WTF is "The Hunger Games?"

DG1

from today's KPS?

I even googled it. Is this a book I should have read? (OK, is it one I should know about, since I barely read anything anymore?)

Anyone want to give me a brief summary?

baconsmom

It's a YA series, very acclaimed, that's being made into a movie. It's supposed to be excellent; it's on my TBR list. 

[Deleted User]

It's good. HG is the first book in a trilogy.  It takes place in the future. Children are firced to participte in the HG which are like Gladiator meets Survivor.

2BeMrs.GB

It's such a great book, as is the whole trilogy.  I read the last book in one day, I couldn't put it down.

VarunaTT

I really enjoyed this series.

Each district has to put up one male under the age of 18 and one female under the age of 18 to participate in the Hunger Games that take place in the Capital, for the entertainment of the Capital residents.  The Games are punishment for the revolution of years past, to remind the districts that they lost and to keep them under the thumb of the Capital.  The children are forced to kill each other until only one remains standing.  It's not so much murder-for-all as it is more of a hunting game for each other.  Yes, children die in this novel.

The particular story follows one smart girl and her match up from her district and how they play the game and the government straight up into rebellion.  There is a love story, but the author keeps the actual love story secondary, except how it is used as a tool in the game.  I won't give too much more away on that point.

The politics are completely and utterly FASCINATING in this book.  I'd love to know what sort of political education the author had and the parallels to Nazi Germany and Rome.  However I will say, by the 3rd book, I was ready for it to be over.  I don't think it could've stretched into a 4th book and truly, it could've easily been only 2.

If they screw this up and make the movie all about the love story which is SECONDARY to the political plots, I am going to be FURIOUS.

VarunaTT

Oh, I should state that the home district of the "winner" is guaranteed food, shelter and money through the year of that winner.  In some districts, this doesn't matter, but in a lot of them, it does.  And refusing to fight means retribution back home, from family disappearances to food shortages, so not fighting isn't really an option.