The Hunger Games - Review

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, # 1)

By: Suzanne Collins

Published: September 14th 2008 by Scholastic Press

374 pages

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Dystopian

Source: Personal Kindle Library

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Goodreads description--Katniss, 16, takes her sister's place in the televised annual Hunger Games, competing against Peeta, the boy who gave them bread to survive after their father died. The cruel Capitol forces each of 12 districts to submit a boy and girl 12-18, to fight to the death. Only one can survive and be rewarded. President Snow manipulates behind the scenes.

In my last post, my review on Clash of Kings, I mentioned that I was reading the Hunger Games next because I wanted something to blow through really quickly. And that, that I did. And Catching Fire too! 5 Stars for this book.

This series is right up there for me with Harry Potter and the Vampire Academy--I hesitate to compare any thing to these series because they're so phenominal and different in their own rights, but it is the best comparison I can think of at the moment--because Suzanne Collins has created this whole new world. New rules, new beliefs, new fears, new...well I could go on, but I'll stop.

Several of my friends read this series before me, and I have to be honest and say that I really hate when my friends read books before me. It is not because I want to be first, but they build it up, or tear it down--there's nothing wrong with that, it is what I do myself in this very blog--but it taints my view of the book before I even begin. They told me not to get attached to any of the characters because you never know which ones will survive and which ones will be killed off. And while this is true, I wish I hadn't know it before hand. Which totally stinks because I just shared it with you. It is just that because of this, I truly have been expecting everyone to die. And therefore none of the plot twists (no matter if it included a death or was just an unexpected event) have really caught me all that off guard. And that just kind of sucks. I enjoy the twists and unexpected events. I enjoy the not knowing. It is the experience of reading, of exploring, of adventure. It's why when my friends get to a good part in a book that I've read before them and they come to me begging me to tell them what happens that I just can't bring myself to do it. I'd rather tell you how a book makes me feel rather than what happened during it. That is for you to explore and find out for yourselves.

That being said, the Hunger Games made me experience and feel alot. I always begin a book on the lookout for who the protagonist is either already in love with or going to fall in love with. I have reasons I feel strongly about that have caused me to rule out various characters in all books that I read and characters to pick out as that very person, and it is no different for this one. After finishing Catching Fire, I'm still holding out hope for who I think that person is. But Katniss goes through so much in this book that you feel yourself. Fear is one of the biggest emotions and themes throughout the majority of this book. It's that fear that drives you forward, to keep reading at an increased and accelerated pace. There's also sadness, a need to protect those she loves, a need she can't always meet. And there are these very essential human moments in such a terrible Game created to keep the citizens of this world in check. Moments that I wont describe because of my feelings toward the experience. It just shows that even though the world that we live in verses the characters that we read about may be very different, basic humanity remains very much the same.

As I said, 5 Stars. This book easily kept my attention. Kept me reading--quickly. So much so that I started Catching Fire before I even really knew that the Hunger Games was finished. Look out for my review on Catching Fire next.

*Updated: September 6, 2013