The Hunger Games

         

The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is a fiction book aimed for the young adult genre, which I found myself unable to put down. Its combination of nerve-racking tension, thrilling action, and engaging love story kept me up at all hours of the night, wondering what will happen next. I was surprised at how completely fascinating the plot was.

When the story begins, North America as we know it has been destroyed and is divided into 12 districts, ruled by a cruel government located at the Capitol. Every year, the Capitol selects one boy and one girl from each district to compete in the terrifying Hunger Games. The Games forces children from ages 12 to 18 against each other in a fight to the death in a giant, hazardous arena. Everything is televised all over the country.

Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl from District 12, takes her younger sister’s place as one of 24“tributes”.

Katniss must not only survive the Games, but deal with a romance between her and another tribute Peeta Mellark from District 12, knowing how heartbroken her best friend Gale is, seeing her every move with Peeta. While finding the strength to kill strangers her own age for her survival and to impress the government is a lot of pressure on Katniss.

The further I got through the book, the more interesting it got. Suzanne Collins described the locations in perfect detail and made me feel like I was in the arena, witnessing everything that Katniss experienced. When it came to the romance of Katniss and Peeta, it was impossible to put the book down. Knowing that the only way to keep your other tribute alive is to show affection and knowing that it killed Gale to see this made Katniss even more desperate to survive.

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish; it left me itching to find out what happens next. If I had to rate it out of ten, I would give it an eleven!

 

by Tori Reid

Year 11 Student

Barkly College Secondary Campus