Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Plot: Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love. (Summary from goodreads.com)

First sentence: When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.

Cover: Whereas the Swedish covers (both hardback and paperpack) are incredibly boring and never would encourage me to pick up the book, I find the US cover very clean and appealing. It definitely draws me in.

My opinion: It was long ago that I was so hugely engrossed in a book. I really could not put it down, and I finished reading it in less than two days. Last night I thought I'd just read one or two chapters before I going to sleep, but it was impossible to stop. Those one or twos easily turned into ten. Although I decided that the current chapter is where I stop reading for tonight, it was impossible not to continue, because there were such cliff-hangers at all times. As you already understood by my ramblings I really lijked the book, which may seem strange because it was about a dictatorship that forces its young to kill each other on the air. But it was very, very exciting, albeit unpleasant. Naturally, it was a large measure of social criticism in the book. How certain privileged have everything while others have nothing. The death and suffering turns into entertainment. But although the book is dark, violent, sad and hopeless, it is also full of friendship and even some love. CAN'T BE MISSED!