Book Review # - I forget.

I just read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – WOW! What a great book. I read it in one day and just could not put it down! And then I could not stop thinking about it once I was done. It just came out last month and is going to be a trilogy so I’m already looking forward to the second book, Catching Fire, which is scheduled to come out in September of 2009.

It is set in the future when the United States no longer exists and North America is a country called Panem which consists of The Capitol and 12 districts. There used to be 13 districts but the Capitol wiped out #13 after an unsuccessful rebellion attempt by all districts. And to remind the districts who is still in charge, each district is required to send one boy and one girl to compete in the annual Hunger Games (think Survivor except instead of trying to get everyone else voted off, the contestants are trying to kill each other, last man standing wins). The Capitol broadcasts the games live on TV (most of which is required viewing) and treats the entire thing as a giant party.

Katniss is 16 when her 12-year-old sister, Prim, is chosen to compete. Katniss volunteers to take her place. She is sent to the games where she has to outwit, outlast, and out-survive her 23 fellow ‘tributes’. But Katniss is tough, she has been taking care of her mother and sister by illegally hunting in the woods surrounding District 12, and selling and trading her kills on the black market, since her father was killed in the mines when she was 11. So she knows how to hunt and how to survive.

The story sucks you in and keeps you there until the last page, where it leaves you needing more and silently cursing next September, and Catching Fire’s release date, for being 11 months away.

Highly recommended, five stars, go get a copy and read it so we can discuss. I loved it!