It's the future and what was the U.S. has been demolished and what exists is the Capital (I'm thinking it's Denver) and 12 Districts (District 13 was destroyed). Katniss is 16 years old and lives in District 12 (Appalachia...think Tennessee). She's basically taking care of her little sister and mom because her dad died in a mine explosion/cave-in. To stave off starvation, Katniss sneaks out of the Districts fences and poaches for food with her friend Gale, an 18 year-old guy-friend.

Enter THE GAMES. Once a year the Capital holds The Hunger Games which basically reminds the people that the Capital rules over everything. Every kid ages 12-18 has an entry into The Games. A boy and girl from each district are randomly chosen to represent in The Games, which a duke-it-out Death Game with only one winner.

We know where this is going. Obviously Katniss is the girl representing District 12. To add to the problem, the boy chosen is handsome and nice Peeta who helped her years ago after her dad died.

Why did I like this? I think Katniss rocks. She's taken the hunting skills her father taught her (including her prowess with the bow and arrow) and is now using them to save her life. She knows a heck of a lot about foraging for edible and medicinal plants. It just reminded me of all the books I liked growing up about self-sufficient kids. You know, My Side of the Mountain, Island of the Blue Dolphin, and of course Invitation to the Game.

For some reason I kept imagining The Games to take place in some sort of arena, instead of them being dropped off in the wilderness. And obviously the deaths can be pretty gruesome because, well, you've got 24 kids killing each other in the wilderness.

I immediately made my husband read it. He liked it but I don't think as much as I did. I put the next book on hold at the library and of course we're both going to read it. ( )

Another great YA recommendation from Sarah!I understand now why Amazon.com kept suggesting this for me whenever I searched for [b:Graceling|3236307|Graceling|Kristin Cashore|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255623835s/3236307.jpg|3270810]. The main characters are both young women whose lives depends upon their extraordinary survival skills. And they have very similar-sounding names.Katniss is one of two dozen teens selected for the annual Hunger Games, a government-sponsored reality show where the contestants fight to the death while the public watches and wagers. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that she survives (there is a sequel after all), but the WAY she outsmarts the game is brilliant (and I wish I hadn't spoiled it for myself by reading a review of [b:Catching Fire|6148028|Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255646980s/6148028.jpg|6171458] before reading this book -- don't make my mistake!).As the games progress, Katniss is always aware of the cameras and the public watching her every move, and she makes her choices with their eyes in mind. I couldn't help but feel as if I, too, were a part of that morbidly fascinated horde. As a reader, I look forward to the conflict and the tragedy, and she's playing to me as well.Can't wait to get my hands on the sequel. It's burning a hole in my library queue. ( )

Engaging dystopic vision of the future. Excellent protagonist, complex and nuanced values played out. Beautifully written YA lit. ( )

This was one of my first forays into contemporary young adult literature in decades. It was not a disappointment. I couldn't wait to snuggle up with it and find out what happens next. Katniss, the female protagonist, lives in a controlled world reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451. The annual Hunger Games pit 24 teen-agers in a fight to the death.

The storyline is perfect for discussing issues of the day such as "How does REALITY television impact society and humanity". The book sets up the sequel, Catching Fire, marvelously when Katniss realizes she could win, but still lose.

You'll find this book worth the time. ( )

The Hunger Games begins as a hybrid of several well-worn premises: in a dystopian future, people live in carefully fenced-in, intensely state-controlled colonies (The Giver, City of Ember) trying to eke out a living as unobtrusively as possible. Once a year, a lottery (Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery") is held to choose participants in the annual "Hunger Games," in which teenagers - one male and one female from each colony - are forced to slaughter each other in an elaborate and extended gladiatorial contest. This is the Capital's way of ritually reasserting its hegemonic power over the bodies and minds of the colonists (oh, you know, a combination of the legend of the Minotaur and Lord of the Flies).

There are one or two kinks in the writing here - few enough that I suspect it is a problem of editing rather than of Collins's prose style, especially since she puts a great deal of thought into how to construct this narrative and these characters in a way that seems fresh as well as mythic. Her main innovation is to conceive of the Hunger Games as reality television, a sinister colonial tool that hypnotically captures the attention of the entire empire even as it oppresses them by stealing the lives and free will of their youth. Every time our heroine makes a move, no matter how vicious or tender, in the Hunger Games, she considers how it will look to the viewers. PR is a matter of life and death.

This sort of self-consciousness is delightfully postmodern, and just my cup of tea. But I also enjoyed how Collins goes out of her way in the opening moments of the book to make us slightly uncomfortable with our heroine and the harshness her life of poverty has instilled in her: a few pages in we already know that she tried to drown her sister's beloved cat when it was just a kitten. After a few more pages we learn that a wild cat (a cougar? I can't quite remember.) took to following her around as she hunted, perhaps sensing a kindred spirit. She liked the animal, but it was scaring away the game, so she kills it. This is a throwaway moment - done in a single sentence, never to appear again - but it is canny and complex characterization, and it paves the way for what is to come.

Excerpted from my blog: http://sycoraxpine.blogspot.com/2009/... ( )