The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is a fictional book series. A trilogy, with only two books released and with excited fans waiting for the last book to come out.

The Hunger Games is about 16 year old Katniss Everdeen. With the setting based in the future, the United States no longer exists. It is now split up into 13 districts in which the 13th was destroyed. The districts are like concentration camps, with people starving, and ‘peacemakers’ to make sure all laws are followed. Each district is responsible for producing a product, ex. wood, coal, metal, meat.

The districts are under so many laws, all the people in districts are born to work, starving, and have very few resources. While the capitol is wealthy, with full bellies every day. With every bowl of food passed around to share with other families, a name is put into the reaping. The reaping is a drawing, a drawing in which nobody wants to get picked.

Two kids for every district ages 11-18 are drafted into the reaping. So every year, a boy and a girl are picked from the reaping to be forced into an arena. A digital arena with traps, weapons, and 23 other contestants. The rules are: survive. The last one standing who survives the death trap gets a big home, with plenty food, money, and attention. You’re turned into a celebrity. But while every contestant is fighting for their lives, the worst part of it is there is an audience is watching on live T.V. The capitol hosts a yearly Hunger games for entertainment and to show that the capitol is in charge and will always be.

So when Katniss is picked to fight in an arena, her life changes. Even when she has to fight against the boy who saved her and her family’s life.


I loved this series. It seems gory and scary, but really not a lot of that is involved. Everyone I asked who read it has said they loved it. It engrosses you, making you stay up all night not wanting to wait till the next day to finish it.
If you are thinking this isn’t the genre for you, there are a lot of different genres included such as: romance, action thriller, fantasy, and science fiction. The author successfully ties all these together, not concentrating on only one, but equally spreading it out.
The author Suzanne Collins did a great job on it. She described the characters very well and knows when she needs to hold onto a character or not. She’s not the corny author, who has a book about a scary death trap someone may have to endure and everyone runs through it without a scratch. She describes what would happen as if you are there, and describes everyone’s behavior realistically.
The twists and turns of the plot always have you surprised. For this book nothing is predictable, unless of course you flip ahead. Every time you think something will happen, it will twist and turn into more problems or go the total opposite direction you thought you were headed. Making it difficult to predict, and also making it more exciting. Predicting what will happen and reading it happening makes it boring- but if you read this series it will keep you guessing and reading on. It makes you stop reading and think, “What would I do in that situation?”
The endings of both books are great, except one thing: they make you hungry for some more Hunger Games. The author does a wonderful job on filling you on with the main things involved (like Catching Fire), but saves some of it for the next book. Also, unlike some authors, she didn’t cram her endings into 2 pages. She spreads it out evenly into a few chapters so it will give you times to digest it in your mind.
The Hunger Games is a brilliant book. The writing and storytelling was magnificent, and the description of the characters was great. If you love books that makes you want to read it over and over again this book is for you. I recommend it for all appropriate ages.