Book Review: Hunger Games
Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. While writing this review, I’m about to start book number two in the series called Catching Fire. I’ve reserved watching the movie until after I have finished the first book in the series, and now I get to do that, so I am looking forward to it. The trilogy is completed with the Mockingjay and based on the brief description on Suzanne’s website, I’m excited to get that far.
Hunger Games is about a girl named Katniss, who while only 16 years of age and living in the poorest district in Pandem, the remains of what used to be the United States, finds a way to keep her family fed and alive. As a part of the terms to surrender each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in the annual televised event called the Hunger Games. The training, the people, and the level of audience participation may change from year to year, but the game itself is kill or be killed, plain and simple. When her little sister is chosen by lottery system, Katniss steps up to take her place in the games.
Now with all that said you basically have 24 young adults thrown into a giant man-made arena, competing in a life or death survival of the fittest competition. The written rules are simple: be the last one alive, and you win. I was glued to this book from beginning to end, and fortunately I had two plane flights right in a row, that gave me time to read the book from cover to cover.
All in all this book scores a strong 8.5 out of a possible 10 points. All the characters are well defined; the story is well-paced, well-written, and totally enjoyable. I’m looking forward to reading the next two books in the series, and I noticed that Suzanne also has several fantasy books in her collection, so I plan to look into a few of those also.
