The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, was recommended to me by a work mate after I mentioned I liked Tomorrow when the War Began. The story takes place in the future. The (former) US is run by a totalitarian government (based in the Capitol). There were originally 13 districts that rebelled against this government with all rebellions being put down. District 13 was completely destoyed while the other districts are forced to enter a randomly selected male and female between the ages of 12 and 18 in the Hunger Games each year. The Hunger Games basically involve throwing the contestants into a huge arena where the objective is to kill each other. All of the games are streamed live in the form of a reality show. Enter Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of our story. Katniss is 16 and volunteers to take part in the games in place of her 12-year-old sister. Katniss is used to survival, having hunted for her family for years - however, she is not comfortable with the games. To make matters worse, the other entrant from District 12 is a boy (Peeta), who once helped Katniss and her family avoid starving to death. Since then, Katniss has felt she owes him and doesn't want to kill him. What follows is an extremely fast paced, nail-biting story.

While the storyline is extremely far-fetched, it is still entertaining and made me think a bit about what I'd do in the same situation. At first I thought it was a little slow, but once they entered the arena, I found I couldn't put the book down as the pace just got quicker and quicker and there were surprises around every corner. Suzanne Collins creates a great atmosphere of trepidation leaving the reader on the edge of their seat. There is also a lot of gore in this book so those with a weak stomach should maybe skip over these parts.

The only part of the book that I felt let it down was the growing romance between Katniss and Peeta. I just found these parts to be extremely slow and a little boring. This, however, may be more reflective of my anti-romantic personality than the quality of the book itself. The whole plot was perfectly planned and I couldn't have come up with a better ending if I tried. There are two other books in the series and I'm eagerly waiting to borrow the second book from the Library.

The Hunger Games