The Hunger Games

This is the first book in the Hunger Games series, a series of trust, loyalty, desperation, need, pain, hope, love and death. The Hunger Games is a series out of this world- it is exceptional and heartbreaking, painful and gripping- I don't compare it to other books. I couldn't, not ever.

In the far future the world has changed vastly and terribly- the northern United States have divided into fourteen individual parts- districts 1-13 (though thirteen is no longer inhabited) and the Capitol. Each year one man and woman from each district between the ages of 12 and 18 are randomly selected to fight in an arena, fight to the death, to repay the Capitol for an uprising years in the past. It is now the 74th annual Hunger Games. And this year, we are welcome to watch.

This is one of those very hyped up books I just had to read, did it deliver? Yes and No.

Unfortunately I didnt find anything of much originality in the story. Perhaps I have read to many books or saw too many movies much the concept has been done.

Katniss Everdeen has been chosen in the annual reaping to fight to Death in the Hunger Games on live TV.

What follows is a battle of survival and a soppy love story. Im still interested in reading the rest of the series as perhaps the story may delve deeper and get more involved.

Overall a well written but predicable story.

The Hunger Games is the 7th book by Suzanne Collins and the first in the Hunger Games trilogy. It is set in a future time, in a country called Panem, situated in the remains of North America. Panem consists of the Capitol and 12 surrounding Districts, and is a place where life is decidedly less than pleasant for the majority of the population. Narrated by Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old from District 12, it describes a society strictly governed, lives of deprivation, reduced to illegal hunter-gatherer activities to avoid starvation, and tells of the hardship of surviving. Katniss is one of 24 “tributes”, picked by lottery in each District, to participate in a “Survivor”-type situation, the annual (and nationally televised for compulsory viewing) Hunger Games, a fight to the death with only one winner. It is clear that Collins has done extensive research into hunting, gathering and wilderness survival. The novel emphasises the contrasts between the sumptuous wealth of Capitol and poverty of the Districts. The story reflects real life in that it shows how important image, strategy and sponsors are to success. It is ultimately shows real life stresses condensed in time and magnified in intensity. Think reality TV mixed with wartime battles: this is where Collins got her inspiration. Definitely not Capital L literature, but a page-turner and addictive all the same: you will be seeking out the second instalment, Catching Fire.