My Review, The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have to be honest, when I first started this book, I was appalled at the idea of games. The Hunger Games are pretty much a fight to the death betweeen 24 mostly, poor, starving teenagers to show the power of the "capitol." The Capitol apparently took over 13 districts (one that was destroyed) who all had a certain specialty (like mining), but were kept poor and under control(scare tactics). The games are pretty much modern day gladatorial games and the idea of that almost made me put down the book, but as an educator I persisted. Once I hit the part that was highlighting the games, I could not put the book down. I wanted to see how things played out. I am glad that I prevailed. Yes, the idea of the games are still appalling but I liked how Ms. Collins played out the story. I am currently reading the next one in the trilogy, very curious how things are going to play out.

I like to look at the content in the back of the books and see the extra stuff that is usually added and Sara Collins added her purpose for writing the book. The purpose for her writing this book was to shine light on how war effects the impressionable youth. This book is similar to The Giver and in Atlas Struggled,in the way that, the stories are a bit extreme, but the senerios are interesting. In this book in particular, it is the youth who take on the post war pressures ,literally. They are to provide for their struggling families and in doing so they increase their odds of being thrown into an arena and fight to the death once a year. So not only are they to provide for the family but they are also at risk to have to go to "war" and defend the name of their district.

There is so much more I have to digest in this book because I know that it is chalk full of symbolism. It is very well written and I doubt that I have even scratched the surface of what this book has to offer. This is the eppitomy of good literature, the author has a reason behind her story and she has put into detail her thoughts in the form of symbols that I really want to take time to dig into. AMAZING. I hope that the rest of the trilogy is as well written as this first book.


I am curious though, what age group would this book be recommended for? It's content isn't real gory, like she doesn't focus on the gore, but on the characters reactions to it. But I am really not sure if I would encourage a child under 13 years old to read it. I would defintely put it up for discussion in a High School Classroom.



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