The Hunger Games Review

 Author: Suzanne Collins

"In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed."

 

Characters: Excellent. The major characters are written in a way that makes them seem to come to life, and the good characters have a way of really getting inside you. I also glad that you only get a feeling of a few of the tributes, since it would’ve been a supremely depressing book if you’d known any more of them.

4/5

Location: I have mixed feelings about the setting of this book. On one hand, it’s interesting and generally easy to visualize. However, inside the Arena, I had trouble figuring out where locations were in relation to one another.

3/5

Plot: Very good. The plot was exciting, even before they entered the Arena, but it’s not so much nonstop action that you feel like there’s too much happening, and there’s not so much detail about people dying that it turns into a depressing book. And while there was a bit of romance in the book, it wasn’t overwhelming.

4/5

Other: I was unsure about reading this book for quite some time, but now that I’ve read it, I don’t regret having done so. There were one or two spots where I had an “Uh, I didn’t need to hear about that” reaction, but overall, it was an excellent book.

Overall Rating: 4/5