The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

I really can’t think of anything I didn’t like about this book. I was hooked from beginning to end and I loved it. The characters were well developed, the plot is action-packed and fast-paced, there are conflicts and sub-conflicts, and, in the end, I wanted to keep reading.

The world of Hunger Games is dreary, difficult, and should be unbelievable, but I believed it. The whole idea of the Games reminded me of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, in which the main event of the story is equally shocking, brutal, and partaken by the whole community.

The idea that the community watches the brutality of the Hunger Games for the purposes of entertainment reminds me of the current fame-induced destruction of celebrities the public craves via all forms of media or any other type of public shows of destruction and brutality. That comparison may be a little extreme, but I think there are similarities.

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.