Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

 

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, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district 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 weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

I've been meaning to read this book for quite a long time now. The recent release of the movie trailers have convinced me to go ahead and do it already.

I was instantly bored, and the only thing that kept me reading was the reassurance from friends that it would get better further in. There was far too much telling and not enough showing. Which isn't really the author's fault. Stories that are that action-packed are incredibly difficult to portray in words.
I have a feeling the movie will do better than the book, but I have to give mad props to the author for coming up with such a great story.

I thought the romance was played up too much. I'm big on cheesy romance, but they kissed every other word. It was kinda getting on my nerves. I knew Katniss wasn't really into him, but Peeta was killing me. I actually got pretty into the book by the end of it and was loving how much he loved her.

Once I forced myself past the first couple pages, I actually read the entire thing in one sitting. I thought the author played the emotions of the reader (myself) very well. I was hating the capitol, and feeling sorry for the tributes. It was a pretty emotional book. I felt that with more showing and less telling, I would have probably cried at least once. Maybe even multiple times. 

All in all, I skimmed a lot during the first part. Once it got to the actual hunger games, I was enjoying it much more. 

This is one of those books that I don't have much to say about. It's a book that speaks for itself. It's not one of my favorites, and I'll probably never read it again, but I'm definitely glad I read it. It's given me a lot to think about and is making me quite excited for the movie. 

I only hope they do the story justice. 

On goodreads.com I gave it 3/5.