I can count on one finger the times I’ve waited in line for the midnight release of a novel. And that was Mockingjay. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins (Book 1 & 2 reviews) is a masterpiece of pure heart-gripping storytelling. From the very first page of Hunger Games, you’re inside the head of Katniss, a young girl whose only goal is to survive and protect her family. In the Hunger Games and Catching Fire, Collins takes her readers on an emotional rollercoaster in this futuristic world of Paneam – the former continent of North America. In Mockingjay, the stages of revolution are set, and the icon of the...
Book Review: Catching Fire
I indulged this weekend. Rather, I was trapped by this book. Somehow my hands were chained to the hardcover binding and flipping pages madly. I simply couldn’t put it down. So I ignored all other life around me and barricaded myself in my office to read Suzanne Collin’s gripping sequel to The Hunger Games (see my previous post). If The Hunger Games was one of the best books I’ve ever read, I’m not sure how to classify Catching Fire. It surpassed the high standard set by its predecessor, digging deeper into the characters and setting. In this book, nothing is exactly how it seems, and you are left breathlessly waiting...
Book Review: The Hunger Games
Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see. Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in...