Veronica Roth says she never finished 'The Hunger Games' because the violence is too emotionally difficult

Veronica Roth, the author of the mega-franchise Divergent, just admitted she never actually finished reading or watching The Hunger Games. The violence of teenagers murdering each other on screen and on the page is simply too emotionally taxing for her to stomach.

The admission is a phenomenal bit of irony. In the post-Twilight boom of the 2010s, Divergent and Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games were the twin pillars of Young Adult Fiction. They occupied the exact same cultural real estate, built on the exact same premise of teenagers fighting oppressive governments in a grim Dystopia. But speaking with Olivia Ponton on Booked, Blonde & Busy, Roth confesses that she tapped out of Katniss Everdeen’s journey early on.

I haven’t uh read the like additional books in the series because honestly, those books are like they’re hard, like emotionally difficult. So, um I’m always like, ‘Okay, well, when I’m ready.’ And I just feel like there’s really never a time that you feel ready for like teens murdering each other.

Roth promises she will get to it eventually when she feels sturdier as a person. It is a funny, vulnerable reveal from an author whose own universe is hardly a bloodless walk in the park. But Roth is currently in a reflective mood about her own legacy, too. She is promoting The Sixth Faction, an alternate-universe retelling of Divergent that completely changes the trajectory of Tris Prior’s choosing ceremony.

Returning to the world that made her famous a decade ago was largely a therapeutic exercise. Roth wanted to unpack the baggage of massive early fame and the famously intense fandom backlash to the ending of Allegiant.

I think it’s also just like an anxiety disorder problem, right? Um you’re just really hard on yourself like if you have anxiety or maybe that’s what causes the anxiety. Hard to say. But I think what surprised me is that I felt more inclined to be kind to my past self and appreciate what she did well.

That grace extends to the text itself. Returning to the franchise meant Roth had to resist the urge to surgically repair the plotting flaws she now sees as an adult. Instead of fixing publishing history, she is letting it stand.

So, you can’t go in there and like try to be uh this like I don’t know mad scientist about it like and make it the perfect book somehow. You have to let it breathe and be as flawed as the original work.