GRACE HICKS

When a novel casts a shadow—an all-encompassing shadow of a niche readers flock to—is it unreasonable to assume other writers might try to emulate that shadow? If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it, as they say. In the case of 2010’s young adult (YA) dystopian novels, The Hunger Games’ shadow was one to be envied and aspired to by all YA dystopian novels that followed and followed they did. Every YA dystopian novel after was in conversation with The Hunger Games to some extent, whether in agreement or opposition with its formula. The Selection was one such novel striving for the coveted title in the YA publishing industry at the time: the next Hunger Games. The Selection did not follow The Hunger Games in genre and narrative structure alone; its marketing worked to create an association with The Hunger Games to draw in an already established loyal audience. While The Selection attempts to differentiate itself in a flooded market, that differentiation is still concerned with The Hunger Games’ preconceived structure.

This is not always obvious to the average reader, but there is a substantial influence below the surface, a current with a preconceived destination in mind by the publisher. Many simply pick up a book they think looks interesting and read it without thinking about how many minds worked to get that book in their hands. And many minds worked to get the YA novels that followed The Hunger Games into readers’ hands. This push was sparked, in part, by the financial success of The Hunger Games, and unfortunately, even art is beholden to the monetary aspects of our society. This prospect of monetary gain was one of the driving factors behind the 2010s YA craze that led to books such as The Selection. However, financial pressure does not exist in a vacuum, and this push came about due to a growing hunger among readers for similar stories. With this knowledge in mind, a clear path appears, which starts with The Hunger Games and its inescapable influence and ends with its successors like The Selection. The Selection contains elements in its narrative style and publishing history that actively try to entice readers with its similarities to The Hunger Games while distinguishing itself from it; however, it ultimately never escapes the shadow cast by its predecessor.

On September 14th, 2008, Suzanne Collins’ novel, The Hunger Games, was published by Scholastic, and it changed the face of a genre. The Hunger Games follows the story of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, from District Twelve, the poorest and most overlooked District. Katniss lives in a world alien to the reader: the country of Panem, a dystopian society that came about after the fall of the United States in the distant future. In Panem, there are twelve Districts, each with its own specialty, but all of which follow and support the wealthy Capital. The twelve Districts rebelled against the Capital for their harsh mistreatment, and as penance, the capital started the tradition of the Games. Katniss enters the Games as a volunteer to save her younger sister and inadvertently sets in motion a plot larger than she could have imagined, as she becomes the face of a revolution and a symbol of hope.

Since its publication in 2008, The Hunger Games series has sold over 100 million copies and has been on The New York Times best-seller list for more than 300 weeks (Bookriot). However, The Hunger Games did not always seem destined to succeed. According to David Levithan, the editorial director at Scholastic, there was some anxiety about seeing if their risk would pay off, but they trusted Suzanne Collins to immense success (NPR). The Hunger Games helped catapult the industry into a YA craze. Between 2002 and 2012, the number of YA books published doubled from 4,700 to over 10,000 (Liveaboutdotcom). According to Jen Scott Curwood in her essay “The Hunger Games: Literature, Literacy, and Online Affinity Spaces,” in 2013, five years after its publication, The Hunger Games Top Sites tracked over fifty fan sites with a combined thirty million views ranging from the U.S. to Turkey, and when an author is trying to write their first big hit, or a publisher is looking to capitalize on a new market, fifty fan sites with a combined thirty million views is an obvious opening. However, why was The Hunger Games so impactful for its audience, and how were publishers able to take advantage of the strong impression it left on readers? Curwood believes that science fiction, like The Hunger Games, is so popular because it requires readers to suspend their disbelief and “imagine new worlds and ways of being” (Curwood), as escapism is a powerful thing for younger readers. These stories allow young people to insert themselves into fantastical situations, a setting easy to replicate. She also claims science fiction creates a culture for readers through fandom (Curwood), which can help to grow the popularity of a novel commercially and create a curated audience with an easily identifiable common interest for publishers to capitalize on. Lastly, science fiction is “thought-provoking” and requires that readers “confront the moral dilemmas, personal struggles, and social conditions evident in the story” (Curwood). This is pivotal for developing readers as science fiction allows readers to experience a captivating story while also expanding their worldview. According to NPR, bestselling author Lauren Oliver believes young adults identify strongly with characters like Katniss:

The young protagonists are inheriting this kind of dark and broken world, and with a little bit of pluck and courage, try to navigate it and try to salvage some kind of a happy ending. And I do think there’s a lot of parallels to how young people kind of feel nowadays as they’re confronting this future that’s very uncertain in this country economically, and they’re inheriting what they see as kind of a broken world” (NPR).

The Hunger Games was released just after the 2008 housing market crash, an event that changed the lives of many families, leaving many young adults uncertain of their future. The Hunger Games created a perfect storm during a turbulent time for young readers because it created a fandom with a hunger for more stories and a love for escapism and fantastical worlds where they could make a difference.

On April 14th, 2012, four years after the first Hunger Games book, Kiera Cass and Harper Teen published The Selection. The Selection follows a 16-year-old America Singer who lives in a world where the United States has once again morphed into a new country dominated by classism: Illéa. In Illéa, they employ a caste system, which divides the residents of the country into numbers from one to eight. Your job and social standing are decided solely by your caste, with Eights being homeless and complete societal outcasts and Ones being the royal family who rule the country. America is a Five, part of the artist caste; while her family is not starving, they are lower-class due to the family’s income being beholden to their desirability. Citizens are born into their caste, but women can marry up in rank, which is what our story is rooted in. Within the royal family of Illéa, princesses are married off to foreign connections for political gain, but the crown prince is married to a girl from Illéa. Not just any girl, though, the winner of the Selection, a multiweek televised reality show very similar to The Bachelor. Thirty-four girls go in, and one queen comes out. While the girls are not killed like in The Hunger Games, the entire charade is televised to the country to entertain and inspire patriotism. America is initially unwilling to enter the Selection but ends up doing so for her mother’s sake, believing she will never actually get picked. To America’s dismay, she is indeed picked to participate in the Selection and all the sparkly dresses and drama it entails. At face value, The Selection seems only slightly similar to The Hunger Games; however, a deeper dive reveals more connections.

The cover is the first thing people see when they pick up a book, it is meant to give you a sense of what awaits you should you turn to that first page, and The Selection does not waste this opportunity. The cover of The Selection depicts a girl, presumably America Singer, in a model-like pose wearing an elegant blue frilled ballgown surrounded by mirrors. Each of the following Selection book’s covers follows this imagery. While this does not mimic the cover of The Hunger Games, it capitalizes on one theme of The Hunger Games: the outfits. One of the many draws of The Hunger Games for young girls and women was the beautiful fashion. Katniss’ fire outfit and Mockingjay dress were loved by readers and inspired fanart and speculation for their appearances in the movies. This capitalization on fan involvement when it comes to fashion is one emulated by The Selection. The second book in the series, The Elite, even features a fire-red ballgown on its cover, not unlike Katniss’ signature girl-on-fire look. Through both books, each girl takes part in live interviews presented by a flamboyant host. Both The Hunger Games and The Selection take this time to give detailed descriptions of the dress of the main character as well as the other contestants. This focus on fashion is not a mistake. The Hunger Games drew readers in with its clothing and style, so The Selection followed suit. Additionally, the presence of interviews alone is another similarity, as well as the televised nature of the event and its dramatization. While The Selection tries to set itself apart with its nonviolent nature, it is still about a reality TV show taking advantage of children by throwing them into a cutthroat “arena” where their future and economic stability are on the line. Also, according to Book Riot, before The Hunger Games, it was almost unheard of to see a female protagonist in the leading role of a dystopian novel. The Selection even sets itself apart among Hunger Games follow-ups, according to Collider, novels like Divergent divide up their worlds based on personality, but The Hunger Games divides people based on economic station, just like The Selection and its castes. According to Book Riot, this trend has not gone unnoticed:

The Hunger Games, in particular, catapulted YA dystopian novels into the spotlight. Future bestselling series like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Selection by Kiera Cass, The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancy, Legend by Marie Lu, Matched by Ally Condie, and Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi built some of their readership from fans of The Hunger Games” (Book Riot).

The Selection saw an opportunity for readership from the pre-established fanbase created by The Hunger Games and took it.

As Dan Sinkyin explains in his book, Big Fiction, conglomerate publishers often are more focused on increasing profits and keeping readers than they are on putting out high-quality books with original ideas (10). This could not be clearer than with the 2010’s YA dystopian craze. Publishers at the time of The Selection were more focused on capitalizing on the large fanbase ripe for the taking than they were on putting out original content. It’s much easier to feed the hungry beast right in front of you than to go out and find a new one to feed. The Selection was one of many books resulting from this trend, and it was not unsuccessful. The Selection did exactly what it was intended to do: find readers who enjoyed the YA dystopian genre following The Hunger Games, and in that, it succeeded. There was a call for books of this nature by readers, especially young ones. Many of these books found themselves in the hands of fledgling readers working to develop their comprehension skills and vocabulary. While The Selection may be in conversation with The Hunger Games, that conversation is not one-sided. The Selection adds its own take on the genre and, if nothing else, entertainment for those who have read it. The Selection contains elements in its narrative style and publishing history that actively try to entice readers with its similarities to The Hunger Games while distinguishing itself; ultimately, it never escapes the shadow cast by its predecessor.

Works Cited

Cass, Kiera. The Selection. HarperTeen, 2013.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games Trilogy. Scholastic, 2008.

Curwood, Jen Scott. “‘The Hunger Games’: Literature, Literacy, and Online Affinity Spaces.” Language Arts, vol. 90, no. 6, 2013, pp. 417–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24575002. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

Doherty, Alison. “In the 15 Years Since Its Publication, What Is the Impact of The Hunger Games?” Book Riot, 10 Nov. 2023, https://bookriot.com/the-hunger-games-impact/.

Guimarães, Elisa. “This Is the Reason ‘The Hunger Games’ Stands Out Among YA Dystopias.” Collider, 31 Oct. 2023, https://collider.com/the-hunger-games-ya-dystopian/.

Limpár, Ildikó. “The Hunger Games Trilogy as a Text for Education.” Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS), vol. 23, no. 2, 2017, pp. 387–98. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26894886. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024

Neary, Lynn. “Spurred By Success, Publishers Look For The Next ‘Hunger Games.’” NPR, 6 Mar. 2012, www.npr.org/2012/03/06/148042865/spurred-by-success-publishers-look-for-the-next-hunger-games.

Peterson, Valerie. “Young Adult and New Adult Book Markets.” LiveAbout, 15 Dec. 2018, https://www.liveabout.com/the-young-adult-book-market-2799954.

Sinykin, Dan. “Introduction.” Big Fiction, Columbia University Press, 2023, pp. 1–23.