The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Children's Books, 2009

First impression:
The first warning bell went off when I saw Stephenie Meyer's name on the cover saying this book "is amazing". The sole reason why I opened it in the first place is because I'd heard from a more reliable source that it was, but I'm not won over and doubt that I will be. The idea is interesting enough, but the quality of the text is uneven, the narrative one-sided and the descriptions shallow. It is very noticeably a book for inexperienced or possibly even reluctant readers, requiring little cognitive effort to get through, but for that very reason I'm determined to do it.

Review:
I wasn't charmed, did not find the characters lovable or the portrayal of any of the events very captivating. What kept me reading, I believe, was the fact that cliffhangers were inserted at regular intervals, however I found that the absolution of most of the impossibly critical scenarios tended to rely on variables that the writer just happened to feel like introducing at that point. I will still grant Collins that the underlying concept is a good one, but even the initial choice of a first-person present narrative set the odds against her as the reader is bound to know from sentence one that the main character is going to get away unscathed. I won't be too harsh, however, as I realise the book is aimed at a younger audience, who, I'm sure, would enjoy it.

Rating: Decent