Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Hunger Games


By Suzanne Collins

Warning: This book is not a stand-alone. It has a sequel; just in case you don’t want to start another series. (I know you are reading at least one!)

Panem is the country of a place once called North America. There are 12 districts in this country, all controlled by The Capital. Not only are the peoples of the districts starving, and mistreated, but for a rebellion many years ago they are forced to compete in the annual Hunger Games. The Games are an event where one boy and one girl from each of the districts is chosen to go to the Capital and compete in a ‘game’ where the winner is decided after they or someone else has killed everyone competing. When Katniss Evergreen’s 12 year old sister is chosen, she volunteers to take her place, and save her life. Katniss promises her sister that she will do everything she can to win, though she feels that it is a death-sentence. Will Katniss be able to kill to survive? What happens when she defies the games? Find out when you read the chilling story of the Hunger Games.

Holy fire and brimstone. I haven’t been this enthralled with a book in ages. I mean, whoa, who tackles a story like this one? Brutal, compassionate, and full of human errors and strengths, this story packs one heck of a wallop to the emotions of the reader. I was reminded greatly of Lois Lowry’s The Giver while reading this book. Katniss was hard to relate to, as I had never been hungry, or had to hunt to survive. But she is a strong character and worthy of being the main attraction of the book, along with memorable characters like Rue, Cinna, Haymitch, and Peeta. Collins did a masterful job in handling the scenes that I was worried would be gory and make me nauseous. She gets the point across beautifully and didn’t shock me with excessive detail. My mark of a great book is one in which I am terribly conflicted and right there with the characters or against them, wanting them to do one thing or another. It’s like you’re a little kid again watching a show in the theater screaming, “RUN, IT”S BEHIND YOU!!!!!” I loved it and will read it again and again and again……

Fun Info: The sequel to Hunger Games is coming out in September, called Catching Fire.

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