The Hunger Games. The word seems to grab you like a net and hold onto you, and it won’t let go, but if you have read the books, as I myself have, you shutter as goosebumps appear on your arm. The Hunger Games is a thrilling series written by Suzanne Collins. Though the series only has 3 books, it leaves you with a feeling, like the one I get from Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, that you want more. The first book, The Hunger Games, came out in 2008, and it soon hit the New York Times Bestseller list and became very popular when in 2012 the first film came out, but let’s not focus on the film at all and more focus on the book.

Let’s start with the facts of what we know.

·        There is something called the Hunger Games

·        There’s a girl named Katniss

·        People die.

That’s the simple ones at least, so let’s get to some explaining. What ARE exactly the Hunger Games? Well in my own words: ‘If you rebel, we kill you; this is to show you we can.’ And the explanation Katniss gives is an explanation much like my own, only she mentions  District 13, which doesn’t exist (you’ll know what happened to it in Book 2 Catching Fire, but right now we’re focusing on book ONE!)

Next on the list, who is Katniss? Katniss is our Heroine, which means she’s a girl hero not a boy. She’s a poor girl whose father died in a mine explosion when she was 11. She’s also from District 12 which mines coal so just to explain that and sum it up it’s the poorest district. She has a sister named Primrose or just Prim. In the book she’s not a major character, but she’s important enough, and Katniss has a mother who often goes into a depression state every once in a while who is also not really important in this book.

For Katniss’s family she has been their heroine since she was eleven and her father died. She learned to hunt, set traps and survive in the woods, even though it is illegal to go into and fenced out with a electric fence, which is almost always off, but Katniss has been hunting in there, with Gale (her best friend) or her father (when he was alive) with a bow and arrow since she could walk.

For poor families like Katniss’s and Gale’s the hunger games isn’t too important to them. They mock it, yes, but to them it’s also a chance because if you enter your name you get some grain, bread and stuff, and for Katniss and Gale they both have to enter their name every time four extra times because they’re so poor! Yes, it raises their chance in going in the Hunger Games and dying but they are too dedicated to their family to really care.

This takes place when Katniss is 16, and Prim is twelve; it’s the day of the Reaping, the day the names of the boy and the girl for district twelve tributes are chosen. Effie Trinket is the escort of their district.  She call’s ladies first, “Primrose Everdeen” she calls, silence, shock fills the square, Prim, a sweet young small girl, was going to the Hunger Games? She wouldn’t ever have a chance of living.  But...plot twist!  Katniss volunteers to go into the Hunger Games instead of her sister. The boy who is going into the Hunger Games’ name is Peeta (he is the Steam baker’s son, and no one volunteers for him).

Alright let’s skip to the dirt of the story, The Hunger Games. There’s not much to say about them, people try to kill Katniss.... Listen I’m not here to summarize the whole book as much as I would LOVE to do that.  This is a book review not a summary, and there’s a difference.

This book is a New York Times Bestseller; it isn’t on that list if it’s not a good one! Critiques give the book 5 stars; that speaks for its self, so the higher-ups have given it a great review and all so now I’ll tell you what I think.

It took my mother 5 years to get me to read this book. FIVE YEARS. Since the book came out in 2008 and its 2013 right now, five years since it came out-- I’ve finally read it and I like it. Personally for me there is 1 rule when it comes to reading: you read the first 5 pages and there is no going back and not finishing it.  It took me about a week to finish this book, and I admit I am a fan of the series. Personally I understand why it’s on the bestseller list and the 5 stars junk, it’s simply a GOOD book, and I am a fast and highly affectionate reader; I will read whatever book I can get on my hands.

So for this book, if you’re younger than 8, which I doubt because you wouldn’t be reading this article this far and understand what I’m talking about, I’d say this is a book for 10 and above. You can be 110 and still enjoy it, or you can be 12 as I am and also enjoy it.

I agree with those critiques and the guys who decide the bestseller list; it is a good book and that’s saying a lot. If you haven’t read it yet,  READ IT.

That’s all I have to say, thanks for reading, Ciao.