After North America was destroyed, the people who remained founded a country called Panem. It consisted of a capitol city and 13 districts. The districts rose up against the Capitol's harsh treatment but lost the war. To punish the residents of the districts and remind them who held the power, the Capitol founded The Hunger Games. Each year, one young man and one young woman from each district was selected to participate in the hit reality TV show where only one of them would walk out alive. That is, until Katniss Everdeen enters the arena and ends up inadvertently becoming the Mockingjay, the face and inspiration of the rebel uprising once again seeking to bring down the ruthless, dictatorial authority of the Capitol.
I am close to giving the trilogy an 8 but I'm not quite there. My favorite was the second book, Catching Fire. That may be because I already had a general idea of what was going to happen in the first book but I wasn't really sure where she would take the second. For whatever reason, I didn't feel the emotion I should have during the first book. I would give The Hunger Games 7 stars, Catching Fire 8 stars and Mockingjay 7.3 stars. Somehow that averages to 7.8. Lay off, math wizards.
They are easy to read. All of you could read these in a day or two if you had nothing else to do. They are interesting enough that they're worth reading once. They are very violent but not in a disturbing, creepy way where you feel like the author is just trying to make people queasy. The story would fall very short if it weren't extremely violent simply because of the material it deals with. However, I think the author does a good job of tying in not just the outward violence, but the inner psychological struggles and interpersonal relationships.
And thus ends my brief foray into fiction. Now I'm off to keep reading Steve Jobs' biography. G'night.
