Thursday, June 25, 2009

Dying for a good read?


I know I'm not the first to plug Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, but I'm sure I won't be the last. Like everyone else who's read it, I can't help but share what I loved about it.
In an effort to keep myself well-read, I'm going to try to do this every Thursday. Suggest a book and give five reasons to read it. Nothing spoilerific, obviously, but just to nudge anyone who might be on the fence. So here it is, the first ever:

Five Reasons to Read this Book; The Hunger Games

1. For a heroine that guys can relate to just as easily as girls. This is rare in YA, IMO.

2. For the little details that just stay with me: Katniss, the girl who was on fire, the bread from District 11, the costumes, the muttations... I still see them as if I'd been watching the Hunger Games myself on a television screen.

3. For the great balance of internal and external motivation and conflict the MC experiences from the beginning of the book, all the way to the last sentence. I felt sympathetic to Katniss immediately. And I had tears in my eyes at least once a chapter.

4. For being quite possibly the most intriguing dystopian novel I've read in years. The societal separations were way too believable. Scary. This book immerses the reader in a world both foreign and familiar. Which makes the things that happen there that much more believable...

5. For its masterful use of first person present. So good I only noticed the immediacy of the story, not the tense itself.

I hope I've managed to lead some potential readers to District 12, lol.
Other Hunger Games lovers? Feel free to add your own spoiler-free reasons to read this book.

Next week, Dust of 100 Dogs, by A.S. King.

4 comments:

Rebecca L Sutton said...

I'm so happy you loved it too! I fell in love with this book this month too, after waiting way too long to read it when I had it on my desk. I agree with all your reasons to read it. I'm dying for September to come when the sequel comes out!!!

Abby Annis said...

Bought it and started reading it yesterday. It's really good so far. I'll let you know what I think. :)

Rebecca Knight said...

I finally convinced my husband to read it so we can talk about it ;)!

My favorite thing about this book is that she could make a situation that might turn Action-Movie-esque in the wrong hands and make it terrifying and realistic throughout the story. That takes skill.

I was hooked, and like you said, Tere, the immediacy was all I noticed of the tense.

Fantastic writing all around :).

prophecygirl said...

Great list. The Hunger Games is amazing!