Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games gives us a very interesting glimpse into another world that could one day become our own. It is a dystopian Young Adult novel written in first person. Katniss, our heroine and narrator, dreads the Reaping every year. Living in the Seam all her life, she knows what hunger is and how horrible it can be to go without food. She breaks the rules though and hunts outside of the fence with her friend Gale. Both Kantiss and Gale have more than the required entry put into the Reaping every year because they need to get the food that extra entries give them. Their families depend on them to do so.

This is the first Reaping that Katniss' younger sister, Prim, has to take a part in. At the age of twelve you get one entry into the Reaping to be chosen for the Hunger Games. There are twelve districts on Panem that take part in these games, each has two tributes- a male and female. When you turn twelve it is the first year that you have a mandatory entry into the Reaping, but you can also opt for extra entries for grain and oil to last you for the year.

The worst thing in the world happens though at this year's Reaping ceremony. Prim has been chosen randomly out of the thousands of entries. Katniss obviously does not want this at all, so she volunteers herself and pushes Prim out of the way. Our other tribute, Peeta, has been chosen as well. And here we start the journey into the Hunger Games itself...

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't think I was going to enjoy it as much as I did. Dystopian novels are really becoming very popular, and because of that a lot of ideas are not as original. Although, don't get me wrong here, I love a good dystopian novel. Thankfully The Hunger Games was one, it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! I was more than sucked into this book, and did not want to put it down for one second!

The idea of taking two children from twelve different districts and pitting them against each other to the death was disturbing, but oddly fascinating at the same time. Collins does a great job at letting us look into the life of Katniss and we really get to figure out what she's all about. She is a very honorable and strong heroine, which I appreciate. I love strong women in my books, and it just makes this read even better!

There were many characters in this book that I fell in love with. I love Katniss for one, mostly because she's bad-ass. I also really loved Rue, she was so small and faerie like! Out of the boy tributes I really did enjoy Peeta, even though he was clueless with quite a few things.

Collins paints a very vivid environment that the tributes have to survive in. The animals that were made by the government in this book are very imaginative but also realistic. The mockingjay for instance, I could totally see that. Take a bird that sings really well, and mutate it so that it picks up on human words and songs. There you go, you have your very own spy!

Overall this book was very interesting, and I loved it! I can't wait to see the movie, and I also can't wait for my copy of Catching Fire to show up so I can continue the trilogy!