The Hunger Games

THE HUNGER GAMES

Suzanne Collins

I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed reading The Hunger Games.  Before starting it, I was researching what to read next.  I decided I wanted an author I had never read before and I came across this book and started reading reviews--I've gotten good at being able to tell which ones are real, and which ones are by friends of the author or people associated with promoting the work.  I almost didn't choose this one for two reasons: 1) It is a YA (young adult) novel.  2) It was written by a woman.  I’ll explain…

From what I read, the fact that the book was being marketed as a YA novel didn't matter.  It was supposedly written no differently than any other novel, so I didn't let that stop me.  As far as it being written by a woman, I generally haven’t liked novels I’ve read that were written by women.  The reason is that most of them that I have read, I didn't like the writing and/or the story.  I know intellectually that's just because I haven't picked the right ones, but nonetheless I usually avoid them.  

I downloaded the sample for this book and was a little more than lukewarm on it, and against my better judgment, decided to go ahead and read the whole thing.  I'm so glad I did.

I have been on a kick where all I want to read is action and suspense--real page turners that keep my attention.  This book has that, but the thing I liked the most was the main characters, and how well the author developed them.  I was very interested in their lives.

Another thing I usually don't like is novels written in the first-person, which this one is.  But again, it didn't matter and I loved it.  

There are thankfully two more books in this series, and I will be reading them soon.  There were a couple of things the author did toward the end of the book that I didn’t like, but I’m hoping in the next book I’ll have a better understanding about why she chose to go the route she did.

I enjoyed this book as much as anything I have read this year.  It’s excellent.  5 stars.  Here's the LINK.