Hungry for a Good Book?

A friend of mine recently raved about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  She said it is one of the best books that she has read all summer, so I decided that I had better check it out.

Set in an indeterminate future, The Hunger Games takes place in the country of Panem (a country which rose out of the ashes of the United States).  The country consists of twelve districts, all of which are ruled from a city called Capitol.  Each year, as punishment for the districts’ failed rebellion against the rulers of the capital city, one young man and one young woman from each district must compete in the Hunger Games—a brutal “game” of survival and battle in which only one competitor will survive.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss, the book’s narrator, lives with her widowed mother and her younger sister in District 12, a poor coal-mining district far removed from the heart of the country.  She is an accomplished hunter, secretly hunting in the forbidden forest with her best friend to provide for her family.  At the district’s annual “celebration” to choose two competitors for the Hunger Games, Katniss’s sister is selected; unwilling to watch her sister sent to certain death, Katniss volunteers to go in her place.  With Peeta (the male competitor selected from District 12), Katniss is whisked by train to Capitol to prepare for the games.

To say any more would be to give away too much of the novel’s plot.  Suffice it to say that The Hunger Games is part The Giver, part “The Lottery,” part Lord of the Flies, part Survivor.  What impressed me most about this young adult novel, though, is that it’s not only an adventure story.  It encourages consideration of important ideas—the disparity between the rich and the poor, the lifestyle produced by technological luxuries, the ethics and uses of genetic engineering, the legacy of reality television, and our society’s desensitized response to violence.

This fast-paced book is the first in a trilogy (Catching Fire—the second book—is already available, and Mockingjay-–the final volume—releases at the end of August).  I’m not always a fan of books that are part of a series, but The Hunger Games is really a book that can stand on its own.