A review by analenegrace
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

How do I review the most pivotal book of my childhood? I actually have no idea. The Hunger Games is one of the most impactful books I've ever read, and I often say it's what radicalized me because it made me think about the world critically for one of the first times. While I have read the books many times, I haven't done so since high school, so this reread is the first in at least four years, but the book stands up even to an adult reader, in my opinion. Katniss's inner monologue is genuinely so well written, and divisive; she is by no means a perfect character or one of the typical YMCA heroines; she's complicated, she's a little mean, and she never meant to start a revolution. 

 

Reading this, as an adult, I was able to think more critically about the romantic relationships in this book, and the series as a whole, than I was ever able to as a teenager, and it made me able to see both Gale and the Katniss/Peeta relationship in a new light. But it also made me more appreciative of Suzanne Collins's fantastic writing. There is thoughtfulness in every line; everything means something. It was a hard book to annotate because I just wanted to underline everything. I used this reread as a reflection, because I'm so familiar with the series, to look at this book as the first in a series and see the fantastic world-building and hinting towards the future of the series just in this first book. 

 

It's hard not to compare this book to others in the genre because The Hunger Games is simply so much better than the others. It is violent, and Suzanne Collins is dedicated to showing the genuine terribleness of the universe she created, and eventually of war. There is nothing like The Hunger Games.