“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins

FINALLY, a snowstorm (or two, or three) brings me a chance to read this year’s hottest book (it’s this year’s “Percy Jackson”, which was last year’s “Twilight”, etc). It's easy to see the attraction. A long book (at 374 pages), I sped through it. How could you not? The adventure element is the strongest I have seen in a long time. Much like the television show “24” or the twists and turns of Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”, you simply have to turn the page in order to see what happens next. Set in post-apocalyptic America, an autocratic government has set up an homage to the Roman games. Using the young as symbols of their control, they create a reality TV show each year that pits 24 teens against one another in a death match. If it seems extreme, it is – but Ms. Collins is making a point here, and making it well. She deftly weaves the elements together in a complex pattern, taking a solid swipe at modern-day America and our willingness to leave governmental powers running amok so long as we can find our entertainment at the expense of others. It is both perverse and insidiously substantive. Using teens as the proverbial sacrificial lambs is also perfect – most young adult readers will readily connect with the sense of being thrown into a terrifying arena (the real world) and will easily see themselves and those they know in the varied social types presented. The story is not over-written but the details are excellent … every scene has just enough strokes to make it “pop” with meaning and narrative build. The voice is accessible, but nothing is simple. Katniss, the lead character, is a layered young tomboy with shifting emotions. In true bildungsroman fashion, she doesn’t know much of the world and certainly doesn’t know what to think of it as the wider view is presented to her. Suzanne Collins allows her heroine to take the emotional journey, but doesn’t resolve it, nor pass judgment on it. For this, I eternally thank the author. It is realistic writing like this which makes a clearly sci-fi novel more of an everyman tale. Obviously set-up for a sequel, I greatly look forward to reading “Catching Fire”, although, if it is anything like this book, it will be months before I can find it on a shelf. Well, I just signed up for eBooks … maybe I’ll try it that way. This is a book that stays with you, that you think about after having read it. Needless to say, I want to know what happens next.