The Hunger Games movies were full of sad, gruesome, and otherwise awful moments, but many of these were so much worse in the books. Katniss’ dystopian story is based around a competition in which starving children fight one another to the death, so it’s no surprise that the series covers some dark topics. The Lionsgate movies did a great job of bringing this devastation to the screen, with plenty of shocking scenes that drive home unique themes. However, the benefit of a book series is that it can contain far more detail. In the case of The Hunger Games, this means for some truly horrible moments.
Though The Hunger Games is considered a YA book series, the story within gets about as dark as it gets. If Suzanne Collins’ books were brought to the screen in every gruesome detail, Katniss’ story might have earned an R-rating. This, combined with the time restrictions of movies, meant that Lionsgate had to water down or leave out several big Hunger Games moments. The deaths of children or the brutal murder of characters like Cinna and Finnick were truly awful on screen, but other scenes were just so much worse on the page.
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The Hunger Games books all boast high-quality storytelling and social commentary, but which of Suzanne Collins’ novels is the best of the series?
10 Glimmer’s Death & Katniss Hallucinations
This Was One Of The Grossest Moments In The Book
Katniss’ first official kill in the Hunger Games was Glimmer, a career tribute who had possession of the only bow in the arena. She and other careers had Katniss stuck up a tree, and the only way she could escape was to drop a nest of Tracker Jackers on them. This happened in the Hunger Games movies as well, and the result was Glimmer’s death and a lot of disorientation for Katniss. However, the whole thing was a lot grosser in the book.
During this scene in the Hunger Games book, Glimmer’s entire body became grotesquely enflamed following the Tracker Jacker sticks. She was no longer recognizable as the beautiful girl she had been, and her limbs and hands grew stiff around the bow while the quiver of arrows was trapped under her body. To make the whole scene even worse, Katniss hallucinated that Glimmber’s body was falling apart and emitting orange slime as Katniss tried to move her. It was all grotesque, and Katniss was haunted by the sight for years.
9 Cato’s Slow Death At The End Of The Hunger Games
Cato’s Death Was Far Quicker In The Movie
In the Hunger Games movie, Cato fell off the cornucopia after his final showdown with Katniss and was victim to the horrible dog-like muttations. Pitying the boy, Katniss immediately shot Cato with an arrow, seemingly ending the Hunger Games. Again, this was true for the Hunger Games book as well. However, the entire scene was far more drawn out and horrible.
In the book, The mutts dragged Cato into the cornucopia after he fell, and they slowly gnawed on him all night. Katniss couldn’t see the boy to put him out of his misery, so she and Peeta sat on top of the structure all night, nearly freezing to death, as they listened to Cato’s moans of agony below them. By then, the District 1 boy no longer seemed like a dangerous enemy. To Katniss, he was suddenly just an injured boy dying far too slowly.
8 Katniss’ Reaction To The Final Rule Change
Katniss’ Gut Reaction Was So Much Harsher
The Hunger Games movies made a lot of changes to Katniss’ character. She was a lot more likable on screen since she was missing the untrusting and self-interested edge she possessed in the books. An example is at the end of The Hunger Games movie when it was announced that the rule allowing two victors had been withdrawn. Katniss immediately refused to kill Peeta, and the moment quickly segued into the berry incident. However, she is a bit more heartless in the book.
It was a brutal reminder that Katniss’ survival instincts went deeper than her love at this point in the story.
On the page, Katniss quickly became fearful that Peeta would try to attack her. After the announcement, Peeta drew his knife from his belt, and this confirmed in Katniss’ mind that the boy was going to turn on her. So, she instinctively raised her bow and aimed an arrow directly at Peeta. She felt guilty the moment the boy threw his knife aside, but the damage had been done. It was a brutal reminder that Katniss’ survival instincts went deeper than her love at this point in the story.
7 Katniss Recognizing The Avoxes
The Hunger Games Books Shared The Avoxes’ Tragic Stories
The Hunger Games movies basically cut everything related to Avoxes, though there were some subtle references throughout. These unfortunate people were typically Capitol citizens who committed a crime (typically treason) and were punished by having their tongues removed. They were then placed in a position of servitude, unable to speak or interact except by following orders.
In the Hunger Games book, Katniss realized that she recognized the Avox tasked with serving the District 12 tributes. She had seen the red-headed girl with a boy to the woods near District 12, desperately trying to escape from a Capitol hovercraft. The Capitol escapee had seen Katniss and begged for help, but she didn’t give it—instead, she only watched as the boy was killed and the girl was taken away.
In
Catching Fire
, one of Katniss and Peeta’s designated Avoxes was a peacekeeper from District 12, who was arrested for trying to protect Gale from being flogged.
6 The Morphling’s Death After Saving Peeta
Peeta’s Final Moments With His Savior Were Heartbreaking
In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Peeta’s life was saved in the arena when a Morphling from District 6 dove in front of him during the monkey attack. It was a heartbreaking moment in the movie, but the book scene was far more brutal and tragic overall.
The monkeys themselves were even more horrible in the Catching Fire book since their method of killing was absolutely devastating. They would tear with their teeth and immensely strong hands, and Katniss witnessed this when the one launched itself at Peeta but instead sunk its teeth into the sternum of the Morphling woman. As she lay dying, Peeta held her while she used her own blood to paint a flower on the boy’s cheek.
5 Peeta & Johanna’s Torture At The Capitol
The Hunger Games Movies Glossed Over Peeta & Johanna’s Experience
After the events of Catching Fire, Peeta and Johanna were held captive in the Capitol, where they were tortured for information about the rebellion. In the Mockingjay movie, Peeta’s deteriorating condition was visible through his TV appearances (not to mention his behavior toward Katniss once rescued by District 13). Additionally, Johanna was seen to be emaciated with a shaved head. Still, there was little said about what they actually went through.
It’s later revealed that Johanna was tortured using water, and her resulting trauma was so extreme that she refused to take showers.
The Mockingjay book never provided Peeta or Johanna’s perspectives during their torture, but a great deal more was said regarding what happened to them. Johanna mentioned that she could hear Peeta being tortured, and Peeta later said that he heard the Avoxes’ distorted screams as well. Additionally, it’s later revealed that Johanna was tortured using water, and her resulting trauma was so extreme that she refused to take showers.
4 Finnick’s Story About President Snow’s Secrets
Finnick Was An Even More Tragic Character In The Books
A deleted scene in Mockingjay shows Finnick revealing on live TV that President Snow used to “use” tributes like him, but the film never went into much detail about what this meant. In the book, this is one of the more disturbing revelations about President Snow. Katniss had assumed that Finnick was something of a playboy and judged him for his various intimate relationships with Capitol citizens. However, she ultimately learned that she had judged far too harshly.
In truth, President Snow had turned Finnick into a prostitute and benefitted off the boy (who was 14 when he won the Games) by selling him to the highest bidder. It’s genuinely atrocious and something that Finnick dealt with for years before finally escaping to District 13.
3 Prim’s Death Scene In Mockingjay
The Hunger Games Movies Skipped The Tragic Details
The Mockingjay movie cut away when the bombs that killed Prim exploded, and, to a point, the book did too. The chapter ended with the bombs detonating, and the next picked up with Katniss’ overwhelmed mind trying to make sense of what had happened. She herself was immediately on fire after the explosion, so Katniss spent the next chapter heavily sedated with Morphling. Still, the drug-induced images of her dreams revealed the tragedy of it all.
As Katniss recovered from her burns, she saw images of all the people who had died, including her sister. As she processed this, her inner dialogue describes seeing Prim become a “human torch.” It was a blunt and truly horrible way to explain what had happened, but it was an effective method of exploring the deadened way that Katniss had taken to seeing the world and her situation.
2 Katniss’ Imprisonment After Killing Coin
Katniss’ Faced Brutal Days In Solitary Confinement
There were virtually no consequences to Katniss executing the standing president of Panem in the Mockingjay movie, but this wasn’t the case in the book. On the page, it took weeks for the government to decide what it would do with the Girl on Fire. It was ultimately decided that her post-traumatic stress was so extreme that she could not be held responsible for her actions, and she was sent back to District 12 under constant supervision. As they decided this, Katniss was locked away in solitary confinement.
She cried and screamed before eventually breaking into song and singing for days until her voice was raw.
Alone, in her room, and expecting to be executed any day, Katniss slowly lost her mind as she went through painful withdrawal from the medications she had been on. Her body was still healing from her burns, and she described her skin as coming off with her dirty clothes in giant sheets. She cried and screamed before eventually breaking into song and singing for days until her voice was raw. It was a profoundly impactful moment of pain and eventual acceptance.
1 The State Of District 12 After Katniss Returned
Fixing Up District 12 Was A Horrible Task
Katniss’ return to District 12 was also toned down in the Hunger Games movies. In the Mockingjay book, Katniss was among the first to return to the District, and she stayed in the Victor’s Village with Greasy Sae (a character mostly cut from the Hunger Games movies). Eventually, other District 12 citizens returned, and they began cleaning up the decaying bodies left in the streets.
When Katniss finally decided to leave her home and wander, she saw the gruesome work being done to reclaim the community. She saw the carts piled with corpses and the mass graves being dug in the meadow. It was a horrible but somewhat healing process, and this eventually led to the epilogue of the Hunger Games book series, in which Katniss watched Peeta play with their children in the meadow. She thinks momentarily that the little ones have no idea that the beautiful place they play is a graveyard.