1st book in the hunger games series

He is also Katniss' and Peeta's mentor. It seems at first that he doesn't like Katniss very much but at the Hunger Games he helped her more than he helped Peeta. He always supported her in his way.

She was the year-old female tribute from District I really liked that Katniss allied with Rue. They were amazing together. But Rue died. I understand only one can win our case two but I felt so sad when she died. Not only her though. A lot innocent kids die because of the Capitol. It's not fair. So katniss and Peeta can be allies. But when all the other tributes died it was announced that the rule they said early has been canceled. I was so angry! They did it on purpose.

She is so stupid. He didn't want to fight her and she thought that he could kill her. But it was a trick. Peeta discovers that Katniss was mostly acting during the games about the feelings. He was so heartbroken! My baby! I haven't seen the movie yet! View all 49 comments. Dec 24, Emily May rated it really liked it Shelves: young-adult , dystopia-utopia , It seems weird that I never reviewed The Hunger Games.

I don't know why I didn't when it was a series that completely took over my life for a short while. But recently I've been thinking about posting something in this review space and after just watching the second film which I think was amazing and better than the first , now seems like as good a time as any to talk about why I love Katniss and nearly everything about this series.

I gave this book four stars back in and I'm going to leave that rating as it is because it's an indicator of my thoughts at the time though they slightly differ now - thoughts which were influenced by having just finished the fantastic, horrifying, brutal and unforgettable Battle Royale manga series.

I don't think it was the best time for myself and Katniss to find one another when I had so much beautiful insanity to compare the book to, but it still managed to have such an effect on me that I instantly told every friend and family member to read it.

Coming back to this now after having spent the last couple of years being bombarded with dystopian YA, I appreciate what Collins has achieved a whole lot more. I appreciate the strength of Katniss as a heroine who commands our attention and holds our love whilst still being what some would consider unlikable; I appreciate the balance of beauty and horror that Collins delivers on every page, treating us constantly to both the darkest despair and rays of hope; and I also - amazingly - appreciate the love triangle.

Love triangles seem to have chased me and hunted me down with every YA read I picked up over the last two or three years - my dislike for romance instantly becoming doubled by the introduction of yet another boy with beautiful eyes. But Katniss, Peeta and Gale worked for me. They convinced me, held my interest and made me cry. The love triangle worked because it's outcome wasn't obvious, because we all wondered and hoped and worried.

Because, either way, I was always going to be half happy and half sad. Katniss still remains for me everything that a female protagonist should be. Or a female hero, at least. She fights for the ones she loves, she's brave and doesn't need to be saved. But neither is she a one-dimensional smiling poster-version of a heroine. She falls, she fails, people get hurt because of her and she has to live with that.

We love her and yet she's antisocial, awkward and moody. She loves other people with all her heart but she's not much of a team player. In short: she's a complex portrait of a young woman that doesn't fall into any neatly defined boxes or categories.

Now, perhaps, authors have since tried to recreate her. But she's still one of the first and best. I know another review of this book isn't needed. I know you've all probably read it anyway. Or never will. But this isn't really for anyone else; it's a reminder to myself of why this book deserves its hype and why I need to remember to come back to it again and again between the new and hopefully amazing YA books I'll be reading in the future.

View all 29 comments. I've said to a few people that if I wasn't married, I'd have to marry this book. I feel pretty safe in saying that if this isn't still my favorite book of the year when next January rolls around, that I'll eat a hat. As soon as I finished reading it, I turned around and read it a 2nd time, which I've never done before in my life. It's got some very meaty issues to chew on, not the least of which is reality TV taken to extremes.

I will miss Katniss until I can read about her again. What more could you possibly ask for out of a book? It doesn't actually come out until October , but if you can get your hands on an ARC, definitely do! I think that the violence in this will be easier for kids to take, since they probably won't see it quite as clearly as an adult will. None of it is particularly graphic, but it is definitely brutal. This is on the edge of too dark for me, which is my favorite kind of book.

There aren't many writers who can push it right to the edge for me without going over Zusak comes to mind immediately , but Collins is definitely one of them. OK, I'll stop gushing. I may have to re-write this review when I get some perspective. Still my definite favorite book of the year, but all the typos in the finished book were pretty disappointing. I've had 2 teenaged boys at my library read this on my recommendation, and both of them came back asking me for more books like it really there isn't anything.

May-June I'm reading this for the 4th time, with my younger son, who's finishing up 5th grade. Still as good as ever!! Can't wait for the movie!! I've seen the movie twice so far, and definitely liked it better the 2nd time, when it didn't have to try to be my favorite book. STILL as good as ever, and the odds will forever be in its favor. View all 75 comments. Jul 18, Colleen Venable rated it really liked it Shelves: books-that-made-me-cry , ya-fiction.

Fantastically Written? Ooooh yeah! Super Quick Read? Most definitely! Man, I wish someone on my friends list here has also read Battle Royale and this book!

I ate it up, shouting into other rooms and offices that I was going to be shoving the book i Fantastically Written? I ate it up, shouting into other rooms and offices that I was going to be shoving the book into their hands as soon as I was done, but as it went on desha vu was a little too common for me. I know there are major story types out there, ones that are repeated over and over again. Shakespeare retold different ways.

The bible reinterpreted to 2,, varieties of tales FEED felt utterly original. If it's going to be about "the future" we don't know about, make it original. In my mind dystopia novels survive on "idea" more than "excecution" and while the execution of this was beautiful, the idea was hardly new.

In Battle Royal short explanation of BR plot: 40 students put on island forced to kill each other and winner is set for life and put on TV etc There are so many other similarities, from the ways the gamemakers manipulate, to the ways the media encourages, to one character having a fever and the other taking care of them with soup. There are even "career" battle royal players. In BR you see the emotions before and after someone is killed, their last thoughts, the feeling of the person who killed.

It's actually really beautiful the way it is done, and so believable that put in an arena teens WOULD turn into savages. In The Hunger Games, yes the main characters were fantastic, and many of the lesser as well, but Foxface is only Foxface, and the Careers are never more than random 1-dimensional bad guys.

I am not saying it wasn't a GREAT read, I'm just saying it shouldn't shake the publishing earth the way I am pretty sure it is going to. I anticipate this is the next Twilight series people are going to gush over.

In a few years we'll all be hosting Hunger Games final book parties. I'll be amongst the attendees I'm sure.

Also in terms of female main characters, Katiniss may surpass Bella in me wanting to shake sense into a character. Talk about a smart girl being utterly clueless! Yes, it was great, but eh, maybe I'm just bitter because I think BR is the better book of the two and while Hunger Games will get tons of praise and likely a rather deserved award or two, BR will continue to be banned in many libraries.

Amazing what subtracting guns can do to a story. Suddenly it doesn't feel as violent, but rather is more reminiscent of stories we heard growing up. The number of swords and arrow deaths in traditional fairytales is nothing to freak out about, but if bullets are flying, it will give "too many ideas" to teens and therefore must be dubbed an adult book.

I'm pretty sure if I hadn't read BR just a few months back this exeedingly long review would have been just as long only instead of a rant it would have just been one long squeeeeeal of delight over how much I loved the book. Original Comment: Peer pressure, peer pressure, peer pressure. Geez guys! Alright, alright I'll read it! Clearly Gregor was merely the prelude.

As an author we were accustomed to your fun adventures involving a boy, his sister, and a world beneath our world. But reading it gave me a horribly familiar feeling. There is a certain strain of book that can hypnotize you into believing that you are in another time and place roughly 2.

And The Hunger Games? Well as I walked down the street I was under the disctinc impression that there were hidden cameras everywhere, charting my progress home. Collins has written a book that is exciting, poignant, thoughtful, and breathtaking by turns. It ascends to the highest forms of the science fiction genre and will create all new fans for the writer. One of the best books of the year. Ever since her father died the girl has spent her time saving her mother and little sister Prim from starvation by hunting on forbidden land.

But worst of all is reaping day. Once a year the government chooses two children from each of the twelve districts to compete against one another in a live and televised reality show. Twenty-four kids and teens enter, and only one survives. Why not make it as if Peeta and Katniss were in love with one another?

But in a game where only one person can live, Katniss will have to use all her brains, wits, and instincts to determine who to trust and how to outwit the game's creators. So sure, there are parts of this plot that have been done before. You could say it's The Game meets Spartacus with some Survivor thrown in for spice. Some of the greatest works of literature out there, regardless of the readerships' age, comes about when an author takes overdone or familiar themes and then makes them entirely new through the brilliance of their own writing.

Similarly, Collins takes ideas that have certainly seen the light of day before and concocts an amazingly addictive text. Your story often rests on the shoulders of the protagonist. Is this a believable character? Do you root for him or her?

Katniss, on the other hand, is so good in so many ways. She sacrifices herself for her sister. She tries to save people in the game. Most remarkable to me was the fact that Katniss could walk around, oblivious to romance, and not bug me.

You just want to bonk the ladies upside the head with a brick or something. The different here is maybe the fact that since Katniss knows that Peeta has to play a part, she uses that excuse however unconsciously to justify his seeming affection for her. Thems smart writing.

And did I mention the dialogue at all? The humor? The words pop off the page. No faux slang here, or casual references to extinct dolphins.

People love to characterize books by gender. It stars a boy? Boy book. A girl? Girl book. Now take a long lengthy look at the first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. It stars a girl This is not a book that quietly slots into our preconceived stereotypes. And you know what happens to books that span genders?

They sell very well indeed. That is, if you can get both boys and girls to read them. The age range? Well, for most of this story I would have said ten and up. There are definite horror elements to it as well, so with that in mind I am upping my recommendation to 12 and up.

You'll see why. It occurs to me that there has never been a quintessential futuristic gladiator book for kids. That is undoubtedly the roughest term you can give this book. Yet as I was taking a train to Long Island I found myself tearing up over significant parts of this story. You think of futuristic arena tales and your mind instantly sinks to the lowest common denominator.

What Collins has done here is set up a series that will sink its teeth into readers. The future of this book will go one of two ways. Either it will remain an unappreciated cult classic for years to come or it will be fully appreciated right from the start and lauded. My money lies with the latter. A contender in its own right. Ages 12 and up. View all 32 comments. Jun 12, jessica rated it it was amazing Shelves: favourites.

View all 22 comments. Nov 13, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: united-states , fiction , 21th-century , science , fantasy , literature , young-adult. It is written in the voice of year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the future, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games is an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12—18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death.

Oct 01, Elle ellexamines rated it it was amazing Shelves: x-series , authors-of-color , elle-recs-list , favorite-characters , zfavs , zreads , zfaves , 5-star , sff-scifi-dystopias. The love triangle being pointless is quite literally the point ; Gale and Peeta are meant to represent the opposite sides of war something a certain plot point in book three really drives home.

Katniss is frankly never romantically interested in either for almost all of books one and two; she grows to care about Peeta in the general sense, not just the romantic sense.

The eventual romance works for Katniss because it is safe for her. I more think this series is interesting in how it talks about the nature of power and the nature of uprising. The uprising, as a whole, is an upswelling of the people, a realization that there is strength in numbers.

Even during war, the individual lives of characters like Joanna and Haymitch and Finnick matter. They matter to the narrative, and thus they matter to us too. Her journey is not in becoming a Nice Person but in self-actualization. That is not a journey female characters are ever ever ever allowed to take and is arguably still something new. I almost want to case study this. It's crazy that the first big ya dystopia is the best ya dystopia and one of the best series of all time, but this one is truly a classic and remains so incredible.

Thank you to Katniss Everdeen for being one of the most interesting characters ever written and to this book for having such a dynamic story. It's relevant to our world. The parallels to our own society are so amazingly drawn, and the worldbuilding so good, that I'm not surprised this book was the one that broke through. Dramatic tension. Tell me you weren't on the edge of your seat every moment of this book. You're lying. Katniss' struggle to survive on her own is compelling and twisty.

Every moment is filled with fear and tension. The characters are amazing. Katniss Everdeen is one of the best developed, most intriguing protagonists ever written. She's badass and she's selfish and she takes no shit. In the end, I think that's what made this series so fantastic and popular. Aug 27, NReads rated it really liked it. The book that got me into reading.

View all 12 comments. Jul 15, Will Byrnes rated it really liked it Shelves: fiction , fantasy , young-adult. What was once North America has been reduced, by what we are not told. A decadent Capitol rules over 12 subservient, worker districts. Katliss is a year-old who lives with her depression-incapacitated mother and her year-old sister, Prim, whom she loves more than anything. She lives in the coal-producing District 12, a sooty place in the former Appala What was once North America has been reduced, by what we are not told.

She lives in the coal-producing District 12, a sooty place in the former Appalachia where life expectancy is as bleak as the food ration is small. Suzanne Collins - from fictiondb. Contestants, or tributes, in the very Rome-centric nomenclature of the book, are selected by lottery, but one can get food for increasing the number of entries one is willing to submit.

This is not necessarily a lottery you would want to win, as the Hunger Games contest is a gladiatorial battle to the death. Joining an ancient form of barbarity with a more modern version, the contest is seen by the nation on television, gussied up with all the pomp and circumstance of the World Cup, Superbowl and World Series combined, with the degrading intrusiveness of reality television.

Primrose Everdeen gets the bad news - from Jabberjays. They are transported to the Capitol, dressed up, interviewed on TV, offered training in several forms of combat and sent out there to do or die.

The rest is their ordeal, which includes having to succeed not only with physical skills such as strength and agility. In addition to the need for cunning in figuring out how to best their competitors, they have to figure out how to please the television audience, among which are sponsors who might send them much needed goods during the game.

Katliss is caught not only in a brutal contest with the other tributes, but in a confusing battle with her own adolescent emotions.

What are her feelings, really, for her male counterpart from District 12, Peeta, and for her hunky bff Gale back home team Gale vs team Peeta anyone? How can she express her rage at the operators of this horror for their inhumanity? I quite enjoyed reading the book, hated putting it down. Collins offers characters one can root for, with enough inner conflict and complexity to matter, well some of them, without it being overbearing, or slowing down the story. Ok, I liked the book.

But I had a niggling concern early on. When I began reading, I wondered if there might be a political agenda at play. However, given the political climate of the twenty-teens, in which cynical forces of the right seek at every opportunity to portray government of any sort as the personification of evil, one must wonder if the author subscribed to the notion.

I confess to not having read her prior work, so lack a basis there, and the interviews with Collins I read offer no insight. So, I am not saying that this is so, just that the portrayal made me wonder. I posted a review of Catching Fire in , and while I did read Mockingjay I never got around to reviewing it. While I no longer feel a concern that Collins was consciously attempting to impart a stealth right-wing perspective, I still had a feeling that there was something else going on here.

Thankfully, GR friend Kyra offered a link to an article in The Guardian that articulated very clearly what my innards were only able to communicate with vague visceral discomfort. Here is the link. I suggest you check it out for yourselves. I go into this a bit in my review of Catching Fire. View all 28 comments.

Nov 13, Morgan F rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: everyone. Shelves: preston-public-library , own , medium-sized , young-adult , s , adrenaline , re-read , completed-series , read , its-a-girl.

View all 40 comments. Aug 30, Lyndsey rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , reviewedstars , reviewed , i-recommend. Oh no. You've awakened the beast. It's Jackniss!!

So maybe Matthew Fox from Lost isn't exactly the person you had in mind when you thought about who they might cast as Katniss in The Hunger Games, but I was inspired to create that after I saw this site called Jackimals.

You might want to wait to visit it, though, because it can suck you in like an unexplained time warp flash. I was also inspired to create the Jackniss after I read a discussion that deeply disturbed me. Somewhere, possibly on Oh no. Somewhere, possibly on Goodreads, I read that someone thought the Lost writers should get involved in writing the Hunger Games script.

Forget the genius Suzanne Collins, let's give it to the guys who left the greatest mystery in all of TV history completely unexplained. Don't get me wrong. I love Lost and appreciate it greatly, but they really explained nothing in terms of the plot. But don't even get me started on that - Circuits overloading. It cannot do without. That's obviously not going to happen since Suzanne has already written the script, but just play along for a second.

Here's how I think it would go Katniss is being chased by one of the mutts who suddenly turns into the smoke monster, which gobbles her up in flashes of lightning and the sound of mechanical teeth grinding while playing a flashback of her life in the District. It quickly chokes her back up realizing she's a candidate to replace Jacob but she's in such shock from the experience that she lays down and dies, with a stunning close-up of her eye closing.

Roll credits. Now, if you haven't read The Hunger Games yet , I won't even try to justify why you should. You just should. And seriously, WHY haven't you read it yet? This is the kind of book that is so awesome in a completely thrilling and demented and emotional and shocking way that it makes you want to bang your head against the wall while throwing fairy dust in joy.

Two things that I have done in the past, but never before at the same time. That's how powerful this book is. After that, it makes you want to cry. Cry like a little baby. Like a little baby in it's crib. Then scream. Scream like a frikkin banshee with a frikkin laser beam on it's forehead. Before I read this, I had a friend who told me that this book was times better than Twilight. I'd say that it's actually more like a gorgonzolazillion times better and don't ask me the exact amount that represents.

Let's just call it "To infinity and beyond. I was like "Hah! But I concur. Maybe even Oscar worthy. I certainly hope so, anyway. I know that I said I wouldn't try and talk you into reading this book but I honestly can't help it. In a dystopian future, the country of Panem is divided up into 12 districts and the Capitol, where the country's leaders and wealthy live. Each year, two representatives, one male and one female, are offered up in tribute to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a brutal game in which the participants are forced to eliminate the competition, while keeping themselves alive.

When Primrose Everdeen is selected to participate in the games, her older sister Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her place. Katniss and her male counterpart from District 12, Peeta, are pitted against the bigger, stronger representatives from the other eleven districts, some of whom have been training for this their entire lives.

They see this as a sign that the Gamemakers are gathering the three remaining tributes to the lake near the Cornucopia. This is where they find a frantic Cato running from giant Capitol muttations, human-like wolves who turn out to be in some form that resemble the dead tributes.

The final showdown on top of the Cornicopia has Cato trying to use Peeta to stop Katniss from killing him. He ultimately fails as Katniss pierces his hand and falls down to the muttations below the Cornucopia. He does not die and is merely tortured continuously by the muttations because of his armor which most likely came from his district pack. Cato is severely wounded by the mutts and finally killed by Katniss with an arrow through the head. His cannon fires, and Katniss and Peeta are unsure why they are not being announced victors.

Claudius Templesmith then announces that there can only be one victor, revoking the previously placed rule. As a way to defy the Gamemakers, Katniss introduces the idea of suicide with the nightlock berries to Peeta, in the hope that the Capitol would rather have 2 victors than none. Peeta agrees, and just as they are about to consume the berries, they are hastily declared the winners. However, the Capitol becomes angry with Katniss and claims she was sparking rebellion by "outsmarting" the Gamemakers and therefore defying the Capitol.

When Haymitch tells Katniss this, she sees it as her job to reverse it to save the ones she loves so she layers the madly-in love act very thick in order to convince them that she did this for her future with Peeta. Upon going home, Peeta and Katniss start drifting apart when she tells him she knew when Haymitch would send her sponsorship gifts and survived most of the Games that way.

Katniss' thoughts are in turmoil; she is conflicted about her feelings for Peeta and is incapable of sorting out what felt real and what didn't. Peeta offers his hand to Katniss, conveying his hurt by saying "One more time?

For the audience? After writing the novel, Collins signed a six-figure deal for three books with Scholastic in The first book originally had a 50, first printing which was then increased, twice, to , copies.

The novel has been criticized for its similarities to the Japanese novel Battle Royale , which is about junior high school students forced to fight to the death by a repressive government in an alternate timeline. Suzanne Collins said in a statement, "I had not heard of Battle Royale until my book was turned into Scholastic.

The story continues in Catching Fire , which follows Katniss and Peeta as they try to survive in and out of yet another deadly Hunger Games , the Quarter Quell. The original black cover features an alternate version of the mockingjay pin designed by Tim O'Brien with the mockingjay holding an arrow in its beak. The Hunger Games Wiki Explore. Victors Gamemaker Rebels The Covey. Songs Songs from District Hunger Games film. Panem The Capitol Academy University.

District 1 District 2 District 4. Songbirds and Snakes portal Policy Blog policy Image policy. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? The Hunger Games. View source. History Talk For other uses, see The Hunger Games disambiguation. This section is in need of clean up and improvement. You can help The Hunger Games Wiki by editing it. I couldn't stop reading. The story kept me up for several nights in a row, because even after I was finished, I just lay in bed wide awake thinking about it.

The Hunger Games is amazing. Sellers June 9, Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved on December 19, The New York Times November 2, Children's Chapter Books. The New York Times. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on Decemebr 19, September 17, Archived from the original on October 26, Scary New World. New York Times. ABC News March 22, Sellers The Latest on 'The Hunger Games'. Publishers Weekly.

Retrieved on Fernandez and Borys Kit Lionsgate picks up 'Hunger Games'. The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on Universal Conquest Wiki.