Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)

The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment, and as a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 through a lottery system to participate in the games. The 'tributes' are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.

When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

Spoiler-free Review



 I have no idea why I haven't read this book before.
Maybe it was because of the hype surrounding it - and I have a strong dislike for overhyped books. Except this book is not overhyped. It got the hype it deserved.

I needed a little time to get used to the first person present tense narrator - and I think that's one of the only things that I criticised while reading. It feels unnatural to hear about going-on action (as the present tense expresses) from a first-person point of view, like 'I'm having the time to think about this right now while this-and-that is trying to kill me', so to me it feels very staged. But at the same time it creates tension.

So, once I got used to the narrator, all that I kept noticing was how beautifully the tension is being kept up high throughout the entire book. It didn't take me long to finish this book because I read it in just a couple of sittings. Suzanne Collins really knows how to keep the reader drawn!

There are so many things to be considered while reading this book. I found myself thinking about our own societal standards constantly. How we as middle class people living in Europe, in the USA or anywhere else where there's no need for hunger and no need to think about your survival every single day, resemble the people from the capitol.

As readers, they strike us as crazy with their skin tones and awkward choices of clothes but when we think about it for just a moment, it becomes clear that the people from the capitol are a clear political statement by the author.
Suzanne Collins gets us to loathe a society that - basically - resembles so much of what we have now. People starving to death in one part of the earth, other people stuffing theirselves to death in another.
The sadistic ways we treat animals (not that the people of the districts resemble animals - but think about it as a simile) when slaughtering or keeping them in zoos. That's so much to think about and I guess you can find even more things worth noticing, but let's try to keep it short.

I am currently reading the second book and I cannot wait what will happen next!