Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages: 384
I read this on another blog in reference to this series: "You are not prepared."
This series took me on quite a roller coaster over the weekend. Unable to fall asleep in the wee hours of Saturday morning, I happened to see a Facebook conversation steaming from a friend who mentioned the book. All of the responses seems favorably strong, and I couldn't sleep, so I bought it right then and there and dove in.
The premise of book one:
In a not-too-distant future, North America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the rich and powerful Capitol and 12 weakened districts. As punishment for a past rebellion against the Capitol, each year, two young representatives between the ages of 12 - 17 from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss' young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against not only each other, but bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.
At the risk of giving anything away, I won't give any of my personal commentary or say anything about the next two books other than this:
From the moment I started book one, I had a hard time stepping away from these characters. Even though at times I wanted it to all be over, or moments when I hated the author, as I set it down at the end of book three I felt my self wanting to go back and do it all over again.
