Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games

Every so often a book comes along that I simply can't put down. If I *must* go to work or leave the house, half of my brain is still stuck inside the book, reliving scenes, thinking about the characters, wondering what will happen next. It probably should be illegal for me to drive when I'm in the middle of a book like this.

Kevin and I read The Hunger Games last week and were both so absorbed that we let the dishes, bills, and laundry pile high while we attended to the more important business of finding out how Katniss and Peeta were going to escape almost certain death at the hands of the Capitol.

I have to say, on the surface, the premise of this story sounded ridiculous. It took some convincing to get Kevin to read a book set in a futuristic, post-apocolypitc world where each year, 24 children are thrown into a televised Colosseum style fight-to-the-death (yes, actual death) as a form of entertainment and fascist control. Seriously. But somehow, Suzanne Collins manages to craft this story so well that it grips you within the first 20 pages and never lets you go.

I won't say any more because I don't want to ruin the story, but I will give you a warning. The ending of The Hunger Games is such a cliff-hanger that you will be forced to go out and buy the the sequel (Catching Fire) in hardcover whether you want to or not. Kevin and I broke down and bought it this weekend. Which means that I'm only writing this with half a brain right now. The other half is busy worrying about a certain huge decision Katniss has to make that could seriously endanger the life of her sweet little sister Prim! In fact, I have to go now...

p.s. If you want a more thorough and detailed review, you'll get a great one at Fuse #8 where she (as usual) gets down to the heart of the matter and says everything just right. I especially enjoyed the paragraph where she describes the way "this book throws a big fat wrench into the boy book/girl book view of child/teen literature."