Overall, The Hunger Games is a perfect novel to translate to the cinema for its action and fast-paced narrative structure.
Acide Sulfurique was published in 2005, a few years before the publication of The Hunger Games While I was reading this novel, I couldn’t help but make parallels between The Hunger Games and Acide Sulfurique. But… they can’t stop watching.īefore you say, “this sounds like The Hunger Games… wow, what a rip-off!” I can assure you that this novel isn’t a rip-off or copycat. Meanwhile, spectators are disgusted by this new television show. One of the guards of “Concentration,” Zdena, is desperate to uncover CKZ 114’s real name, and discover the thoughts behind her expressionless demeanour. Pannonique is stripped of her identity, including her name, and she is reborn as CKZ 114. One day, out of nowhere, the lovely Pannonique is pulled of the streets at random and lands a role as a participant on a new reality television show called “Concentration.” In this camp, participants are prisoners subjected to torture, dehumanization and even… death at random, all in the name of entertainment. Ī huge bestseller in Nothomb’s adopted France, Sulphuric Acid is a blackly funny, shocking and provocative satire on our modern obsession with reality television and celebrity. When Pannonique is delivered to the death camp and the cameras are turned on, she unknowingly becomes a media star, but she soon understands that her situation is all too real. Participants for the show are rounded up and loaded onto cattle trucks, among them the beautiful young woman Pannonique. One channel decides to try something new and ‘Concentration’ – the reality television death camp – is born. Some time in the future, audiences have tired of traditional reality television shows. And yet, in such a calamity, a disturbing image can become beautiful. There is something unsettling about this image.
Perhaps it is because it is unusual and unlikely, almost surreal. I cannot say why I am so intrigued by this cover image. The cover image features a butterfly that flew into a glass and broke its wing. Initial thoughts: Isn’t it exciting to dive into a novel of which you know nothing about save for its title, author and cover image? When I picked up Acide Sulfurique (translated: Sulphuric Acid) from the sparsely filled shelves of the French section of my local library, I was struck by the cover image. The time came when the suffering of others was not enough for them they needed the spectacle of it too” – Acide Sulfurique (Sulphuric Acid) – Amélie Nothomb
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