Saturday, February 25, 2012

Book Review: The Hunger Games

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.

2 comments:

  1. 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.

    Instead, 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.

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  2. 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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