Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York, NY. Scholastic, inc. 2008. 374 pages.

    “ When I wake up, the other side of my bed is cold. My finger stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress.” -The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins.  This book is on my list of the top 3 books of all time.
The main characters in this story are Katniss Everdeen & Peeta Mellark. It is set in what appears to be a last-resort attempt to maintain civil society. Apparently, war broke out in the world we know, fueled by the greed of people everywhere. A nation called Panem has sprouted up in what was the Rocky Mountains. Panem’s capitol is surrounded by 12 outlying districts. Each district provides something for the Capitol of Panem.  For example, District 1 makes luxury items, District 11 does agriculture, & District 12 mines coal. The Capitol is very harsh & cruel. It keeps the districts under its obedience by forcing each one to send one girl & one boy, between the ages of 12 & 18, to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a gory fight to the death on live TV.  The games start with 24 contestants, which are called “tributes” in the games.  Gradually, the contestants kill each other off, and the last tribute alive wins the games.  A 16-year-old girl named Katniss Everdeen is picked as a tribute for her District, District 12.
Overall, this is a great book. I really liked the point of view that the author chose to tell the story from. First-person perspective, especially in a book like this, can have a critical impact on the reader’s interest in the story.  The first-person perspective also was very helpful during sections of the book involving battle & landscapes.  It really helped with visualization. I found a great example of this at the point where the gong has just sounded to signal the start of the games, and throngs of the tributes are squabbling over the supplies in the Cornucopia, a large golden horn at the center of the arena which hold tons of things for the tributes to use to try & survive. Instead of going in to the Cornucopia to fight, though, Katniss chooses to grab a few items that she finds spread distantly around the Cornucopia, then run for the woods to try & wait it out. I was amazed at how the author managed to describe everything so well.
I was very interested in how complex the author managed to weave Katniss. She describes Katniss in such detail. Each thought, each motion, and everything the character sees....all laid out perfectly, and in such an interesting way.  I noticed an awesome sample of this where Katniss has escaped the main hubbub of the Cornucopia, and is walking through the woods.  Suzanne Collins provided a brief (but highly detailed) description of everything that Katniss was seeing & feeling. She described the slope of the ground, the leaves on the trees,  plants on the ground, everything. The brief description was also very beneficial for me, because I don’t know about other people’s opinion, but as for me, I prefer there to always be something going on in the stories I read. If there’s even a couple of sentences of absolute stillness, chances are I’m gonna get bored.
In conclusion, I thought this book was really good. I am not exactly sure who I would recommend this book to, though. Maybe that’s because almost everyone I know has read it.