The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

        The Hunger Games was an okay book. Not bad, but not a classic, either. It had a lot of gruesome scenes of violence that I guess were supposed to alert you of the appalling horrors of Panem, but I just thought it was overdone. It is a pretty effective tragedy that is fairly likely to make you tear up a little bit if you are the kind of person who does that.
        The story begins in the coldly named "district 12" in what is left of America, which is known as "Panem". Katniss Everdeen has to resort to illegally poaching to keep her family from starving to death. Every year, a boy and a girl from each district (there are twelve) is taken and put into a cold fight to the death in an artificial biosphere against the other 23 children.
        Overall, this was a pretty good book. I would say that this is definitely not for the faint of heart, as it does have some surprisingly sad portions within the gruesome, yet strangely interesting games.