The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



It's a sign of how good the story was that I have only one complaint about this book. There is a place, in the middle of the book, where the story's perspective switches from first person to second, and it was really jarring. The sentence was easily rewritable to correct this one line to prevent the sudden feeling that one had fallen into a chose-your-own-adventure story, and I wish that the author/editors would have done so. Otherwise, it reads like basic YA, and it's the strength of the plot and characters that pulls you through the novel more than the prose.

I was surprised at how inventive Katniss's survival tactics during the Hunger Games themselves were, and how much I came to care about Katniss and Peeta over the course of a fairly short story. Suzanne Collins is careful to present Katniss as a girl with flaws, not a Mary Sue. She grows and changes, and even her willful blindness about certain subjects seems plausible, given the nature that Suzanne Collins has given her. 

I see why this was optioned to be made into a movie, and I am diving right in to Catching Fire.



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