Author: Suzanne CollinsRelease Date: October 1 2008
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Blurb
In a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called the Hunger Games. There is only one rule; kill or be killed.
When sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her sister’s place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.
Review
The Hunger Games is one of those books that was hyped the hell out of; endorsement from some of today’s top authors, immediate movie potential and a fan base that crosses the globe. I am always reluctant to read books that are seriously hyped up; I usually find myself being disappointed. The Mortal Instruments disappointed me, and whilst the series was good, I never thought Harry Potter was as fantastic as some made it out to be. Now we come to the Hunger Games; hundreds of bloggers have reviewed it, a movie with an ensemble cast is on countdown and all anyone can talk about is the Hunger Games. I loved the Hunger Games; loved it. With an amazing plot, fantastic characters and the ability to reel a reader in from the off, Suzanne Collins is more than deserving the praise she and her trilogy are receiving, ten times over.
Where do you start when describing this book? Apart from a god awful name, Katniss is both a likeable and powerful heroine who comes across as selfless and calculating; no matter how much she insisted she was behind during the competition, Katniss used intelligence and strength in a stylish and believable way that seemed neither tried nor cliché. Her emerging love triangle with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne is an interesting back story, and I appreciated it as just that; a back story. I feel if it had been at the forefront, The Hunger Games would have been a whole lot less impressive, but Katniss wasted no time on frivolous romance and more on what she had to do; survive.
In fact, the entire cast of characters came up trumps in this break neck novel; Peeta and Gale were great romantic interests; not perfect and aloof but friendly, flawed and real. Even sweet as sugar Prim was fairly likeable, though I have a very low opinion of Katniss’ mother. The host of tributes we were introduced to were emotive and intimidating characters; Cato and Clove, Thresh and Rue but my personal favourite, and I have no idea why, was the anonymous Foxface. There was just something so elusive about this character that I hungered for more of her, glowed whenever she came into scene.
Collins’s book is fabulously paced and whilst some readers find the period before the Hunger Games slightly dull, I found it just as intriguing as the Games themselves. There are no real twists and turns to the book; everything is fairly linear in as far as everything happens as you may well expect it to, with allusions made to future events chapters before, but Collins does not let this dull her literary flare; she makes every page as interesting as the last with some new revelation, a perfect placed action sequence or rich character development. She even allows us to view our antagonists, the other tributes, with certain sympathy, providing an extra dimension to the novel which was greatly appreciated, in a story rife with informative flashbacks.
The only thing that let me down about the Hunger Games was a slightly lack lustre ending. It was by no means bad but from the moment the Hunger Games ended I found the pace was nowhere near as good, the detail just weighing down a story that seemed to be gaining new ground when it should have been reaching a conclusion. I realise this was to set us up for the second book in the trilogy, but compared to the rest of her vibrant and addictive book, Collins’ seemed to lose her way a little bit with the novel’s finale.
Overall, The Hunger Games was a book that I loved reading, and I cannot wait to try the next book, Catching Fire, early next year. With a hook built into the mere blurb and a plot that will nail you to your seat, The Hunger Games is a must read if you haven’t already yet. Let down slightly by the ending of the Hunger Games, I hope that Catching Fire maintains the suspense, tension and beautiful narrative oozing from the pages of its predecessor. Collins launched herself into our laps in a sensual style sure to keep me reading; will it for you?
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