I didn't know about that book until I saw the trailer for the movie at the movies - I thought this would be something I'd enjoy, and I wasn't disappointed. (And the movie is quite nice too.)
Plotwise, in some future, the nation of Panem is divided into the Capitol, where life is shiny and bright and food is nice; and the twelve Districts that essentially starve and provide, each with their specialty: fishing, textile, electronics, mining...
Every year, two "tributes" of each district, a boy and a girl, are chosen to participate to the Hunger Games: put 24 kids in an arena, let them fight to death, last standing wins, and put the whole thing on TV because you can.
In the book, we follow what happens to Katniss, who represents District 12, the mining district.
I liked the book a lot. I got a quite precise image of the universe, without the description to feel annoying or artificial, which I like a lot. The characters were definitely likeable, especially Katniss. The whole story was pretty well-paced, keeping me wanting to keep reading. Of course, in such a book, you have to expect that horrible things will happen and that you will get a fair amount of gory details, but I thought it was the right amount of it - not playing it down to "carebear level", but not so much that you throw the book away in disgust. (Well at least I didn't). So, all in all, very enjoyable, recommended :)