Paperback, 480 pages
English language
Published May 28, 2014 by Scholastic Australia.
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 …
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 weight survival against humanity and life against love.
Very engaging; a fun and quick read.
As a huge fan of Battle Royale, I was wary about this book, as it seemed to have a very similar plot and I'd read some reviews to that effect.
Really, the two books are only similar in that teenagers are forced to kill each other. The similarities end there.
While not exceptionally-written, Collins has a very effective way of buliding the suspense and holding your attention very firmly.
The characters are likable enough, though I would have liked some more emotion from Katniss and Peeta, especially when the most horrific killing is happening beneath them.
Overall, however, an enjoyable book and I've ordered the second one.
A dystopian future in which teenagers fight to the death for the amusement of a nation enslaved by a totalitarian government. Yeah, there's not a lot of originality here, but the author makes up for it in plot and pacing. This is one hell of a gripping novel.
This book can be read at different levels -- as an adventure, a nightmare and most interesting of all as a satire and social commentary on the voyeurism of reality TV. I was drawn into the story and found myself rooting for the heroine, only to realize that I wasn't much different from the gruesome TV audience that was watching the action as a sporting event rather than as a horror story in which children are forced to kill each other. This parallel between the reader and the TV viewers places the reader into the story in a way that leads to some provocative
self reflection.
As faddish throwaway young-adult fiction goes, this was surprisingly robust. Yes, it borrows very heavily from Battle Royale, but once it gets going, it's genuinely very entertaining and a nice little palate-cleanser. Looking forward to the two sequels now.
So amazing. That's all that needs to be said. I started crying in the first 30 pages and it just gets better after that. I'm starting the next book in the series as soon as I finish this review!
OMG! Buch des Monats, wenn nicht sogar Buch des Jahres! Eine totale Überraschung für mich. Hab, ehrlich gesagt, gar nicht damit gerechnet, dass das Buch so gut ist. Aber schon nach den ersten 10 Seiten, wusste ich, dass das Buch richtig gut ist.
Die Geschichte ist neu. Sowas gab es noch nicht. Es ist spannend, brutal, tragisch und romantisch.
2011 kommt die Verfilmung raus! OMG! Kann es nicht erwarten! Ich hoffe, dass es auch buchgetreu wird und bin gespannt, wer Katniss, Peeta und so weiter spielen wird.
Buch 2 steht schon in meinem Regal und ist auf den Weg in meine Hände, damit ich gleich weiterlesen kann :)
Auf den letzten, dritten, Band muss ich ja noch warten... oder einfach auf englisch kaufen... wie ich mich kenn, kann ich nicht warten. Vor allem nicht, bei so einem guten Buch.
Wow!
On one level, I really love this book. Katniss as a character is fantastic; she's a survivor, and willing to ruthlessly use herself to makes sure her sister survives as well. The book places Katniss in a situation where she has to use herself mercilessly, eventually placing her in a situation where she is forced to use even her emotions to save herself and those she loves. I adore these sorts of characters beyond all reason.
On another level, this book drove me nuts. The world doesn't make sense. They're mining coal for their power, and yet they appear to have technology to create holograms, control the weather, and repair the human body, advanced from what is possible in our world. This makes me twitch.
This book is in the YA section of your library, and requires me to take back the last ten mean things I have said …
On one level, I really love this book. Katniss as a character is fantastic; she's a survivor, and willing to ruthlessly use herself to makes sure her sister survives as well. The book places Katniss in a situation where she has to use herself mercilessly, eventually placing her in a situation where she is forced to use even her emotions to save herself and those she loves. I adore these sorts of characters beyond all reason.
On another level, this book drove me nuts. The world doesn't make sense. They're mining coal for their power, and yet they appear to have technology to create holograms, control the weather, and repair the human body, advanced from what is possible in our world. This makes me twitch.
This book is in the YA section of your library, and requires me to take back the last ten mean things I have said about YA. It is compulsively readable, and if occasionally simplistic, still gripping and human.
An intense, fast-paced, summer blockbuster of a read. The characters are very well fleshed out and believable--their interactions and behaviors have a certain quality of "truth" to them thus making the story resonate that much more with the reader. This is vital in a book such as this, where kids are tossed into such brutal circumstances it'd be easy to shrug it all off as too "unrealistic".
If you're like me and are a fan of the dystopian type genre, this book will definitely hit the spot. Trust me, you won't be able to put it down!
Enjoyable, if a bit derivative. Will look out for the next one!
The thrills and suspense don't stop with this book! I found the themes refreshingly sophisticated for Young Adult Fiction; identity (gender identity, even!), loss, parental abandonment, political rebellion. This might be because I haven't read much YAF, though.
I'll be getting a copy of the next installment this weekend for sure.
