The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games. It would seem that this book has received a lot of hype, most of which I seem to have been oblivious of. However, I have fancied reading it for a while as it struck me as interestingly more dystopian than most of what I may catorgarise as 'easy reading' texts. Thus when the dreaded question came round of what I wanted for my birthday (I can't be the only person who hates asking for things)I suggested this.

I should probably point out right now, that even though I am a girl, I don't realy like chick lit novels. I will go out of my way not to read about a woman who is struggling in her life, meets a perfect man and suddenly, with a few predictable hiccups all is resolved. So when I heard about this book; dystopian future, violence games, machievellian leaders, I thought perfect a little light holiday reading! Yes, I know I'm weird!

So I settle down, I start reading and three hours later, I look up and I've finished the book. It was addictive. That kind of addictive where you know that it isn't good for you, but you keep on reading. I thought it was written in an engaging style, the first person narrative could get a little annoying but over all, I though it was well structured. The pace was fast and the book felt well balanced between action and descriptive passages. The one point that I would make is that when a book is written in the first person it does kind of kill any tension that the author is trying to create about the uncertain future of the main protagonist!

This book is a lot like a box of chocolates. It's good when you begin, but then it's so addictive you keep on eating, way past whist is good for you, so once you've finished you feel more than a little sick. In fact it's so addictive that once finishing I ordered the next two books in the series just so I could find out what happened! My need to know was so great.

This book belongs firmly in the young adult genre, now there is nothing wrong with this, I am guilty as anyone as wanting a little easy reading from time to time, but for some reason this time I was left wanting more. As with many young adult novels, I felt that some of the characters were horrifically underdeveloped. I was left craving a fuller picture of this world, the why, why, why questions in my mind were just not answered and I really wish they had been. I am left hoping that the next two books in the series can fill in some of the gaps that I felt were left in the picture of the world presented in this one.

All in all, an addictive read, but thus far there are too many questions left unanswered. I can only hope that the next two books plug some of the gaps. I think what I really wanted was the concepts of this book transformed in to a fully fledged and developed 'adult' novel which I could really get my teeth in to.