The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
OK, so I'm a little behind the curve on this one. I meant to start this series a couple of years ago, but there were other books in line ahead, and I wanted to wait until they were all in paperback...and then I heard about the movie coming out, so I figured I couldn't wait anymore if I wanted to read the book first.
I thought I'd get the first one from the library. After two months on the waiting list, with more than 30 people still ahead of me, I broke down and bought it. And after finishing it in four days, I went out and bought the second book, Catching Fire. In hardback. Damn you, Suzanne Collins.
Obviously, I liked The Hunger Games. I don't usually care for dystopian sci-fi (too depressing), but this one sucked me right in with well-paced action and characters you care about.
This book may be classified as Young Adult, but I'd put the emphasis on "Adult." The plot revolves around a national lottery that pulls teenagers into Gladiator-style games in a fight to the death. Makes me wonder what the movie rating is going to be - there's a LOT of graphic violence that will be difficult to film without an R rating, which would eliminate a lot of this "Young Adult" book's target audience. But if you water down the violence, you take away a lot of the story's impact. It will be interesting to see how the film manages to walk that line.
I requested "The Hunger Games" from the library and it took so long for me to get the book that by the time it arrived, I'd forgotten that I ever ordered it. And then when I saw that it was written all in present tense, I was truly prepared to hate it very much.
ReplyDeleteInstead, I tore through it in less than two days, and requested the other two in the series immediately. Grrr.
Now I'm all geared up to hate the movie, too.
I'm way behind the curve then, 'cause I don't even have the books ready to read yet. They're on my TBR list, at least! :)
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