'The Hunger Games' and 'Catching Fire' by Suzanne Collins - Book Review

Brilliant. Feverishly addicting. For those suffering from withdrawal from the finales of Harry Potter or Twilight, here is your chance to discover a trilogy pulsating under the radar. The Hunger Games and its sequel, Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins are both worth reading in a stop-whatever-else-you’re-doing-and-consume-these-in-48-hours-or-less type fashion. That’s what I did. So hurry. Mockingjay, the final chapter, comes out soon. (This review was written in anticipation of the 8/24/2010 release of Mockingjay).

The world is Panem, a nation both futuristic and medieval. There are 12 districts specializing in various forms of society production -- mining, agriculture, technology, etc. -- ruled by a totalitarian government in The Capitol district. The leaders watch and manipulate everything through filtered media, scientific experimentation and military force. Every year The Capitol hosts The Hunger Games, a brutal nationally televised competition where a male and female teenager from each district has to compete. 24 enter. The 1 survivor wins and The Capitol maintains control through fear until the next Games.

Katniss Everdeen lives with her mother and sister in District 12, illegally hunting in the woods outside their small mining town’s parameters so her family can survive starvation after the loss of her father in a mine explosion. When her sister is chosen for The Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place and enters the Games with a boy who helped her survive one dark winter in the past. And now she has to kill him and 22 others.

The main theme of The Hunger Games Trilogy is how suppression, war and hunger take their toll on the young and how the young, with courageous and unhardened hearts, in their lives and in their deaths, can spark a society to change. Collins works magic in the world of Panem, revealing humanity’s worst inclinations to fear and be feared and how determination, sacrifice and love can conquer even the greatest empire of evil.

The Hunger Games introduces The Capitol’s regime and what Katniss must choose to do to survive the Games; Catching Fire takes her back into the ring with the fate of all the districts in the balance. The Hunger Games is perfect in introducing us to a beautiful array of characters and how this society works. Catching Fire reveals the darkest hour and what it will take to tear this society down. What will Mockingjay bring? I can’t wait to find out.