Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Katniss lives in what used to be known as North America but is now called Panem. Her district, District 12, is one of the poorest districts and in order to feed herself, her mother and her sister, she needs to illegally hunt rabbits and squirrels with the bow and arrow her father taught her to use before he died. Life is not easy, and it's about to get more difficult.

Every year, the government of Panem sponsors the Hunger Games with 2 teenagers - a boy and a girl - competing from each of the twelve districts, and this year Katniss' younger sister is picked. Katniss steps up and takes her place, which may seem greedy until you know that the winner of the Hunger Games is the last kid alive: it's a fight to the death on live reality TV.

What I just summarized is covered in the first 30 pages. What happens in the next 340 (and don't let that number scare you - it's not a book you can easily put down) is scary, funny, gruesome, shocking, and tense. It features deadly wasps, bloodthirsty opponents, life-or-death chases, explosions, death, and a little romance. Everything is from Katniss' point of view, and she's a great narrator: funny, smart, tough, stubborn, deadly with a bow and arrow, and even has a bit of a weakness for pretty clothes. She's difficult to dislike.

I must admit, I have a weakness for dystopian novels, like The Giver, Uglies, and many more. The Hunger Games is one of the best I've read, and as the first in a projected trilogy, I can't wait until the next book comes out in September.

5 stars out of 5 for The Hunger Games.


Extras:
The Hunger Games website (features interviews with the author and you can read the first chapter).
Stephen King liked this book too.
TeenReads review and excerpt.