Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Well my sister has pretty much dropped out of the book club. I should rename this Lindsay's Book Club. I wasn't going to write any more but I thought maybe I'd entice my lame sister back. We shall see.

I started trying to read Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls but I just couldn't get into it. It started out with epic tragedy and coming off her last book I just didn't think I could get into it. Maybe I'll try again in a few years. I requested several books from the library and was on hold for a while and then I got flooded by a ton of them at once. I prioritized my reading list by due date & by which ones couldn't be renewed. I landed on Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I had heard RAVE reviews from several people but I wasn't too sure how I'd like it. I'm not too big into fantasy or sci-fi and most places I've seen this book have categorized it as such. In addition, it's a young adult book and while I think some YA books are ok I keep thinking at some point I might grow out of this genre. However, SO many people had recommend it I thought it had a good possibility of decent and when I read some brief summaries of the book it reminded me a lot of my favorite short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson that I thought I should give it a whirl.

I am SO glad I did. This book was AWESOME. If I had to summarize it in one sentence it would be "Imagine 'The Lottery' meets Survivor and they have a baby and then you have The Hunger Games." 

First and foremost, while I can see why it's labeled fantasy/sci-fi, it is SO not typical sci-fi/fantasy. It's like the X-Men version of sci-fi/fantasy. Sure there are some things that are not realistic and far-fetched, but it's mostly grounded in reality and the things that are "unrealistic" are background mostly and don't really detract from the story. While post-apocalyptic style stories do intrigue me, I think they've been slightly overdone so I was hesitant about this aspect of the book. However, like the sci-fi/fantasy aspect, it's mostly background. It's the whole reason for the story but they do not dwell on it really. The story mostly revolves around the actual "game" itself (leading up to it, going through it and the aftermath) and that stuff was REALLY exciting and compelling. It was such a unique story I couldn't put it down. Literally. I read it in 6 hours with only bathroom and lunch breaks.

From the beginning it was hard to figure out who Katniss was. When I figured out she was a girl a while into the story (around page 14) I was a little surprised. As I read I had assumed that Katniss was a boy. This changed things a bit and made me a little more intrigued.

Besides the setting/environment, I really drew a lot of parallels with "The Lottery" at the beginning. However, after the story gets going it leaves that short story behind and moves on into a more Survivor like story but in a more serious way.

The best part of the book is the middle section once they are into the arena for the game. The preparation is interesting but I really couldn't put the book down once all of the contestants were fighting for their lives. I didn't see the "love story" coming, although it isn't misplaced or come out of nowhere but it wasn't something I predicted. It seemed very realistic and believable. Additionally, all of the struggles that the contestants had to go through in the game were also realistic and believable. Collins did a good job of creating an atmosphere of realism and I could definitely picture the setting from her words and imagery. One thing I thought was that the arena seemed bigger at the start of the game and seemed smaller by the end. Katniss journeyed forever on the first day and quite a lot on the second day but by the end it seemed like they could get anywhere in the arena in a few hours by the end. The complex emotions and personalities of the contestants was very interesting. A little Lord of the Flies but much more interesting and entertaining. The Truman Show parallels were also interesting to see. It's like Collins took some of the most interesting twists of all the above mentioned stories and wove them (very well) into this story. I don't mean to say this to make anyone think it's an old, tired story because they way she weaves it all together makes it fresh and interesting. I can just see some influences she may have had.

Although it seemed clear (to me) from the beginning that Katniss would win the game, you were still worried for her throughout the story and really rooted for her the whole time. The twist with bringing her and Peeta together was unexpected and nice. At the beginning of the game I was wondering how Collins would work that one out...although Katniss had some clear resentment towards Peeta I didn't know that she would be able to kill him unless something really drastic happened. I'm glad that the twist made that not have to happen. And because things got changed up so much throughout the story, even though Katniss winning seemed predictable, I didn't mind because the story kept changing so you were sure HOW she would win, and there was a possibility at several points that she MIGHT not win.

The one and only thing I didn't love was the ending of the book. The love story that emerged wasn't all that interesting to me, but mostly because I'm not a romance fan and particularly not in a YA novel. It would have been nice to end the book with a satisfying end rather than letting it linger, although obviously this left the end open for the subsequent books. I don't have a huge desire to continue the series, but since I got so involved with this book unexpectedly I am going to commit to the second book just in case it surprises me as well. This leads to a second tangent of something that I wasn't a HUGE fan of, although it didn't really detract from the story. Throughout the story I would forget that these "kids" were supposedly ages 12-18. They just didn't have a "teenage" voice. The characters were much more thoughtful and advanced than their supposed ages would seem. Again, their ages weren't really the point so it didn't detract from the story, but occasionally I'd reflect on it and think, no way, a 16 year old wouldn't be thinking about things like this. So it seemed a little unbelievable that they were actual young adults rather than young adult characters created by an adult author. But in terms of the overall book and story it was just a minor detail.

Overall I would suggest this book to ANYONE (over the age of 14 probably). I give it 5 Stars and would probably classify it as one of the best books I've read all year. I really, really loved it. Obviously loved it enough to write a review of it which doesn't always happen. Go get it NOW!