VVMBookBlog

Panem is the name of the country that has replaced the United States and North America due to the devastating effects of war, famine, drought and fire.  It is divided into 12 districts and the Capitol.  Every year two young people, male and female, between 12 and 18 are chosen by a lottery to go to the Capitol to compete in the Hunger Games–a fight-to-the-death competition that all of Panem is forced to watch using Survivor-style camera work.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss, accustomed to using her hunting and gathering skills to get food for her fatherless family, volunteers to take her younger sister’s place as the female member of her district’s team.  She joins Peeta, the son of the baker with NO obvious survival skills, to go to the Capitol and prepare for the ceremonies leading up the the actual competition of the  Hunger Games.

Books like this don’t give us a very pretty picture of what the future might bring.  The word used to describe these miserable conditions of life is dystopia–the opposite of utopia or an ideal, perfect community.  It’s disturbing to think what would ever make it okay for adults to allow young people to be treated like that.  It’s also disturbing to see how some of our reality TV shows now could approach what happens in the Hunger Games.

A lot of suspense, even a little romance!  And LOTS of build-up for what will be Book 2 of the trilogy.