Review: THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins

I bought The Hunger Games in hardcover. Normally, I don’t buy books in hardcover, unless they genuinely seem like standouts that I’ll want to keep forever. Enough glowing reviews of The Hunger Games pushed me over the brink, and I eagerly waited my shiny new book in the mail.

Was The Hunger Games good? Not just good, but great. I know, I know, I’ve been posting a lot of 5-star “you’ve gotta read this!” reviews lately. But my current philosophy is this: if you ate at a mediocre restaurant, you wouldn’t go around telling all your friends about it. If it was really disgustingly awful, sure, then you might rant about it. But that’s the naughty thing to do, in the book world. So I’m sticking with nice things I have to say about books. Unless provoked.

What I love about The Hunger Games: Katniss is a tough-as-nails girl surviving in a dystopian world that chillingly echoes our own. Our thirst for reality TV and obsessive media gossip has twisted into something more all-consuming and powerful in Katniss’s world. If you’re wondering what the Hunger Games are, they are this: Imagine being chosen to fight to the death while millions watch you starve, burn, and kill as entertainment. You must change the way you look and act in the hopes of gaining more fans–in the hopes of fame helping you to survive. The life or death popularity contest at the heart of The Hunger Games shows us sensationalism and propaganda in a way that is frighteningly similar to our reality.

Beyond the world-building, there is, of course, Katniss herself. She’s realistically hardened by her life and refreshingly unconcerned with romance, unlike far too many female protagonists in today’s YA novels. Katniss cares mainly about helping herself and her family to simply live. When she enters the Games, however, her feelings about not only love are tested… she must become someone totally different for the cameras. Through this ordeal, she discovers so much about herself and her world, as will you, the reader. It’s well worth the read.