The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This is a book that I had heard of quite a while ago, bought, and it has sat on the shelf for months, until....Bekah was assigned it for her summer reading. While she was at the beach last week with a friend, I decided I would have to read it and finish it before she came home, which I did. At first I balked at the author's writing style. It is choppy, elementary, not very creative, and I just didn't care for it at all. Never having read anything else by the author I don't know whether the style is intentional or not. It could be a different way to describe the main character.

I finished it lickety-split because the story grew in interest, and I just wanted to know how it would end. The world, or the US in particular, has evolved into a totalitarian state where the President is a dictator, thug, and controls the peoples every move. He rules from "the Capitol" and life is abundant there, although, as in 1984, Big Brother is watching you. Their are 12 Districts that surround the Capitol. They are all involved in some form of commerce that they are known for; coal, agriculture, etc... The farther away from the Capitol the more meager the resources are to feed and clothe your family. The story revolves around a 16 year old girl who has lives in District 12, has lost her beloved father in a coal mine accident, and has taken on the role of protector, and provider for her mother and her 12 year old sister.

Every year the poorer families have to submit their children's names to a lottery, every district does the same. Once a year every district draws a name of a boy and a girl between the ages of 12-18 to go the Hunger Games Competition that is televised all over, and watched compulsively by all. The 24 children are put into an artificial arena and must fight to the death. The President does this to quell rebellions, and mentally keep people in line. The main character, Katniss, has taken the place of her 12 year old sister Primrose, whom she loves very much. Katniss is a hunter and that becomes her strategy to win in the arena.

Having taught ancient Roman history, it greatly resembles the Roman empire. The Emperor and Rome had an abundance of resources, although 3/4 of the people were slaves, yet the farther you got from Rome the more desperate the people were just to exist on a daily basis. The author uses Greco-Roman names throughout the story for the people that live in the capitol, but whether this is her intent, I don't know. The jacket cover says that she wants to show the ravages of war on young adolescents, but being the political animal that I am, having studied totalitarianism, communism, and every other "ism" it shows the wrong headedness that comes from NOT fighting for freedom. It also shows the inhumane way that a society such as Rome treated it's subjects, subjects of the State. That is before Christ came and literally changed everything. Christianity chipped away at the State treating people, individuals as made in the image of God.

I am now reading the second in the Series; Catching Fire. Will tell you how it turns out soon. Just looked on Amazon and the third and final book in the series is coming out August 24.