Hunger Games Book Review

My brief book review of Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is at Goodreads. I enjoyed it, but felt a little short on it leaving some things open for the next book. My only complaint is the main character’s (Katniss) inner conflict is not as well told as the action, but it did not detract from the story enough to lower my enjoyment.

I haven’t seen the movie yet.

My review on Goodreads:

Overall a fun and exciting story in a post-appoclyptic-style America where the mortal combat arena has returned as popular entertainment. The intro is short taking us right to Katniss volunteering in place of her sister, Prim, chosen as one of two tributes from District 12. The story fills in more details about Katniss and her family’s past as the story evolves. The pace is great moving from the tribute preparation, building character, into the arena where Katniss deals with survival and also her inner conflict with self-image. Her relationship issues are only partially resolved, but the ending prepares for the second book.

The first-person perspective works well for the most part including pulling the reader into the action, but struggles in other areas in particular to Katniss’s inner conflict with her self-image and relationships. The reader is given too much knowledge about her co-tribute’s feelings that Katniss almost appears stupid. Pulling the reader tighter into her self-image would negate this shortcoming and work better with the first-person present tense. I find this is only a minor bump, not enough to detract from the story.