Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Blurber Blabber Review: Buy it now!
Blurb: YA post-apocalyptic world where kids are forced to fight each other to the death in amped up Gladiator-like games with better technology. Need I say more? Oh wait, there's also great writing, well-paced suspense, and endearing characters who show room for growth and development. Collins takes us to some point in the dark future or alternate reality where North America is instead known as Panem with a Capitol and 13 districts. The districts eventually rebelled until the Capitol squashed them and completely destroyed District 13. After the rebellion the Capitol established the Hunger Games, a sick and twisted annual “game” where each of the remaining 12 districts hold “reapings” to randomly select 1 boy and 1 girl (the “tributes”) to fight to the death, televised in a huge outdoor arena, until 1 tribute remains. The Capitol cruelly forces everyone to celebrate the Games as a festivity to add further humiliation and to remind all of the districts how they are totally at the mercy of the Capitol. When you pick up Hunger Games, be sure to do it when you have free time over the next few days because as soon as you finish it you will be on to the next one, and then the one after that, and then you'll be sad that the series is over but glad to not have to wait on a cliffhanger for a year as you wait for the next book (Bah - I'm looking at you Alchemyst series!). If you want to see my reviews for the rest of the trilogy, check out here (book two) and here (book three).
Series: First book in a completed trilogy.
Language/Writing Style: Third person narrative. Mix of dialogue and internal thoughts/memories of the main character, Katniss.
Adult Content: The only adult content in this book is the violence and disturbing imagery from the setting of kids forced to kill each other. Some of the deaths are described in gruesome detail.
Rereadability: This is a fast read and engrossing. And since it's part of a trilogy I went back to it a lot as I was reading the second and third books. I reread this recently wondering if it would be as good as the first time around, and I ended up staying up very late that night trying to finish it.
Published: 2008
Length: 384 pages
(Read on for the more detailed and SPOILER-filled "blabber" review)
