The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
written by Suzanne Collins



The Hunger Games is living proof that a book cannot be judged by its description. At its simplest, yes, this book can be called a survival story. There are, however, so many more layers to it all. It is all about the human to human interactions as opposed to the human to environment interactions one would expect in a survival stories. It's such a lousy summary to give, "A reality show survivalist story" when there's so much more to it all. So I was skeptical when I first began reading, and it did seem to fall into that category. I had a bit of difficulty, due to that fact, getting into the book. However, once I found a good, quiet block of time, I sat down and read straight through and loved it. It's all so suspenseful, as you really have no idea who will live and who will die going from page to page. I made predictions, some came true, some did not. Overall, I think the appeal to this book is the appealing personality of the main character and its ease of reading--I know 11 year olds who have read and loved this book. It's easy reading, but once you go up the age scale, there's more and more depth to the overall story, making lots of real world connections to pitting countries against each other in brutal wars. I was hoping to see more of this, the internal workings of the Capitol, some more background history (parts of the history they are fed seem veeery dodgy, and I'd like to know more), and I'm really hoping this is a vital point of Catching Fire. I am also definitely hoping Catching Fire is about an overthrowing of the existing system, as well as more of the interaction between Katniss and Gale. I'm getting more than a little sick of Peeta. There were plenty of hints and clues along the way, and I'm hoping some of them (the pin, the ruins, Katniss's father's death, etc) come into play in the sequel.

Rating: 5/5

I got this book from...:Borders