Book #14 - The Hunger Games

Delaney has been on my to read this and last week gave me a deadline of next Friday, when the movie comes out. With a quiet weekend night, my wife gone, I decided to dig in to The Hunger Games. After I got through the first 20 pages or so, which set the scene a little slowly, the book got exciting. I read it on and off through the afternoon and evening, finishing it late at night.

It's the future, the US is a wasteland of sorts, but you hear little about it. Instead the country is Pacem, which is ruled from the capital, with 12 districts set up around the area, each responsible for different products. District 12, where the main character, Katniss, is from, is responsible for mining coal. It's a poor community, with many people struggling to survive, and many dying. They live in a fenced in world, where Katniss sneaks outside to hunt animals to ensure her mother and sister can survive.

The premise is that the Hunger games take place each year, with each district sending 2 people (a boy and a girl), to the Capital City. They are filmed (like The Running Man) and must survive across days in a wilderness arena of sorts, and fight to the death. Only the last one survives and is rewarded with riches for life back in their district. 12 has only won once, and a drunken old man is the result. When Katniss' sister is chosen in the lottery, Katniss volunteers instead, and goes with a boy (who has a crush on her) to the Capital.

Most of the book is her wonderment at the strange ways of the rich in the Capital, the in fairness of the games, and then the actual game and the brutality that she endures. She's sure she won't last long, but slowly gains confidence and success. She isn't perfect, is injured a few times and only through the mercy of another does she survive.

It's exciting, and I expect that it will be a good movie. Can't wait for the second book.