The Hunger Games

In the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy, sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in a post-revolution, used-to-be-America made up of twelve dystopian districts now known as Panem. Every year the ruling class of the Capitol picks one boy and one girl from each district to fight to the death in a televised event called the Hunger Games. Worst of all, the Games serve no real purpose. They exist only to show the districts that the Capitol still controls the fates of everyone in them, including their children.

When Katniss’s younger sister Prim is, against slim odds, chosen for the 74th Annual Hunger Games, the motherly Katniss immediately volunteers to take her place. She is whisked off to the Capitol to try to kill 23 of her peers, including one boy who once saved her life. The story follows her trek to and through the Games and includes a love triangle that, though only a minor subplot in the first book, ultimately makes the Edward-or-Jacob dilemma of Twilight look like a child’s parody. You live the Games right alongside your heroine, in all of her moral, physical and societal quandaries. The writing is fast-paced and full of surprises, right up until the twisty ending.

Katniss is complex and fascinating, somehow both a role model for strength and honor and a case study for the moral imperfection that lives inside all of us.

The Hunger Games audiobook was re-recorded as a special edition in 2018 to celebrate the book’s 10th anniversary. The updated version is narrated by Emmy Award-winning actress Tatiana Maslany, who does an amazing job. The earlier narration by Carolyn McCormick received mixed reviews online, so make sure you get the Tatiana Maslany recording.

Although the premise of child-on-child violence is quite disturbing, the book itself is not. Collins deals with the violence graciously, with only enough gore to illustrate the horrific nature of the Games and of their puppetmasters. Don’t let the premise deter you. This is an audiobook that’s not to be missed!