Book review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Warning: Contains spoilers.

When I first saw Harry Potter, I was tickled because the initials were HP and when I saw this book with the prominent HG caption behind Katniss, I was, you guessed it, tickled again.. Love it when I see my initials on somethingspectacular.. LOL!

This is the first book I've read of the author so I didn't know what to expect. I was reading some books but not really getting too excited with them when a good friend of mine recommended it. As soon I started reading, I literally had a difficult time putting it down.. I wanted to finish it in one seating and if I wasn't playing a responsible adult who needs to go to the store to buy food or wake up early to go to work, I definitely wouldn't have to put it down.. I was inside the arena.. I was surviving with Katniss.. I was in the Hunger Games..

On to the book then, wow, and I mean WOW! Here I was a tweet I sent when I first started reading it:

The book takes place somewhere in the future (although I think we can safely say that the difference between the lives of those in sector 12 with those in the Capitol is evident everywhere in this time and age). The book then lets us know of how it is in their world - the poverty, the yearly Games, the constant struggle to put food on the table, the fears and the hardship. Katniss & Gale are in their teens but were made to grow up because of the circumstances of their lives. They're expert hunters and from the onset you can't help but admire their capacity to keep on fighting to survive.

When Kat's sister Prim was picked as this year's tribute to fight in the Hunger Games, Kat volunteered, which was not unheard of, but definitely rare. Who wants to fight in the Hunger Games where you have to outlive 23 other tributes (two tributes, a male & female, are picked for every district) to win? Kat surely didn't want to but she had no choice, she loves her sister too much and she won't be able to watch Prim go through something like that (yes, the Games are televised and is compulsory watching). So in the end it was Kat and Peeta who goes to represent District 12.

Kat remembers Peeta from one of the darkest periods in her life and she feels indebted to him and knowing Kat, she just doesn't like that feeling of owing somebody something. This is made harder because Peeta is nice and Kat knows that if they're the last two tributes she'd have to kill him to win. So she tried to keep her distance. However, their mentor Haymitch seems to have developed the strategy of making the District 12 tributes stand on a united front. Did this work? Please go and read the book to find out or wait for the movie to come out next year.. :)

The book is action packed and while I've outgrown reading teen romance novels, I loved Peeta, haha.. I was as torn as Katniss was between Gale and Peeta but I think Peeta is a much better choice. While he may not have struggled as much as Kat and Gale, he has an innate sense of survival and even though Kat didn't realise it earlier, he always had Kat's back, getting bitten, stabbed and almost dying trying to keep her safe. I think Gale would have done the same if he was in Peeta's place and if from the start the tributes worked as a team, he would have volunteered for the Games when Kat volunteered (or maybe he won't, who knows..) So yeah, I'm team Peeta, hahaha..

I have to say that I admire how the author has described their world vividly, how her words have captured my imagination and made me see and feel things through Katniss' eyes - her pain, her struggles, her inner strength. It's always nice to be sucked into a different time and place and feel that you're right smack in the action - there I was running with Kat, dodging fireballs, sleeping on trees, knowing what berries to eat and while I don't like it, trapping animals and eating raw eggs (or was that raw fish? both?).

The main characters had depth and they're not irritating because there was a balance between the good and bad.. You know their flaws but it doesn't turn you away because you can relate to them and empathize. They're expected to be brave, mature and strong but beneath all that is a vulnerability that is all the more endearing. The characters supporting the three mains were also believable, particularly the depressed mother, the drunk mentor and the sweet sister, even the dad that has passed away but is alive in Kat's thoughts..

And of course the relationships - Kat & Prim, Kat & her mom, Kat & her dad, Kat & Gale, Kat & Haymitch, Kat & Cinna, Kat & Peeta and Kat & Rue.. That brief but meaningful friendship has brought tears to my eyes. It wasn't in the same level as Harry & Dobby, which makes me cry everytime, but it was still out there.. It was touching and it was poignant..

Long after I've finished the book I lay thinking how I'd fare if I was thrust in the same situation as Kat. Will I be as resourceful? How about alliances? Being thrust in that kind of situation, you can't help but find an ally and then what happens when it's just the two of you left? How could you consciously kill someone who's been a friend? Your only hope would be that something else kills your opponent, but is that something you'd also wish on a friend? That's what made the book compelling for me.. The debates you'd constantly have with yourself, the arguments you're sure to have with your conscience (if you're like Kat & Peeta and some of the other kids and not like the other tributes who are called Career Tributes). You survived but at the cost of somebody else's life, how can you live with yourself after that?

When the rules were changed, I cheered, even though I knew there was a possibility that it might get changed again. In the end, the two tributes from District 12 were left standing. Peeta, of course, asks Kat to finish him off but Kat had other plans.. Without meaning to, she stood up against the Capitol and made her own rule, one that made both of them win but earned her the scorn of the Capitol. Add to that is the fact that Peeta realised that Kat did all that for the cameras, not really loving him as he loved her.. Can't this girl who's been through so much ever catch a break?

I can't wait for the next instalment in the series.. Til then..