. Katniss has a troubled relationship with her mom, so that must mean Mrs. Everdeen is a terrible person - let's accuse her of an adulterous affair with Mr. Mellark that resulted in Prim.I enjoy digging deeper in my favorite novels, TV shows, and movies but I believe any extrapolations made must be reasonable; grounded in logic and definitely not contradicting canon. Arrow believes everything in Panem stems from racial hatred and refuses to acknowledge anything else exists. This makes her book tiresome...and incomplete. "The Panem Companion" reads as the work of someone with a politically correct axe to grind.

I like the outside take on the Hunger Games world, I appreciate the breakdown of some of the unspoken social aspects. I loved the maps. I would recommend it to any serious Hunger Games fan wanting that something extra.

I like this book quite a lot, and I can see that the author has really done a lot of research and put quite a deal of f2f thought into the subject. However, the map of Panem (a major selling point of this work) does not display as a map, but rather as a series of grids stacked on top of one another in single columns spread over four or five pages. It's clear from the shading that the first column contains all the topmost grids of the map, but viewing it one grid at a time does not give me a full picture of the map in my head. The other pieces make it even more confusing.All that said, the book is extremely well thought out, though less a work for a general fan, I think, and more for someone who wants a more scholastic exploration for how Panem came to be. Still worth the price, even if PopSmart's ads at the end don't, in fact, make them look very smart (i.e., misspelling "more" as "mote" in large, can't-miss-it text).

I guess I should learn to wait until the officially authorized guides come out for the series because I have yet to find an "unauthorized" guide that is worth reading. Having said that, it is much better than "The Hunger Games Companion" by Lois H. Gresh, which is just full of errors. "The Panem Companion" does have a few errors but not nearly as many. The authors certainly did some research about the series but are often reaching a bit too far and coming up with conclusions that I don't think were ever intended by Suzanne Collins. It does definitely make you think more about the world of Panem vs. today's society and the chapter about Reality TV and exploitation is extremely well written with some very valid points. It's worth a read if you can get it for a very cheap price or borrow it from the library.

Thoroughly researched, this is a very interesting read, especially the chapters on genetic heritage, race relations and the conclusion that the rebellion in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series is more about class warfare than justice. The chapter at the end dragged a bit with the speculations about each character's name, and fell off the wheels when giving a treatise on the name Romulus Thread when everyone knows it was a nod to Harry Potter...

This book gives fans an inside look at Panem. If you want an indepth look at the inner workings of Panem, this is the book for you.

This is not a breathless fanbook, but a serious, informed discussion of the THG series. It is also not a stogey piece of scholarship. The author walks the fine line between "Team Peeta!" silliness (Why is there never a 'Team Katniss'?) and academic seriousness with some delicacy. Her sources range from sociology theses to fanzine whimsy. The final 20+ pages are the only disappointment. They exercise tiresome and unconvincing logical leaps to account for each of the names in the books. But the chapters that precede that exercise more than make up for that misstep. You will come away from reading with a better understanding of THG.

If you like the books or the movie you would like the panem companion. It's bascially about how the world of panem might be. How it would come to be. The logic of how the hunger games. Would come to be. And why! It gives sort of future history of panum.

I live in the UK so I found the geographical references helpful in the discussion of the location of the various districts of Panem. There were racial aspects in the books which I had failed to appreciate so that opened up new thinking. I had only been on websites which dealt with the films so I had missed much of the fan discussions, this book partly made up for that. Actually, just writing about my reactions to the contents makes me want to re-read it.

really good it makes you stop and think about many of the themes in the series you might miss in reading as the books are fast and impossible to put down.

Consiglio questo libro a tutti i fan di Hunger Games, perchè analizza il libro in maniera molto più che completa, andando a fondo nella spiegazione della società dei distretti, che cosa producono ma soprattutto come sono le persone che li abitano.

Ausdrücklich wird hervorgehoben, dass sich dieses Buch auf die Trilogie und nicht auf den doch veränderten Film bezieht. Mir gefallen die zahlreichen Fußnoten, die weitere Information bieten. Etwas weit hergeholt erscheinen mir manche Namenserklärungen.Einblicke ins TV-Geschäft und die Fan-Szene sind teilweise erschreckend.