 Similarities of The Hunger Games to Koushun Takami 's 1999 novel Battle Royale have been noted . Collins stated that she " had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in . At that point , it was mentioned to me , and I asked my editor if I should read it . He said : ' No , I don 't want that world in your head . Just continue with what you 're doing ' . " Susan Dominus of The New York Times reports that " the parallels are striking enough that Collins 's work has been savaged on the blogosphere as a baldfaced ripoff " of Battle Royale but argued that " there are enough possible sources for the plot line that the two authors might well have hit on the same basic setup independently . " Stephen King noted that the reality TV " badlands " were similar to Battle Royale , as well as his own novels The Running Man and The Long Walk . Eric Eisenberg wrote that The Hunger Games was " not a rip off of Battle Royale , but simply a different usage of a similar idea " , pointing out various differences in both story and themes . 
