Two Word Book Review - The Hunger Games

Here are your two words:

"Hardy ingredients!"

At first, you might dismiss this young adult story by Suzanne Collins as another Stephen King "Running Man" or just the teenage version of TV's "Survivor".
And you'd be partly right, but you'd be mostly wrong.

Set in futuristic, post-apocalyptic North America, 24 children between the ages of 12 and 18 are pit against each other every year in a televised battle to the death. The winner's district receives... food.

Imagine you are sixteen, your father is dead, your family is starving, and your beloved little sister's name is drawn to compete in the Hunger Games. What do you do?

I took a couple days, reading during my lunch breaks, to get through the introductory chapters. But, once the Games began, I could not stop reading.
Half way through, when Younger Son begged to read my one library-borrowed copy (which I had waited in line for), we fought for it. "You're washing dishes; I'm going to read it!" "You're doing homework; my turn!" "If I go to bed now, can I read it until I fall asleep?"

Easy to read. Hard to put down.
Much like a certain wizard-related series of books you might have heard of.

As I read, I was constantly trying to guess what the resolution would be. With every turn of the page, the possibilities changed. Again and again. In the end, I was wrong.

To tell you more would be to tell too much.

Hope I've whet your appetite for "The Hunger Games".
And I hope they make it into a movie.