The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Reviewed by Juliana

“Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen.”

In the book The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, a 16 year old girl named Katniss Everdeen sits down at the Capitol with her sister, Prim, and her best friend, Gale, at the day of the reaping, or the day where the Capitol chooses a boy and a girl to be tributes in the gory Hunger Games. Katniss nearly faints when her sister is called up to the stage to be a tribute, so she volunteers in Prim’s place. Before Katniss goes into the Hunger Games arena, the mayor’s daughter, Madge, gifts Katniss a round, golden pin displaying a mockingjay, her dead father’s favorite bird. Once she gets into the arena, Katniss needs to constantly remind herself that only one out of the 24 tributes in the Hunger Games survives, and she has nearly no chance of winning. Her only hope is that she can get a set of bow and arrows and use her incredible never-missing aim to help her. A dilemma comes along when she falls in love with a handsome boy named Peeta, who is also a tribute in the Hunger Games. Only one of them can live.

I liked The Hunger Games because it is a dystopian novel, where there are futuristic things to make the story more interesting as well as chaotic. One example is when the Capitol forces 24 children into an arena to be the last one to live.

Another reason I like this book because the climax is very dramatic; after days of battling, the star-crossed lovers refuse to kill each other. This makes me anxious to know if one of the protagonists are going to die. One thing that causes the dramatic climax is that Suzanne Collins does a good job to let the reader feel whatever Katniss is feeling. For example, when a young tribute who helps Katniss dies, Collins makes the reader feel just as sad as Katniss.

I would rate this book a ten out of ten because it demonstrates courage and includes nonstop action. I would recommend this to people who enjoy dystopian novels full of savage, spine-chilling, violent adventure. I hope you read The Hunger Games series and enjoy it as much as I did!

Scholastic , 374 pages