The Hunger Games Trilogy

Yes, I finally caved!  After over a year of my daughter telling me to read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and after my granddaughter, son-in-law, and daughter-in-law read them and told me the same, I finally did it!  For all of you out there who have either said or felt that it just isn't something that you care to read, I say TRY IT!  I thought that the book was amazing.  I know that the premise sounds awful (and it is), but the book is wonderful.  I couldn't put it down, and flew right into Catching Fire, then Mockingjay.  There are great moral lessons in the stories, and I am still thinking about the different events, even though it has been a week since I finished all of the books.  They are books that will stay with you and make you think.

For those who don't know, The Hunger Games takes place in the unknown future and is about Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl.  Katniss lives with her widowed mother and her younger sister somewhere in North America.  The land is divided into Districts, with the capital of all the Districts being the city of Panem.  Katniss and her family live in District 12, where the primary work is coal-mining.  Katniss, and her friend Gale,  hunt to help provide for their families.  Once a year, a "reaping" occurs in each of the twelve districts.  A reaping is where a boy and a girl are chosen for the annual Hunger Games.  When the reaping takes place in District 12, Katniss' younger sister, Prim, is chosen.  Katniss steps up to volunteer to go in Prim's place.  There is only one winner of the Hunger Games (out of the 24 children chosen), resulting in the death of the others.  The Hunger Games are watched and  presented on TV to the Districts as a sort of reality show.

From one review that I saw on the book, I learned the following:

"Suzanne Collins notes that the roots of her book date back to an early fascination with the myth of Theseus, when as punishment for past deeds, Athens had to send seven maidens and seven young men to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur. The message, she said, was clear to her even as a child: 'Mess with us and we'll do something worse than kill you. We'll kill your children.'"

I know, I know...it sounds awful...believe me, I resisted as long as I could, but I am so glad that I read the books.  They were really that good!  My daughter knows of that which she speaks!