The Hunger Games

Fast paced, exciting plot, strong heroine. I was honestly surprised at how fast of a read it was. There were often moments where I told myself just one more page - so that I'd know what happened. There were moments that brought me near tears. Always give credit when an author gets me to care about characters enough to make me emotional over what happens to them. So in that sense, this book was excellent.

So why not 5 stars? Well...because. Because Collins has a way of telegraphing when the big “moments” are going to happen. You can see when the action and/or emotion starts to increase story-wise in preparation for that event that is supposed to make you gasp.

Because most of the minor characters were so shallowly drawn that they might as well have been posters tacked to the walls of the Hob or trees in the arena. Would it have harmed the story to know Foxface's real name? We know more about Buttercup the Cat than we do about most everyone else.

And because of the world building. Really, I need to learn that when my brain starts nagging me to look up something, I need to tell it to hush. I try, but then my mind picks up on some small-ish detail that I already know to be not quite right and it's off to figure out why. So Panem is supposedly what was once North America? That's a pretty big place. Canada is the second largest country by area in the world. The US is 4th. Mexico is top 20. District 12 is in what was referred to as Appalachia, an area that stretches from southwestern New York to northern Alabama. And yet, there's only like 8,000 people there. Now I'm assuming from the coal mine descriptions and the seasons, Collins is referring to somewhere in Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Still a big area, and yet there's only 8,000 people. Really? That's less than the small town I work in. And all of that supplies enough coal for everyone, everywhere? mmkay. Sure. And I have a bridge in District 13 that I'd like to sell (probably either the Mackinac or the Ambassador. I figure both are the closest to Canada where graphite is mined and the large amount of water needed for anything nuclear, putting them in what is probably 13). Yes, the map of Panem that I was trying to visualize was driving me nuts.

But other than that, I liked it.