The Hunger games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

You hear about this book everywhere you go.  It's one of the staff picks at your local book store, you see people reading it in buses, and yours truly wont shut up about it.  Of course, its' the Hunger games.

One of the first books I reviewed for this blog was The Hunger games and it has taken the Ya book world by storm, and it isn't calming down yet.  Although the last book, Mockingjay was released (Auhust 24th 2010) you can believe that the Hunger games train has just departed from the station.

With a legion of fans and a movie in the works, the Hunger games has gotten all types of readers, thirsting for more.  The books appeal to everyone, and I mean everyone.  People of all ages and genders can't get enough of Katniss' and District 12.  The books recieved high praise from Stephenie Meyer and Stepen King as well as amazing reviews.  It's not some sappy love story or book about blah-blah-blah.

But everytime I write something about the Hunger games, anywhere I'm always given the question "Well...what's it about?  And what makes it so good?"
That question gets me going for hours.

Katniss Everdeen lives in a post-apoctolyptic world.  There are 12 districts where most of the citizens live in poverty, including Katniss.  The power strung the government, named the Capitol, has complete control over everything.  Including the Hunger games.  The Hunger games is an annual event where one boy and one girl from each district are chosen to fight to the death.  There will only be one survivor, and in the meantime, every citizen of the Capitol and all twelve districts is watching, as if it were a cartoon.  The purpose of the Hunger games is for the Capitol to show that no one, incluing children, are above the Capitol's power.

Collins manages to sew in bits of violence, science fiction, action, romance and even some gory details here and there without confusing the reader.

I've already expressed my love (yes, love) for the first two books but I have yet to talk about Mockingjay, so here I go.

Mockingjay was...Mockingjay was fabulous!  Good God, I haven't read a book that got me thinking like that in a long time.  I actually felt something with Mockingjay, and I'm not talking about the grinning contortion I do with my face after I read a book.  I mean, staying deep in my thoughts post-reading.  Just thinking about these books.  After I turned the last page of the book, my mind was reeling, I wondered what would happen later on, what about the other characters?  And in some part of my mind I realized that it was over.  The Hunger games is a trilogy and nothing more.  That's it.
And I got really sad after that.

I was so distracted, thinking about these books for the next few days, I stopped reading allthogether because I "lost the will to read".  I know, over dramatic but yeah.  But like many other avid fans, I didn't find the ending satisfying enough.  It was a bit anti-clamactic.  But that was what we needed wasn't it?  Collins gave us a realistic ending, to calm us down after all of those missions and explosions and what not.

Of course at some moments the book becomes unbearably sad, characters we've become attatched to die and as usual, things don't go as planned.

But it's safe to say Collins makes up for it by her unique story telling abilities.  The woman knows how to write!  She criss crossed the story line, turning it into a completely different plot.  But all of this was for the best.

Good God...the Hunger games is just.  Sigh.  It isn't just a book it's...one of those books you only get to read every now and then.  I though that instead of just writing a review for the books, it deserved a bit more than that.  Maybe some background info, so you'd know what the books are really about so that you could do the judging for yourself.

And I don't mean to overhype the book, which is exactly what I'm doing, I'm just trying to let you know about how I feel about the book.  This is of course, my opinion.  I'm sure that there is someone out there (who may be somewhat mentally disturbed) who didn't like the Hunger games at all.  But I'm not one of those people, I thought it was...right.  The only word that comes to mind is right at the moment.  It's something we should be reading in classes, since it can appeal to everyone even though it is being narrated by a 17 year old girl.

It's a book that is masochistic and raw but it is still innovative and sweet.

Dang, I made this post about 4x longer than it should be.  Well readers, now you know my opinion on the whole Hunger games trilogy.  If you haven't guessed, I loved it.

Here is a little art work done by my friend Nicole.

You can check out her other art work here and the actual image here.




- The Moody teenager