May the Odds Ever Be in Your Favor

As many of you know, I am an avid reader and lover of books. Earlier this summer, I have vowed to read more books and I am happy to say that even though I am not reading as much as I would like to, I am reading more than I usually would in college. Though I have read some books in between my last book review, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I have decided to write a review on a very popular craze, The Hunger Games.


The Hunger Games is written by Suzanne Collins and this book finally provides an interesting storyline away from magic and vampires. I will not give too much away, but I will make some references to about what I feel the book is like. The Hunger Games is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which there is no states or cities, but everything is broken up into districts. There are thirteen districts and the Capitol. The Capitol is the centralized government that leads all the other districts. However, the districts rebelled because they were being oppressed and unfortunately they lost. Through the chaos, District Thirteen was wiped out and there lay only Districts One through Twelve. Furthermore, in order to remind the Districts who is in control
of their little lives, the Capitol created the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games gathers two "tributes" from each district, boy and girl, to enter the Capitol into a battle arena, in which an all out battle royale is taken place. These twenty-four tributes from the ages of 12 to 18, I believe, must fight to the death until only one is proven to be victor. Everything is recorded live as entertainment for the Capitol. And so, it is during this dreadful, inhumane society do we first meet our protagonist, Katniss Everdeen.


Now on to my review of this trilogy. I have to say that it is once again a nice change from magic and vampire books. Personally, I do not think this trilogy is the next Harry Potter series, but I do believe that this book is a lot more interesting than the Twilight series. The invention of the Hunger Games is pure genius to me and I give props to Suzanne Collins for coming up with an elaborate and intricate new world with new rules and traditions.

However, there are some flaws I see with this book. First, is the writing of this book. The writing of this book is very simple and probably not beyond a middle school reading level. However, I feel as though Suzanne Collins noticed the criticism she was getting with her writing and started using a lot more complex vocabulary in her last book, Mockingjay, which is fine but with the way she writes it feels as though those words are forced into the sentences instead of flowing with the sentences. Second, the ending of this trilogy is way too rushed and I had to re-read parts of the last book several times to understand what the heck is going on. Then also, this ending felt a little too Candide by Voltaire for me. I don't want to give the ending away so if you read it, I think you'll understand what I am saying. Lastly, I feel as though Suzanne Collins was too focused on plot twists instead of the character development in the last two books. There are some holes in the plot that doesn't make sense to me, but for the sake of finishing the book or for the sake of the plot twist making sense it needs to be there.

Overall, I feel as though the Hunger Games is a great book and is very interesting. You can't help but fall in love with some of these characters and empathize with these characters. However, as a trilogy, I do not know if I would give it such great marks, but the way the book is written, you have no choice but to read on. Therefore, I recommend reading this book and please drop a comment if you agree or disagree with my views on this book.

Also, I can't wait for the movie to come up in the summer of 2012. Here is the trailer~


"Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to...to the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games."

-Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games