A review by bbrassfield
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

4.0

I rather liked it. The second time through. For whatever reason the first time I read it the novel barely registered and I came away from the experience wondering what all the fuss was about. I didn't even bother to pick up the second novel in the series. And then the buildup to the film began and suddenly I was bombarded with imagery and quotes from the Hunger Games. This served to perk my interest and I originally thought to begin the second novel but as soon as I did this I realized I remembered little about the first novel, save for some key plot points at the end. So I went back to the Hunger Games ostensibly to pick up some detail here and there but as I started (again) at the beginning, I found myself compelled by the story in a way I never was the first time around. Not-so-long story short: I really enjoyed this novel during read number two and unlike someone close to me remarked, I feel the novel strikes all the appropriate notes of horror at what is actually happening despite its being marketed to a young adult reading audience. Katniss is sixteen summmers old at the time the story begins so perhaps older young adult. Regardless, the book paints a compelling portrait of a dystopian world that really isn't so very different from our own, even if the author's prose falls more to the pedestrian side of the writing scale. The world she builds, however, is anything but and I eagerly devoured the second novel like a tribute being scooped up by a mutt.