The Hunger Games is set in the place once known as North America, in a place called Panem. Panem is made of a Capitol and 12 districts, called District 1, District 2 etc. Katniss Everdeen is from District 12, the poorest and most run-down of all the districts. The story starts, and it feels a lot more like the past than the future. Life is hard, and every year, there is a deadly event, called The Hunger Games. 24 children are chosen to go to the Capitol and fight to the death in the arena.The story starts on Reaping Day, when a boy and girl from each district is chosen to take part in The Hunger Games. It's really obvious that Katniss will end up being the chosen girl, so off she goes to the Capitol.
The Capitol is more like the future we would expect. They speak and dress differently there, they can have any colour skin they want, and they act however they see fit. The society there is much like today, yet a lot more advanced.
The Hunger Games are brutal. The twenty-four children fight to the death, and it's all televised. Watching as child after child dies, waiting until only one remains? The Capitol love it, and use it as a way to portray the power they have over the districts. The districts hate it, but of course, they have no way to stop it. Until Katniss Everdeen comes along.
Suzanne Collins is an amazing writer. She doesn't shy away from gore and gruesomeness, she just writes it. No detail from the killings of these children are spared, and you end up building up a very detailed picture of all of the dying children in the book. It's not always the most pleasant thing to read, but you just can't stop, you just have to know how it ends!
The story is told in first person through Katniss's eyes. She's strong, independent, and totally unafraid to speak her own mind. She's determined to stop this torture, and she will do everything in her power to do this. She's an awesome role model for young girls, unlike some of the female protagonists in other books. Everything gets described well through Katniss's eyes, and it was nice to see how she felt about everything. You could tell what was going through her head as her friends were killed, her grief, as well as her relief that she felt after a fellow tribute, who no doubt would have killed her, was killed.
The characters in this book were well thought out and seemed real, despite the fact that a few of them had brightly coloured skin... I think my favourite character was Cinna, Katniss's stylist, because he's just so kind and loving to Katniss, you just can't help but love him. Also, of course, there are the two boys. Although they were Katniss's love interests, this didn't drive the story, and it was nice to have a main story line that could have survived without the little romance that is in the book. Personally, I'm on Team Gale. What about you?
I could go on about this book forever. There is not one thing I can think of that I didn't like. I love the characters, the world it's set in, (even if it is a bit gruesome, and I wouldn't like to live in it myself), I love the way Suzanne Collins wrote it. It's well written, fast-paced, and never gets boring. There isn't another book out there that is quite like this one, and I was hesitant to read it at first, but, I am so glad I did. I couldn't recommend this book to any enough, adults and teenagers alike, and I really think this will be around for a long time to come.
I give it 5 Feet!
This book made one of the biggest impressions on me this year. I really enjoyed it! (I preferred Gale in this book, too.)
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