The Hunger Games

I finally got around to reading this series...I'm sure you've heard of it?!

To be honest, I wanted to see what all of the hype was about! It was all I heard about for awhile so of course it made me interested.

My Aunts got me the entire series (there are 3 books) for my birthday back in April.

And I just finished it about two weeks ago.

Yes, it took me that long.

The reason?  Work, house, two kids, summer time....enough said.

Typically what would happen is that I'd read a lot in a short number of days (when I started the first book, I read 150pgs in 2 nights) then wouldn't touch it for a week or so.  Each book is close to 400 pages too, but they are very quick reads.

These are young adult books (think Twilight) so like I said, they are quick reads. And each  chapter tends to leave you hanging and wanting more.

I don't want to get too much into the details, because if you haven't read them yet, you should! 

The plot of the book is that it is set in post-apoctolyptic North America.  The nation is known as Panem and there is a Capitol (wealthy) with 12 surrounding districts (poor). The Capitol controls all of the districts and every year they hold The Hunger Games.  The Hunger Games were created because of a previous rebellion of the districts against the Capitol, so this is how the Capitol "punishes" the districts every year. The Hunger Games is where a boy and a girl  between the ages of 12-18 from each district are selected by lottery to compete in a televised  battle to the death until only one person remains....that person is the "victor".

The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen, a 17yr old girl from District 12 and is told through her eyes.  You basically follow her through the "reaping" (the Hunger Games lottery) and the Hunger Games.  This leads into book 2, Catching Fire, and book 3, Mockingjay.

I will say that I was a bit surprised that this is a young adult book. My 11yr old cousin read this for school and I was shocked by that. I mean, a book about kids killing each other? I will say that some of the scenes are pretty graphic too so that's why I was surprised by it.  But, to each his own.

I really enjoyed the first two books of the series.  Book 3 was good, but different. I don't know how to describe it, but everyone I know that has read the series agrees with me-book 3 moves differently for some reason.  Personally, I think there were a lot of characters to keep straight at that point and they all have "odd" sounding names. So for me, it was hard to keep track of who was who and eventually I just gave up and kept reading. I also think book 3 was more political/governmental in feeling which sort of bores me. Of course I was itching to see how everything ended up so I had to keep trudging through!  And I'm happy I did because I thought the ending was really good.

I do suggest reading these if you get the chance. I'm usually not a sci-fi reader, but these were good!They definitely held my attention and like I said, they keep you wanting to read more.

Unfortunately I haven't seen the movie that's out yet, so I'm anxious to see how that is compared to the book. Hopefully I'll be able to see it before I forget too much of the plot!

So....have you read the series yet?? What are your thoughts? Have you seen the movie? How did it compare to the book?  Do share!!