The Hunger Games Trilogy

I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in one day.  I enjoyed reading it so much that I had to go out and read the other two books in the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay.  While neither lived up to the original book, they were also good, quick reads.

The Hunger Games trilogy tells the story of Katniss Everdean.  She lives in what used to be North America.  In the past, the thirteen districts rebelled against the Capital and lost.  As a result, every year a boy and a girl are chosen from the remaining twelve districts to fight in the Hunger Games.  The winner, who is the lone survivor, becomes a wealthy celebrity who is exempt from future Games.

Katniss and her best friend Gale are hunters from the poorest district, District 12.  They trade what they catch for the supplies their families need to survive.  But their hunting isn’t enough.  In exchange for their names being placed multiple times into the draw for the Hunger Games, they also get a monthly allowance of grain and oil.  Katniss’s sister Prim offers to put her own name into the draw for the Hunger Games but Katniss won’t hear of it.  So it is quite a shock when Prim, who only has one entry for the Hunger Games, is called; she is to be the female tribute from District 12.

Immediately Katniss steps forward to take her sister’s place.  Asking Gale to watch over her family, Katniss bravely goes to battle the other tributes to the death.  And so she finds herself on a whirlwind journey to the Capital with Peeta, the kindly boy who is the male tribute from her District, and Haymitch, one of the only two people to have ever won the Hunger Games from District 12.

The books are by no means perfect.  Collins constrained herself by making each book exactly 3 parts of 9 chapters each.  For me I felt like the first book needed to be a little bit longer than this, and the final book went on a bit too long.  But as I said above, all three books are quick reads and they really are quite interesting.  If you’ve been curious about all the hype surrounding these books, definitely give the first one a try.