The Hunger Games

So I finally read The Hunger Games. I resisted reading it for a long time because it was getting so much hype, and in my experience things that get much hype are often very disappointing (cf Titanic the movie, Twilight, etc.). Plus I hate to feel like a lemming. But a friend at work loaned this to me on Friday, I finished it Friday night, and now I'm sorry I waited so long. It's well-written, fast-paced, tightly plotted and really grabs your attention. The competition between the "tributes" is interesting enough; the addition of the commercial aspect -- the need to "sell" themselves, to get sponsors, the fact that sponsors can make or break one of the competitors -- results in a disturbing sort of reality-show-on-steroids. It's like The Most Dangerous Game meets Lord of the Flies meets The Running Man.

For me, the three most memorable scenes were ( spoilers! )

The book does leave a few unanswered questions, such as the nature of the disaster that resulted in the fragmentation of the US, how the Capitol managed to gain so much power, and how humanity has managed to decay to the point where pre-adolescents offing one other comprises acceptable prime-time entertainment on a par with, say, the World Cup. But with a YA book you can't really expect to get complex politics or social commentary (though given the way Kat has foiled the powers that be, there might be more in the sequels).

I can't say that the individual components of the story are original, but this is a novel combination of them, well put together, and Kat's an interesting and sympathetic protagonist. Looking forward to the other two.

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