The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Just as a warning: this review will be spoilery, so in case you haven't read the Hunger Games and don't want to have some of the plot ruined for you, don't read this review.)

SUMMARY

Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death - televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

WINNING WILL MAKE YOU FAMOUS. LOSING MEANS CERTAIN DEATH.

REVIEW

Good God, who doesn't love this book? Katniss is the ideal heroine and Peeta's just so sweet with the "I've loved you ever since I first saw you" bit. That usually annoys me a little bit. (Take Shatter Me for instance) But in this case, I just loved it and I was oohing and ahing and crying. Peeta's an awesome character. 

In this book, Prim, Katniss's little sister, gets chosen for the reaping, and Katniss takes her place. Peeta is chosen on the boys side. Together, they end up being real contenders with the help of their alcoholic mentor, Haymitch, and others, like Effie Trinket and Cinna. This concept, the idea of a love triangle (Gale, Katniss's best friend, is in love with Katniss) and a dystopian world, also post-apocalyptic, is really ingenious and I fell in love with the book as soon as I found out that Katniss would do anything, and I mean anything, to protect the ones that she loves. 

In the end, it's announced that two people from the same district can win if they are both left standing. It's mainly so the viewers of the Hunger Games can fantasize Peeta and Katniss getting together. In the end, the rules are changed, and Katniss and Peeta end up having this fight about who's going to die and who wins, and they figure out this plan for both of them to die, but at the last second, they're both declared winners.

You'd think this is the end, that's it's just a stand-alone novel, right? Wrong! That little bit where Katniss devises a plan for both of them to die (I won't reveal it since I've exploited so much of the plot already) causes this rebellion that blows over into the second and third book. All I have to say is that this book did not lack any action at all, and neither does the second and third book. Guys, this truly is a book that you'll enjoy over and over again.

Five Snowflakes