The Hunger Games Book Review


The Hunger Games was an outstanding book. It had events throughout it that blew my mind. It was unlike any book I have ever read before. It was based on a civilization in the future that was very different from civilizations today because they made major changes due to threats of a global war.

It is from the perspective of a sixteen year old girl Katniss Everdeen. She lives in the nation of Panem, which is where North America now is today. The nation consists of the wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding poorer districts. The Capitol is in the center of the nation and it is the headquarters of the political power. Katniss lives in district twelve with her sister Primrose and her mother. District twelve is the poorest of all the districts and is known for its coal mines.

The Hunger Games is a special event held at the Capitol each year. The Hunger Games was set up along with the twelve districts. At each district, there is a ceremony called the Reaping which two kids (12-18), one male and one female, are chosen to go to the Capitol to compete in the Hunger Games. They are called tributes. At the Hunger Games, each tribute will fight for their lives to be the last one standing, and win the Hunger Games.

The beginning of the book was made interesting by the use of the setting. "Our part of District 12, nicknamed the Seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines of their sunken faces." Katniss says this because she is trying to show the difference between district twelve and the Capitol. Suzanne Collins is trying to create an image in the readers head that is very depressing and unwanted. Next, Katniss heads for the woods, which is where she spends most of her time. The woods are surrounded by an electric fence that is meant to keep predators out. Therefore they don't want the people from district 12 to go into the woods but Katniss does anyways. She meets up with her friend Gale and they hunt for food and gather berries. They do this a lot because they are trying to put food on the table for each of their families or they can trade what they for something better.

The book begins to get interesting when at the Reaping, Primrose gets picked as the female tribute. Katniss is shocked when she hears her sisters name. The only thing she can do is run up to the stage and volunteer to go instead of her sister, which she does. Katniss is then sent to the Capital with the other tribute, Peeta. At the Capitol, Suzanne Collins again uses setting to describe how much of a richer place the Capitol is than district 12.

The Hunger Games is one of the best books I have ever read. It was so good because it was very different. Another thing that i liked about the book was that it was a very intense action type book at some points and at others it was very dramatic and sappy. Finally, the ending didn't explain a lot and left me with questions which I think is a good thing because it is encouraging me to read the next book in the series.