Star Rating: 3.75
Katniss Everdeen was only supposed to survive, go home, and live the rest of her life peacefully. Instead, she started a Civil War.
The Hunger Games is the first in the trilogy. The prequel Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows it. The first book in the trilogy follows a teen girl, Katniss Everdeen, who lives with her younger sister, Primrose, and her mother in District 12.
In this dystopian world, there are 12 districts and one Capital, essentially their government. This country is based in North America. The Capital hosts an annual event called “The Hunger Games.” In the game, there are 24 participants. One girl and one boy, ages 12-18, are randomly selected from each district. These teens fight each other to the death.
At the drawing of candidates, Primrose is chosen. Katniss, reacting quickly and without hesitance, volunteers as tribute so Primrose doesn’t have to compete.
Since Katniss volunteered as tribute, she has to compete as one of the 24 in the games. Her peer, Peeta, is the son of the local baker. He is the chosen boy for District 12. They don’t get along very well but agree on acting civil for their survival.
They do this by acting as if they’re star-crossed lovers from the sad district of 12. In reality, Katniss is not a fan of Peeta at all. As for him, that’s not the case. They work out and practice different techniques in their small duo while their fellow competitors make friends with the other districts.
As Katniss trains for the games, she realizes how wrong and cruel the whole thing is. She meets with the president of the capital on many occasions. At these meet-cutes, she voices her opinions on the event. President Snow doesn’t like this. As the time in the book goes on, Katniss’ hate for the Capital grows stronger.
While in the games, Peeta and Katniss get themselves into an ordeal that they don’t know how to solve. Katniss convinces Peeta to go against what the Capital has in place and do something no one in the past has ever done.
President Snow doesn’t take lightly to this situation.
Overall, this book was well-written and thought out. The plot twist and timing of certain events made the book very easy to understand. The mostly action-adventure-filled book was balanced out with the unexpected love triangle.
The romantic relationship between the two competitors is a real turn of events because it wasn’t expected that they would take such a liking to each other.
Not only did the romantic relationships cause surprising confusion, but so did the platonic relationships made in the games.
Katniss is a closed-off, quiet, brave, and nonchalant person. The reader can tell this by the first couple of chapters of the book. So, some of the characteristics she develops in the book make the story even more interesting. Collins did a fantastic job at character development throughout the story.
The details behind the interactions between Katniss and President Snow are very important. The snuck-in terms and hints as to what the Hunger Games is really about need to be paid attention to to understand why the two interacted so much.
The book leaves you questioning how things ended up the way they were. The story in the first novel doesn’t give in-depth detail on how the country came to be, but it provides just enough detail to understand the idea of the government system and what had happened.
The action in the book is interesting and leaves you on the edge of your seat. Science and technology are brought into the book when the participants fight each other. The thoughts and actions that occur in the book all have a reason. There is no pointless part of the action in the book. It is very hard to come by a book that has this aspect. All in all, Collins did very well in writing this series.
The trilogy, including the prequel, has been adapted into a movie series. The movies are very popular and well-loved throughout the world.
Stay tuned for next week’s review!
