The Hunger Games

Now, we all know how much the Borders Capitola team LOVES The Hunger Games, but I thought it'd be appropriate to post an actual review of it... =)  Enjoy Jax's take.
~Aimee


Title: The Hunger Games
Author:  Suzanne Collins
Genre: Young Adult
Overall Rating: 5/5

I think it is appropriate that I begin the my reviews with this book, since it is potentially one of my favorite books of all time. I recommend this book to everyone who likes a good story, especially if they like the sci-fi or post-apocalyptic genres. The plot is sort of hard to sum up, but it's basically about this girl who sacrifices everything to save her sister in a world where the Capitol controls every aspect of her life. She ends up fighting in the Hunger Games (a book title in the book itself? OMG we are so clever!) which are gladiator games but with children who fight to the death on T.V. For entertainment. Yep, darkly delicious!

This is one of the darker young adult books I've encountered, the writing is fantastic and the world very believable. The main character, Katniss, is the most pragmatic female teenager I've ever read. She has little time for self-esteem or romantic issues, because she is too busy trying to stay alive. She's smart, tough as nails and definitely not cuddly, but she is also very real. Thanks to her father's death at a young age, she has many a trust problem, and a few other faults, but Collins gets points for having the issue not be annoyingly "girly". They are real issues, with a real person who doesn't cry every ten minutes that is trying to deal with them. This is the only book that everyone who I've met who has read it liked it, and everyone at my store loves it. Do yourself a favor this year, and pick it up.

Problems with the book include how dark the series is, because let me tell you, this stuff is DARK. It's first person POV, so the cast of characters who stick around and are interesting is not very large. I'm a big fan of secondary characters, but beyond the two boys in her life, (yes, I know, another love triangle, what will they think of next?) there isn't a lot of fleshed out characters. I'm still wrestling with how I feel about the last book in the series, but that's a discussion for another day. 

The worst thing you can feel about a book is apathy, so if you have an opinion, please feel free to share what you think!
~Jax

Staff Member of the Week! ~*James*~

James is a bookseller who just recently started at Borders Capitola and loves Taylor Swift.