The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)

by Suzanne Collins

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be North America. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When her sister is chosen by lottery, Katniss steps up to go in her place.

• ISBN13: 9780439023481
• Publish Date: 1 October 2008
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 26 March 2012
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Scholastic US
• Edition: First Edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[pamela]

So, this series has quickly become my go-to fun, easy read to rekindle my joy of reading. It's not complicated, but it has a lot to say. The characters in The Hunger Games mean something, and they exist in a way that not a lot YA fiction manages to make their characters exist. They all have a sense of lives, and individuality. Every one of them moves the plot forward in a meaningful way, instead of just to prop up a Mary Sue protagonist (which Katniss is certainly not).

The simplicity of The Hunger Games is one of the reasons I think it really works so well. It tackles complicated topics and manages to world-build without being overwhelming and resorting to infodumps. Instead, we experience the world through the characters, and we only know what it salient to the plot and what it's trying to say. As an adult reader I am interested in the politics behind Panem, and how and why people are so willing to accept the central conceit of the Hunger Games themselves, but because that's not how we experience the story, it doesn't detract from the reading experience.

Honestly, this series is genuinely just great. I think everyone should read it, and makes a great introduction to YA dystopia as a genre. It's one of the best examples of it.

[Artemis]

I ended up watching the movie on TV one night and decided I needed to re-read the book. I last read this in 2010, I believe it was the first book on my Nook (which now lives in an growing pile of old technology to eventually give away or discard). This was definitely the best book in the series, it was so unlike the now thousands of YA dystopian series.

I downgraded my overall review to 4 stars instead of 5.

[kiracanread]

Such a great YA dystopian novel. I want to stay in this universe forever, it's been so long since the release of this series but I need more.

[Nessa Luna]

I don't really have much to say other than that I loved my reread of this book and it made me want to rewatch all the movies again. I might go and do that soon when I've finished rereading the series.

[moraa]

Highly enjoyable.
Will definitely reread it soon to remember all the reasons I loved it when I read it years back.
I've never been transported to another world as high stakes as this one and I pray every day for something to top this.

[sstaley]

This was the next book that we listened to in the car going back and forth to school. Now that schools out, we probably won't get through our audio books as fast unless we bring them inside to listen to. I've loved this book since it came out. My son had seen the movie but never read the book. It's been great for him to compare how much better all of the books are than the movies. I've been telling him this for years and now he believes me. Hunger Games still gives you that same thrill and sucks you into the arena as you travel with Katniss trying to outwit the other tributes. The reader on this audio version does a great job. We've been pretty lucky to choose audio books that have good readers. I still give this book 5 stars as it's my favorite in the series. We just started Catching Fire a few days ago. I guess it's time for a road trip!

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!" (Effie Trinket)

It's my second time reading The Hunger Games and I'm still left with a hollow feeling... What an emotionally draining read!

Katniss Everdeen is one of my favourite protagonists. She's brave, cunning and loyal and she'll do anything for the people she loves. She's also manipulative, defiant, unforgiving, anti-social and she doesn't deal with emotions very well. The layers of her personality are slowly revealed with every challenge that she encounters and she's such a complex character.

My older sister is my second mother and best friend and Katniss's love for her little sister Prim is one of the many reasons why I love her so much. Katniss's love for Prim is so evident. She's always thinking about Prim and her kindest, happiest and most sincere moments involve her sister. One of the saddest moments in The Hunger Games is Rue death and because Rue reminds Katniss of Prim, Katniss draws a parallel between Rue's death and the thought of her sister dying.

The District 12 team consists of multidimensional characters. There's Peeta who's extremely interesting and likeable. While I still can't fully grasp Peeta's personality, he's brave, kind and peaceful, but he lies so easily and his humour is self-deprecating. Haymitch seems like an uncaring alcoholic at the beginning of The Hunger Games, but he becomes such an important character. Effie's eccentricity and obsession with appearance and manners bring some lighthearted moments to a serious read. I also love Cinna and his incredible designs!

The love triangle in The Hunger Games is well done. Katniss is more focused on surviving the Hunger Games, she's not looking for romance and her feelings about Gale and Peeta are so muddled. Gale doesn't have a large role to play in The Hunger Games, but I'm definitely on Team Peeta, mostly because he's been crushing on Katniss from the moment he saw her, partly because his personality seems to bring out the best in Katniss and vice versa.

The most interesting part of The Hunger Games are the concepts and themes that the dystopian world of Panem is built on. Witnessing children being forced to murder each other on live television is brutal and shocking. There are so many contrasts: extreme wealth in the Capitol alongside extreme poverty in District 12, a world that's so futuristic and primitive at the same time and death that serves to entertain and threaten.

The Hunger Games is sad, horrifying and utterly depressing, but it's those aspects that make the moments of kindness, heart, humanity and hope so special.

"I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun. (Katniss Everdeen)

[brokentune]

This is a combined review of the trilogy as a whole.

"When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood this would only lead us to more trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts."

I managed to forego reading the books until a few weeks ago when I needed to find some common topic of conversation with someone that I otherwise have little in common with. There is only so much small talk I can bear, and I knew that The Hunger Games was something the other person was interested in. So, I figured I'd read the first book for the silliest of reasons.

What I had not expected was that I adored the first installment and ended up having to read the rest of the series.

What still baffles me is how Collins actually managed to lean on so many existing stories and works of literature and still come away with a story that reads so utterly gripping and original. My initial reaction on reading was to make comparisons to The Lottery and Lord of the Flies and 1984 and every gladiator-themed movie I have ever watched but I soon left these aside to enjoy the story of Katniss Everdeen (Is Collins a fan of the English pastoral as well as ancient Rome?) and the country of Panem just for itself. The literary tributes (haha) became rather fun to look for - like a party game between author and reader - but they did not distract from the story.

So, what about the story?

Well, we have the Katniss and Peeta who are chosen (by lottery) as tributes from their districts to compete against the "tributes" from other districts in a televised fight with with goal to be the last tribute alive and win the prize of ensuring their family's food supply for the rest of their lives. So, again cue the reference to the panem et circenses of Ancient Rome - except that The Hunger Games have the additional twist that they were set up as punishment for the districts' rise against the Capitol some seventy years earlier.

"You get the feeling that the knot-tying class is not the Hunger Games hot spot."

As Katniss and her fellow tributes began the "games", it was very hard to put down the book even for short breaks. The story took on a whole new level as I tried to figure out what motives the different characters had and whether they were trustworthy or not. Yep, a YA book actually had me on the edge of my seat, and by the of book 1 it was not even a question whether I'd read on to find out whether the revolution would win or fail.

"At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it. Well, it’s not hard for Gale. He was born a rebel. I’m the one making an escape plan."

And that's another thing - One of the frustrations I have with books is predictability. Not so here. Nowhere in the trilogy did I get a sense of what the ending would be like. I loved it.

I also really liked the characters: None of them are perfect, least of all Katniss, but that gives them some depth and over the course of the books, Collins gives her characters room to develop and shows the impact of the story on the different personalities - not just the violence and cruelty they are faced with but also the influence of friendships and acts of kindness they witness.

"We’re fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction."

N.B. Catching Fire (Book 2) is the weakest of the trilogy and basically only acts as the bridge between The Hunger Games and Mockingjay. It's still worth reading, but nowhere near as "original" (not using the word lightly given the many references to existing stories) as Books 1 and 3.

[shannonmiz]

While this was my 13th time reading it, 'twas my first time reading it aloud, so that's something! And as always, I have discovered new little things about it. Plus, it was interesting to try to read it "as" Katniss, (even though Sammy hardly paid attention) because she is such my opposite. Good times!

[alindstadtcorbeax]

May 26, 2020

Star Rating: —> 5 Stars

RE-READ ! As amazing as ever.
I loved re-reading this after finishing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I wanted to compare... and it is pretty eye opening.

EDIT: I take back the comments/ questions below regarding Katniss’ motivations (now in brackets) !!!!! Maybe in THIS book there might be a strange slight similarity (though in opposite ways... opposite sides of the struggling of Panem after all), but 3/4 through Catching Fire again...

NO. DAMN. WAY. is it more than that!

Sure, she doesn’t always make the best decisions, but she makes them with good intention & love IMO. God, what I implied might come from Katniss in just two sentences was TREASONOUS, haha !

[ Motivations and all... eerily similar. ]

I still think Katniss is the MC who is more in the right who IS in the right... oppressed and forced into violence... pushing back to right the Capitol’s wrongs— no, a TYRANT’S wrongs, where Snow wants CONTROL, to no end. Katniss wants just & fair treatment for her loved ones, in the districts, & in general.

[ BUT will the books to come create more of a dreaded balance in motivation?]
I don’t quite think so. I have more faith in her than that.