The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Release Date - October 31st 2008
Publisher - Scholastic Press
Age Group - Young Adult
Pages - 374
Overall - 5/5
Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning? In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
So I finally gave in and decided to read The Hunger Games. Of course it's been on my to read pile for ever, I just didn't know if I wanted to read it and ruin the magical image that I had created in my mind from all the hype I had been hearing. Thankfully, I was not disappointed with this book. Of course, I had a general idea of what was supposed to happen and what was involved, but never could my imagination go where this book went.
The Hunger Games is set in a post apocalyptic North America where the US has been divided into 13 districts ruled by The Capitol. As a constant reminder against their failed uprising again the Capitol, everyone year the districts send one boy and one girl to participate in The Hunger Games where there will be only one victor, but it seems this year the rules are going to change.
Katniss and Peeta are quiet the odd pair to say the least. One a minor's daughter and the other a baker's son, living in different parts of District 12. When they are thrown together after the reaping to prepare for their life or death competition, an unlikely bond begins to grow. I found myself rooting more and more for the two of them to become closer the more the book went along, but if you are familiar with the series at all I'm sure you would expect that.
As the competition rages on and people's lives are lost I found myself growing a bit more and more connected to the characters that were slowly surviving. The crazy twists and turns in the book kept me reading well into the night. Once you pick this book up you are not going to want to put it down. I know my next trip to the bookstore will have to include Catching Fire, I am just dying to know what happens back in the Districs after The Hunger Games have concluded.
