Reading Level: Young adult
Genre(s): Dystopian
Pages: 384 (hardcover)
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Published: 2008
My Rating: 5/5
Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
My Thoughts:
This is my second time reading this book; I wanted to re-read it before reading Catching Fire so it's fresh in my mind.
The second time made me love it so much more. I noticed a lot of things I didn't notice the first time I read it.
Everything in this book stuck out so much for me, I don't think it's a book I'd ever forget.
I liked Katniss instantly. She was selfless, brave, and strong. She was an amazing heroine. What she did for her younger sister, Prim, was as selfless as you can get. I wonder, would I take someone's place in the Games?
I liked Gale, but that's it. I feel I didn't get to know him enough throughout the book, seeing as there wasn't much dialogue between him and Katniss.
Peeta! Love. Him. He's super sweet and cares a lot about Katniss. I can't wait to read more about him in the other books. I think I may be team Peeta. It could change throughout the series though, who knows.
So, yeah, major standout would have to be the characters.
Moving on...
I hate the Capital, I think they're horrible. I found myself thinking while reading this "Just rebel against them, Katniss. Do something effing crazy!" but then I realized it isn't that easy. The Capital holds the power.
I must say, if you haven't read this book, get Catching Fire before reading The Hunger Games. You will want to know what happens next.
Hmm, I feel like I'm missing a lot in this review, but I'm sure everyone who reads has read this book already, so my review really isn't needed.
Anyways, I'm gonna go read Catching Fire now.
Gemma, 16, has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother’s death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order.
Crafty London computer hacker, Gabriel Blackstone, agrees to help track down a millionaire's missing stepson. His search leads him to two beautiful, and literally bewitching, sisters, Minnaloushe and Morrighan Monk. (Their ancient Irish names are but a hint of their eccentric natures.) The sexy siblings (all pale skin, dark and flowing hair, and light, haunting eyes) are immersed in the occult, and it's not long before at least one of them has climbed inside Gabriel's mind. But Gabriel, it turns out, is a clairvoyant himself. Can he tap into the sisters' secrets before becoming forever entangled in their web?
Kara hasn't been back to Oak Park since the end of junior year, when a heroin overdose nearly killed her and sirens heralded her exit. Four years later, she returns to face the music. Her life changed forever back in high school: her family disintegrated, she ran around with a whole new crowd of friends, she partied a little too hard, and she fell in love with gorgeous bad-boy Adrian, who left her to die that day in Scoville Park....
Ben Mears, a successful writer who grew up in the town of Jersualem's Lot, Cumberland County, Maine - Called "The Lot" by the locals, has returned following the death of his wife. Ben also wants to write a book about "The Marsten House", an abandoned mansion that gave him nightmares after a bad experience with it as a child. He starts to learn a lot of secrets about the house and comes to find out that it's going to be inhabited soon by vampire Kurt Barlow - who's being linked with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the death of his brother, Danny. Over the course of the book, the town is slowly taken over by vampires, eventually leaving it a ghost town. Ben and a few others set out to stop the vampires before it's too late...