Futuristic tale of the relationships surrounding a survivalist competition forced upon teenagers of less powerful districts in a world governed by the Capitol district. Suzanne Collins expert descriptive writings are full of action at every twist and turn and made me feel like I was watching the story unfold in full color instead of reading it. Can't wait for books 2 and 3 in the trilogy! ( )

Excellent book. I couldn't put it down! ( )

http://geekylibrarian.wordpress.com/2... ( )

A half-assed book-mash of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Stephen King's The Running Man. It's all fine and well for its age range, but I really don't see what all the hype is about. The characters are not very endearing and the editor (if there was one) needs to be fired for the amount of gross oversights I found. ( )

WOW - was this an awesome book!!! We are introduced to the main character Katniss Everdeen as she is also the narrator. So, we see the story through her eyes throughout the book. She lives in a post-apocolyptic part of North America where there is one Capitol (which seems to be modern day Denver), and 12 separate districts. Katniss lives in District 12 (possibly modern day West Virginia) - where coal mining is the main industry.

Katniss is a 16 year old girl living with her mother and baby sister, who just turned 12. Her father died in a coal mining accident, so she is left to provide for her family through her hunting and gathering exploits. Everyone in this poor district is on the brink of starvation at all times.

Every year, the Capitol makes each district send one boy and one girl from the ages of 12-18 to participate in the Hunger Games. A game, which is broadcast on television and mandatory to watch by everyone in the nation. All 24 participants fight to the death, until there is one victor.

Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place in the Hunger Games when her sister was called. The story takes you to the Capitol, which is much different from life in the districts. There is one point where Katniss drinks some Orange Juice and later some hot chocolate - and she laments over how great they taste - as if she's never had them before. This makes you really appreciate some of the things that we take for granted on a daily basis.

And then you have the actual games - where 24 children are thrown into an arena - which is probably the size of a small town - and made to fight. All the while, the gamemakers are constantly changing things, making the games more difficult for everyone to survive.

You predict in the beginning that Katniss will eventually win these games, and she does - but the story is well worth the ride - with all of the twists and turns - this book is difficult to put down. ( )