Book Bouncer Review: 'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins

'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins

May the odds be ever in your favour...

When you live in fear, there's not much living. Especially when you spend your teenage years hoping to not be called out for the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games is an event that's held annually by the Capitol, the totalitarian face and voice of Panem (the ruins of a destroyed North America). After a rebellion that happened 74 years ago, and is now referred to as the Dark Days, the Hunger Games is held in reminder of the Capitol's authority, and the grave mistake of ever underestimating it. District 13 experienced the consequences first-hand.

There is no District 13 anymore.

However, 12 districts remain, and each one chooses a male and female tribute to participate in the Hunger Games. Out of the twenty four tributes, only one can come back. Alive.

Katniss Everdeen, citizen of District 12 aka the Seam, was so certain when she assured her little sister that there was little to absolutely no chance of her being chosen as the female tribute of the Seam, given that she was twelve, it was her first time and that her name was entered only once.

So it was like walking straight into an invisible wall, when ironically, Primrose Everdeen was the girl who is picked out. And then in the blur of dreadful moments, Katniss is being taken to the Capitol after she volunteered to participate in the Games instead of her sister. It's worse when she realizes that if she needs to survive, it will mean killing the Seam's male tribute, Peeta Mellark - who saved her from death a few years ago - and losing her humanity along the way. It's hard, when everything is falling apart and there are no real friends around. And trust is a major problem.

Dressed up for slaughter, Katniss is introduced to the citizens of the Capitol, and does everything possible to not let them see a single shred of weakness in her. So she's strong, brave... And on fire.

The Hunger Games was absolutely entrancing, and I'm proud to say that if I ever master archery and am thrown into an arena much like the Hunger Games, I should be able to last two days with all the survival skills I learnt from this book!

What's absolutely funny about this book (and I know it's the whole reason the plot carried out) was that Primrose was chosen, when she had her name entered once, compared to the older kids and their multiple entries. What are the odds?! Obviously, they were not in her favor. But Katniss's valiant sacrifice and honorable motives make her very lovable, even if she had serious trust issues, which was a minor downer. But if I were in her position, I'd be the same.

The citizens of the Capitol and their appearances were very distinctive, and their accents seem pretty cool, from their description. If this was all real, I'd definitely like to spend one day in the Capitol to just see all these fancy dressed, powdered faced people with stressed wording and clueless, overacting actions. I can imagine that right now...

This book was mind blowing, and if you haven't read it, do so now... IMMEDIATELY! And if I could describe this book so that it could create a pretty good image of what happens, I wouldn't really be able to.

So I'm just going to say this: Read the book and you'll initially get the image that I (and poor Tyler Oakley) can't describe perfectly.

THE MOVIE: ...I dislike book-to-move adaptations SO MUCH. They change the entire story or leave out scenes that the readers might like. So it's pretty frustrating. Here's my advice: read The Hunger Games first before watching the movie. This way you won't be confused with the details like I was (I was unfortunate enough to watch the existing movies first before actually picking up the book and giving that a try).

Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne. Personally, I've never seen such a great combination of actors until I saw The Hunger Games movie.