The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I’m away from home for six days and I brought The Hunger Games along with me, presuming I’d be busy and therefore not have to time to read it quickly. My first night away and I’d already dived in. The next morning, I’d finished it. I didn’t even realise I’d read through the night until the sunlight was streaming through the windows. My immersion was ruined once throughout the entire book and I’m pretty sure that was because I’d been up for so long.
It’s difficult to find fault with The Hunger Games. It’s a truly vivid story, full of loss, hope and betrayal. And more loss. Actually, if the title hasn’t tipped you off to the amount of misery contained in these 454 pages, then listen well when I say, there’s a lot. And yet, despite that, there is always hope. Collins weaves a sturdy tale but it’s her protagonist, a mix of strong nerves and humanity, who really steals the show. If you fail to engage with sixteen-year-old Katniss, there is something wrong with you.
Here’s the basic premise. It’s sometime in the future, America. There’s one huge city, called Capitol, and twelve other smaller cities that circle it. The smaller cities, known as districts, rebel against Capitol, but they lose. Their punishment is the Hunger Games. Two children from each district, from the age of twelve to eighteen are chosen at random and have to enter an arena, to fight to the death. The last child standing gains their life and extra supplies for their district for the year.
I can’t really tell you any more than that without ruining some of the plot. (If you really want to avoid all spoilers, don’t read the blurb. It gives one of the first events away.) But the premise interested me and Collins’ writing delivers what that premise promises.
I suppose if I had to come up with something about it that I didn’t like, it was that I immediately wanted to go out and buy the next one. I can’t. I’m not close enough to a book shop and it’s half six in the morning.
It’s not often that I read a book I enjoy so much, I cannot find a single thing I thought could have been done better (other than, y'know, sellotaping the second book to it). And I view that as a good thing or these reviews would be incredibly difficult to write.
So, not only do I recommend you read The Hunger Games, I think you should read it right now. Yes, this very second. Go on.