One of those crazily persistent Amazon suggestions kept showing this book after I bought my Kindle 3 and I finally gave in. The next morning, bleary eyed from lack of sleep and with a full understanding that I wasn't going to get much done on my Christmas vacation, I bought the other 2 books in the trilogy. I can't say that I read them so much as I absorbed them into myself. So, even though there are over 1200 reviews here to read, I simply have to add my own.

Our story revolves primarily around a teen girl named Katniss, but includes many secondary characters of great vividness and depth including two teen boys, Peeta and Gale. These youngsters are from District 12 in the country of Panem; a future version of a collapsed United States. Being the final District in 12 total, her district mines coal as it's primary duty and life is exceptionally hard and brutal there. Unlike more advanced districts that make luxury goods or electronics, there is not enough food to really thrive and Katniss has been providing for her diminished family through poaching the forbidden forrests for years.

Panem, probably a shorter version of PanAmerica, experienced an uprising in the districts some generations back. As a result, District 13 was destroyed and made inhabitable and each of the remaining districts placed under terms of brutal submission. A reminder of this submission are the Hunger Games. These twisted annual games require that each district select 2 children, a boy and a girl, by lottery who are "tributes". In the games, they fight to the death in a specially erected environment.

This short description doesn't even broach the surface of it, really. Like today's Survivor or Ancient Rome's Gladiatorial games, there is intense competition in the Capital to have a more elaborate environment or compete for the best costumes at the opening ceremonies. All of this trite competition completely overlooks the basic hard fact that these children are going to be forced over days and weeks to kill each other. The more gruesome and horrible, the better they love it. And the environments themselves are dangerous, with many dying slowly of thirst or hunger or eaten by animals. The Gamemakers throw targeted horrors at them to keep things interesting and moving along on top of all that.

Katniss, as you might imagine, winds up in the games by volunteering for her younger and more gentle sister. It is she and Peeta, a boy who once saved her life and the life of her family with a single act of compassion, that now compete in the games in which only one of them can hope to survive.

While the games are certainly a focus of the book, the story artfully blends the life of District 12, the whirlwind leading up to the games and the game itself into a comprehensive whole. The masterminding of a strategy with an old drunkard winner, Katniss and Peeta leads to the romantic struggle as well. You become at once a member of the audience and the invisible rider on Katniss' shoulder, urging her on and forward throughout the book.

I genuinely enjoyed the story, which is taut and entirely original and can't imagine how this is geared towards teens other than the use of words below a certain grade level. In truth, the use of words works with this story in a way that using complicated words seen in "adult reading" books would not. Katniss would not resonate with the reader nearly as well.

There are two further books in the trilogy and both of those are equally highly recommended. I only suggest that you buy them all at once or be sure your Kindle is ready to receive before you start this one. You won't want to stop at the last page.