The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (set to be published in October 2008) by Suzanne Collins is a post apocalyptic survival story about the horrifying extremes of absolute power.

America has been destroyed and replaced by Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by 12 starving Districts. In the past, the Districts attempted to overthrow the Capitol, only to be defeated. The annual Hunger Games, in which 2 children from each of the districts are chosen to participate in a televised fight-to-the-death match, are the Capitol's way of reminding the Districts who has control. The winner's district is showered with food at the end of the Games, thus giving the children incentive to fight. And so The Hunger Games begin...

But things are complicated at this year's event, when District 12's Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are chosen as competitors. They are allies, but they are also enemies. They are in love, or are they? And what about Gale, Katniss's will-they-or-won't-they friend from home? Collins gives the reader a lot to work with in The Hunger Games, and even though she provides answers to some of these dilemmas, she leaves the ending open for more, and I believe she plans to make The Hunger Games a trilogy.

I liked Katniss as a protagonist because she is unpredictable. She is capable of deep love and strong loyalty, but she is also calculating and suspicious, and you're never quite sure which of her instincts will prevail.

I found the premise of The Hunger Games intriguing, the plot compelling, and the characters interesting, but I want to know more about the Capitol. Who are these people that take entertainment in watching children die, even to the point of orchestrating situations that will produce the most grisly of deaths? I needed a reference point, and I found it helpful to think of the Hunger Games in terms of the Roman gladiator battles. In that way, I could somewhat understand the adrenaline-feuled mob mentality of the spectators.

The Hunger Games is not a light read, and I believe it should be marketed to an older audience than 12, which is what the jacket suggests. It's been many years since I read The Lord of the Flies, but The Hunger Games gave me the creeps in a similar way. The idea of children killing each other, and plotting and manipulating murder is dangerous territory in a young adult novel, but Collins handles the subject carefully, and I hope she will continue to do so in the following books, which I plan to read.