Book Review: Hunger Games

So I'm thinking of doing something new on here and reviewing books I've been reading. I've actually had some time for reading lately since I'm pumping at work now, so that has been really nice. Most recently, I've just finished a book that was recommended to me by my lovely friends, Carrie and Jenn called The Hunger Games.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a super fast, easy read and a really interesting story. Its a story about a place named Panem. There is a Capitol City and 12 districts. The people in the Capitol City have all the money and food and make everyone else in the districts basically starve and live really poorly. The districts stage a rebellion and eventually lose so the people of the Capitol City punish them by instituting the Hunger Games. Every year they pick 2 children, a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18, from each district to compete in the Hunger Games. The games are basically where they drop all these poor kids off into a foreign landscape with nothing to survive except what they can fight for and find on their way and leave them to kill each other. The last one standing is the victor and that person's district gets all kinds of food and riches for the rest of the year until the next Hunger Games.

All of that is really background and you find about that set up in the first chapter. I know it sounds gruesome and at first I didn't want to read this book. But I promise you, its worth reading. I mean they are making it into a movie, so it must be good, right? ;)

The main character of the book is Katniss Everdeen. She's a poor girl that lives with her mother and sister in District 12. She is a really amazing and strong character who is taking care of her family and basically keeping them from starvation. Their father died in a mining accident and Katniss goes everyday to hunt outside their district, which is punishable by death, in order to keep her family from starving. She is a smart, sassy, outspoken character and I really enjoyed the way the author portrayed her. You get a lot of her internal monologue in the book and that is great. You also get her take on the events going on around her, which give a lot of insight into her character and is a fun way to reveal the details of this world.

So really the book is about the games, obviously about survival and the unfairness of this world. Its also about finding out about yourself, struggling against adversity and a love story (believe it or not).

I don't want to say too much about the book because I want you to read it but trust me, its really good. I didn't want to put it down and I read through it super fast. There are 2 other books that follow this one and I hope to read those soon as well.

Has anyone else read the Hunger Games? I'm excited for the movie to come out. What is everyone reading now? Anything good?