The Hunger
Games is a young-adultscience
fiction novel written by Suzanne
Collins. It was originally published on September 14, 2008, by Scholastic.[1] It
is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It
introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss
Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world
in the country of Panemwhere North America once existed.
This is where a government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the book,
the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one
boy and one girl from each of 12 districts to fight to the death. The Hunger
Games exist to demonstrate that not even children are beyond the reach of the
Capitol's jurisdiction. “The Hunger Games” was received well by critics. In Stephen
King's review for Entertainment Weekly, he praised how the
book is addictive and also compared it to "shoot-it-if-it-moves videogames
in the lobby of the local eightplex; you know it's not real, but you keep
plugging in quarters anyway." However, he stated that there were
"displays of authorial laziness that kids will accept more readily than
adults", that the love triangle was standard for the genre, and that the
reality TV "badlands" were similar to Battle
Royale, The Running Man, and The
Long Walk. He gave the book an overall B grade.Stephenie
Meyer (author of the Twilight series)
said, "I was so obsessed with this book....The Hunger Games is
amazing." Elizabeth Bird of School Library Journal praised the
novel, saying it is "exciting, poignant, thoughtful, and breathtaking by
turns". The review also called it one of the best books of 2008. Booklist also
gave a positive review, praising the character violence and romance involved in
the book.] In
a review for The New York Times, John Green wrote that the novel was
"brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced", and that "the
considerable strength of the novel comes in Collins's convincingly detailed
world-building and her memorably complex and fascinating heroine."
However, he also noted that sometimes the book does not realize the allegorical
potential that the plot has to offer and that the writing "described the
action and little else". Kirkus
Reviews gave a positive review, praising the action and
world-building, but pointed out that, "poor copyediting in the first
printing will distract careful readers—a crying shame".Rick
Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series,
claims it is the "closest thing to a perfect adventure novel" he has
ever read. Time magazine was positive and praised the
hypnotic quality of the violence. (source: Wikipedia)
