#30 of 52 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

This post is spoiler-free, only because I really recommend this book and don’t want to ruin the plot in case you haven’t read it yet.

I loved this book so much! I couldn’t put it down. In fact, after I finished it, I went out right away and bought the sequel.

The Hunger Games takes place in a dystopian society where the people of Panem (formerly known as North America) are ruled by a hideously evil government called the Capitol. Every year, one boy and one girl are selected from each of the twelve districts to fight in The Hunger Games, a televised survival match. They literally fight to the death. It all sounds rather bleak (and is), and there’s a lot of violence in the book, but it served the plot and I didn’t mind too much. The main character is Katniss, a 16-year-old girl who takes her younger sister’s place in the Games in order to save her life. Katniss is very likeable, a strong role model type, and it was refreshing to get to know her as a character.

What kept striking me as I read the book–other than how well-written it is–is how smoothly the story flows. It’s written in first-person point of view, so we’re constantly in Katniss’s head and thoughts. But that perspective doesn’t distract from the plot at all, even though the book goes on for pages and pages at a time with no dialogue at all. It just works. I was never bored.

I had heard a lot of buzz surrounding this book, which is what prompted me to pick it up, but I didn’t know much about the story. So I was glad that I didn’t know beforehand how it would end. Who would survive The Hunger Games? Would Katniss make it to the end, or die fighting? I’m not going to say how it ends, but I will say go read this book because it’s really, really fantastic.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Bookworm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.