Stanislav: The Hunger Games

Zaprianov, Stanislav

Began reading- 10 0ctober 2010

Finished- 12 october 2010

Title- The Hunger Games

Author- Suzanne Collins

Copyright date-14 september 2008

Number of pages- 374

Genre-Science fiction

The book is set in post-apocalyptic North America. After disaster stroke people began to fight for land and supplies and after the fight the country Panam was formed. It consists of 13 districts, each doing a different thing for the country and a capital named Capitol, where the people who formed the country live. But the people in the districts leave very poorly and after time this caused a big uprising. To extinguish it the Capitol annihilates the 13-th district and since that once every year the hunger games are being held. For the games to be held they take a boy and a girl between the age of 12 and 18 from each district, put them in a place (it could be from desert to a swamp), which is different for every games and make them fight each other, while filming everything. By doing that they are trying to show the people that they can destroy them whenever they want and there is nothing that can be done to change that. The last participant alive is the winner. The book is set at the time when the 74-th hunger games are held.

There are two main characters. Both of them from district 12. The heroine is called Katniss and she gets in the hunger games to save her little sister named Prim from participating. The main male character is Peeta. They are very good main characters. What I liked about Katniss is the self-sacrifice that she does for her little sister knowing that the chances of her surviving the games are very little. I liked Peeta because he has a good character and is determined to prove that he isn’t controlled by Capitol. My favourite and most important supporting character is Haymitch, who is the only one person from district 12 who has won the games before and has the task to coach the two participants in the weeks before the games start. Another group of supporting characters are the other participants, but just 5-6 of them are important and you wouldn’t understand how they are important unless you read the book from cover to cover. Another supporting character who is worth mentioning is Gale who is Katniss’s best friend and about whom she has mixed feelings. The two main characters have background together, but explaining everything about them would ruin the fun if you decide to read the book and would take at least 2 pages. Somewhere around the middle of the book to make the games more interesting the Capitol introduces a new rule which says that if two participants from the same district are alive at the end they both win the game, but after the main characters manage to survive to the end the rule is removed so the capitol could make a big show for the end of the games. Katniss and Peeta aren’t able to kill each other and in sign of protest they try to kill themselves by eating poisoned berries. In the end the Capitol stops them just before the berries enter their mouths, in fear of being defied and humiliated, by the district 12 participants before the whole country Panam. The book’s story is very interesting and i hope it will stay that way in the second book which I am going to begin reading tonight (I already began reading it two days ago).

I liked the book very much. It has a little from everything (from romance to action) and it is in just about the right proportions. The story was great and it ran very smoothly, I never found myself stuck on one part and every time I was curious about what was going to happen next. Another good thing about the story that the character relations are very complicated and the book gradually unfolds them. What else can I say? The book had a compelling story and great cast of characters. If you ever get the chance read the book (don’t mind my simple explanation of the story, it’s pretty complicated actually)