The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Release Date: October 1^st 2008

Publisher: Scholastic

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 374 pages

Source: Gift

Series: 1

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister Primrose, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before — and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

I am probably the last one to read the hunger games and I don’t know why I waited so long. What really made me read this book is the movie trailer. It looked so different from other movies. It had this eerie feel to it. Like something is wrong. Why are all those kids are standing like that and why Katniss volunteered to take her baby sister place?

All these questions floated in my brain. They were answered the minute I got the book as my Christmas gift.

I started reading and I found it hard to put it down. And just like the movie trailer made me feel, it was eerie, dark, scary, and bloody.

At first I found it hard to read the book because of the children killing each other. It was depressing and made me think:is that  really going to happen in the future? Is it happening now? I didn’t want to drift myself in that thought because the outcome wouldn’t be so great.

I really liked Katniss. She was independent. She was strong. She held it together. She sacrificed herself for her sister. There were moments I felt proud of her and there were others when I felt sorry for her. The kind of life Katniss been living is hard to describe but if for one thing it made her inherit those traits that any human wish to have.

The whole "beginning of a love triangle" in this book is exciting and is making me want to read the next book ASAP.

Great book!!!

P.S. the new The Hunger Games song.