"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

"The Hunger Games," a novel by Suzanne Collins, follows the life of sixteen year-old Katniss Everdeen. She lives in a time where there are twelve districts ruled by avicious Capitol that takes its amusement out by hosting an annual televised Hunger Games. To prevent a rebellion, these games pit two people from every district, a boy and a girl, against each other in a fight to the death to show just how powerful the government is. All kids twelve to eighteen must enter their names to be picked at random to participate.

Katniss lives in District Twelve in a place known as “the Seam” with her depression-stricken mother and young sister, Prim. She and her best friend, Gale, hunt in the forbidden woods on the outskirts of town to supply their starving families with food after they each lost a parent in a mining accident. When the seventy-fourth Hunger Games arrives, Prim, only twelve, is chosen to compete. Katniss knows her little sister will not survive these trials, so she decides to volunteer to go for her. Through an unlikely chain of events, Katniss is forced to befriend her partner from her district, Peeta Mellark, and put “true love” to the test. But surviving the Capitol’s cruel tricks is not the only problem Katniss will have to face if she wants the odds of winning to be ever in her favor.

A thrilling, fast paced adventure, The Hunger Games is a must-read. Katniss and Peeta will keep you entertained with their wit and compassion, and the will to survive through anything.

Reviewed by Sydney Bernier

See also- review of the second Hunger Games book, Catching Fire