The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1) in Reading with Style

Feb 28, 2011 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As near perfect as a book can get: a sharp, spunky heroine, well built futuristic reality, suspenseful action, engaging supporting characters, and (best of all from a YA novel) well-written prose. The author does not talk down to her younger readers, nor is it unnecessarily complicated. The dystopian future, while slightly far-fetched (do all the people of District 12, formerly "Appalachia", live in such a small area that they can all be on hand in the town square for an event?) is believable en ...more

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Jun 07, 2010 Jules rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia-utopia, young-peeps, 2010

4.5 stars

Of course I'd heard a lot about The Hunger Games before I bought it for myself. It was a buy designed to alleviate some stress off my reading by giving me something "lighter" to dig into - and boy, did I indeed dig into it. After page 20 or so I couldn't let this book go and finished it within 24 hours of starting it.

The first-person narrative is compelling and well-executed and the pace of the story riveting. The author knows how to write a story that's appealing and will engage your e ...more

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Aug 02, 2010 Foxy Grandma rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, zz-src-challange, series, scifi-fantasy, young-adult

First, let me say I am just now starting to read YA books. I was not thrilled by Twilight so that turned me off most YA books. However, like I tell my grandchildren about trying foods they don’t like again and again, I have to remember to keep trying different genres of books I think I don’t like. I have read several books lately that were classified as Young Adult that I enjoyed very much. So once again I learn not to limit myself. Hunger Games is a good book, regardless of the category you put ...more

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Dec 03, 2011 Jama rated it really liked it

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, read-alouds-for-m-e

The rating reflects how this book was received as a read aloud with my 9 y.o. son. He would rate it a 5, but I also enjoyed the book and we both had a hard time putting it down when our reading time was over. I was nervous that the book would be too violent or mature for him to read on his own, but we really didn't encounter any graphic violence that would rate higher than watching something like Star Wars. Collins also makes a point of humanizing the lives and deaths of the teenagers playing in ...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Wendy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-mg, dystopian, banned-books, liked-the-movie, girls-rock-the-boys

I picked this up hoping for a page-turning adventure novel--the kind I fondly remember checking out of my middle-school library and reading in one night. In this respect, the book delivers. The author builds tension and maintains a page-flipping pace with ease. 16 year-old Katniss is also refreshingly bad-ass for a young female heroine; her flaws of aloofness and tendency for being self-centered balance well with her role as provider/protector of her sister and helplessly ill mother. I can absol I picked this up hoping for a page-turning adventure novel--the kind I fondly remember checking out of my middle-school library and reading in one night. In this respect, the book delivers. The author builds tension and maintains a page-flipping pace with ease. 16 year-old Katniss is also refreshingly bad-ass for a young female heroine; her flaws of aloofness and tendency for being self-centered balance well with her role as provider/protector of her sister and helplessly ill mother. I can absolutely see how this book earned its hype--it almost feels calculated to be one: the dystopian world that celebrates adolescents fighting to the death as a snide commentary on reality TV, the fetishized fashion (Katniss' makeover seems specifically placed to appeal to one demographic, the brutal violence to another), all this is brilliantly executed...if perhaps not new (Battle Royale!) I also liked the (mostly) complex relationships between characters which is so often missing in YA books, as it's often assumed that young people should learn about the world through the safe (and unrealistic) depictions of obvious black-white situations. Instead, Katniss is trying to survive in a harsh world where she can trust no one, and is afraid to make friends for fear she--or they--will have to kill the other later. The first 2/3 of the book were 5 star material for me, but the unnecessary and arbitrary rule change to the game dropped most of the dramatic tension, forcing an unnatural alliance between two characters that didn't work for me at all. This lessened the gravity of the "death game"--Katniss had secretly witnessed the one character kill a girl early on to prove his loyalty to the more powerful group and I thought this would HAVE to be dealt with...but it's never even mentioned again.

One last thing I had an issue with--and I haven't weighted it too much in my overall review of this book as I'm hoping the sequels will cover it--is the way the protagonist's killing of other kids is brushed over without giving her a chance to reflect emotionally. Partly, she doesn't have much time for reflection in the Game. Most of the other kids are portrayed as "evil", and perhaps this is the author filtering through Katniss, and the only way she can be OK with her actions is if she convinces herself that they ARE "evil". I'm not buying it. These are ALL kids, and they ALL just want to survive, and what Katniss does is no better or worse than the rest of them. Had the story been told at a different angle with slightly more omniscience, the reader probably wouldn't have even been able take sides. Of course, here we have a beautiful opportunity for psychological depth and Katniss's inner emotional turmoil, and I'm terrified this will all be jettisoned in the sequels for a shallow love-triangle story instead. But I'm going to read on anyway... ...more

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