With its prestigious title as one of the 2010 Rosie books, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins fits well in my list of the best books that I have read. It lives up to the high expectations held due to people’s personal reviews and its receiving a Rosie award.

In a future civilization called Panem, constructed upon the remains of America, a dictatorial government rules over the twelve divided districts. Starvation ravages some while others live without a single worry. In the poorest of the districts, district twelve, Katniss Everdeen, a strong willed girl, gets entangled in the Hunger Games. These games are a trial in which one boy and one girl from each district is randomly selected to fight to the death, reminding the people of all of Panem how life would be in the event of an uprising.

The idea of an evil future civilization that has too much control over its citizens is a somewhat common way of critiquing parts of everyday life. The Hunger Games provides a possible world that doesn’t seem too far off from that of today, thus making it even more entrancing. The novel presents ideas of government with too much power and other futuristic extremities that illustrate injustices in today’s world.

As for enjoyment of reading the novel, it stacks up to titles such as Holes, Harry Potter, and The Tipping Point. It was seriously tough to put down with its mixture of violence and a love story that forms around the Hunger Games. This combined with cliffhangers that come together perfectly in crucial parts of the books models how good writing should look like.

The writing is flawless, with the author’s words seeming to poor directly into the reader’s brain, which is very rare in a world of poorly written young adult books. The final verdict on the book is that it will effortlessly keep anyone entertained from the first word to the last, reading the way an enjoyable book should. Rosie’s again done a great job of picking them. By Jackson Whiteker <[email protected]>