Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I love to read. 

I love to get lost in a good story.

I love feeling like I know the characters, and what stirs them.

So, I had a recommendation to read The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

Theresa wanted me to read it so we could go see the movie when it came out in March.

OK.

why not. 

sounds interesting.

I put my name on the waiting list for it at the town library.

Title: The Hunger Games

First in a Trilogy.

Author: Suzanne Collins

Target Audience: Young Adult

Fiction

North America in the future. 

Not how we know it. 

It has been destroyed and now all that's left is The Capitol City and 12 districts.

The Capitol has the money, the food, the clothes, all the pleasures of life. 
it rules the 12 districts. 

each district has it's own specialty.  Coal, Fabrics, Fish, Trees....etc.
They send all their goods to the Capitol. 

They are guarded by Peacekeepers, they are fenced in, with electric fences. 

The people live in poverty. 
The people starve to death. 

The people have to give one young man and one yong woman (between 12-18) to fight, to the death, in the televised Hunger Games each year. 

If one of their fighters happens to stay alive and win they are a Victor and the Victor's district receives extra portions of food etc. each month for the next year. 

Why do they send their kids to fight to the death? 

The Capitol does this each year to remind the districts of their power and how the districts (formerly 13 of them) attempted to revolt one time, only to see number 13 completely destroyed, and the others into even harsher submission. 

Keep the power where it belongs.. in the Capitol. 

The Hunger Games is reality Television at it's worst. 

The Capitol residents love the hunger games, cheering for their favorites to win, and cheering when the others die, usually in bloody fights. 

each district sends one boy, and one girl. 

Katniss is the girl for district 12. 

the district that mines.

She volunteers when her 12 year old sister's name is drawn. 

it's her sister's first year with her name in the draw. 

Katniss steps up to save her sister. 

She will fight in the Hunger Games. 

The book is about Katniss. 
She lost her father in the mines at a young age. 
She cares for her mother and sister. 
She is a hunter, in the woods around district 12. 
She hunts illegally, her father taught her how to use the bow. 
The Hunger Games is her story. 
She is strong, but feels weak.
She, along with everyone else in the district, hates the Capitol, and that they hold these games every year.  but she will be a part of it, she took her sister's place, and has promised that she will win and come home.  She needs to do everything she can in order to stay alive. 
Peeta is the boy from District 12.
Can she kill him when she needs to?   

and then go back home and face his family. 

This book had me within the first couple paragraphs.  I liked Katniss.  She's hard, but her life has been hard.  I think Suzanne Collins has written the characters very well.  even the ones who only appear for a short time.  

There were descriptive killings, but not overly, and not disturbing. 

Enough to understand what had happened. 

It's a story about Love: for family, for friends.

It's a story about strength.

it's about fighting against Big Brother.

it's about standing up and being proud of yourself.

i love to read, and i'm glad that i read this - in 2 days.  

Suzanne wove a gripping tale.

i'm glad my friend recommended it - it lived up to her praise.

i just finished the second book Catching Fire, in another 2 days of reading. 

and have my name waiting for the third one MockingJay. 

if you dream about the books you read i don't know if i'd recommend this to you, you will want to stay up reading it.  but you may dream about the deaths, and that may not be so fun.

I am looking forward to seeing this in the theater.

Papa John vs. Big Cat

In September my dad ran the Terry Fox Run with me. 

At that time we had no idea that Cancer was stalking him.

i say stalking because that's how i see what it is doing.

unfortunately, in some people cancer ravages them.

cancer grips a hold and tears apart.

it destroys and kills.

in my dad the cancer is a lion.. a panther.

it is slowly, quietly stalking him.

deciding how to destroy him, but biding it's time.

it had already began scratching at his tonsil

it had made a place of rest in a lump in his neck.

it is circling, patiently.

if you have ever seen a cat, large or small, stalking prey

that is how i see the cancer in my dad.

it has not ripped, torn, shredded.

it is stalking him...

waiting for the right time to lunge, to attack with full force.

believe me, even a stalking panther is dangerous.

it's quiet and light on it's feet.

it is stealth.

it is killer waiting to happen.

thankfully my dad has attacked before it had the opportunity to lunge.

his chemo and radiation end over this next week. 

then we'll see if the cat is killed or just tranquilized.

i pray it's dead.

because i don't want it to wake up mad.

More on my dad's cancer see: my mom's blog