The future can be moderately described in the “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. She describes life in the future with all sorts of huge advancements in technology but still having a majority of poor people living without technology. The book is a fiction but I can definitely see the real future being like this book. The main character, Katniss, lives in District 12, which is one of, if not the, poorest district out of thirteen districts. Collins describes the main character’s life for almost half the book. A theme in the book is the rise of weak to defeat the strong. Katniss comes from the poorest of the poor but rises in the end to defeat the stronger and richer.
The book starts out with Katniss and her younger sister, Prim, lying in a cold bed together, which immediately showed Katniss’ social status . Katniss has a great deal of love for her family, especially her sister. Once every year, two tributes from each district must be summoned to partake in “the games.” The idea of the game is that everyone must kill each other to the point when there is only one is alive. To save her sister from being chosen for the games, Katniss sacrifices herself. In the other districts, being chosen for the games is a huge honor, but not in District 12. Katniss emerges as the victor in the end of the book despite the fact that she was one of the weakest in the bunch.
The book was an addicting read. It definitely caught my attention with every twist. I loved the endings of each chapter because it always surprises me. Anyone who enjoys an action story should read this one. The simple writing style, like every other young adult novel, makes it easy to read and understand. I read the book by chapters because I could not wait until the end of each chapter. Collins spent a fourth of the chapter describing the daily life of Katniss. I wasn’t disappointed with the long introduction, but I was anxious to get to the games. The story line is very exciting, especially when Katniss arrives at the Capitol. What disappointed me was how long the description of her being in the game was. I think the story should’ve been a little shorter to keep suspense high. Some parts of the story made me doze off but not because of the storyline, just the length of the explanation. Also, the ending of the story was too predictable. It seems Collins ran out of ideas by the end and couldn’t make a memorable ending. I think that since this is a series, Collins should use the ending as a prequel to next book.
This book deserves to be on the best sellers’ list. Not only is the storyline wonderful, but the author also creates a balance between description and suspense for most of the book. “The Hunger Games” is the first book in Collins’ series. Hopefully the next book is not disappointing like some other series on the shelves.