Post-apocalyptic young adult fiction.
In what appears to be a sadly degraded eastern United States, the capitol city of Panem holds a tight grip on the residents of the twelve districts. One of the principal tools is the Hunger Games, a bread-and-circuses event in which each district is forced to send two "tributes" -- one boy and girl in their teens -- to participate in a days-long fight to the death. The winning tribute and his or her district will be showered with extra food and glory for the next year.
No one from District 12 -- one of the poorer districts, corresponding roughly to present-day Appalachia -- has won the Games in years, and 16-year-old Katniss doesn't think much of her chances. But she's got experience living off the wild, and stronger survival skills than even she realizes.
I liked the first half of the novel the best; Collins does a very nice job of setting up the world in which the Hunger Games take place, and of depicting the elaborate preparation that the tributes go through before the Games begin. The story flattened out a bit for me once the Games actually began, and especially once Collins threw in a deus ex machina rule change that drastically changes the story from one of survival skills to one of emotional conniving. (Her brief attempt to undo her own deus for a cheap emotional thrill is an even worse mistake.)
Still, Katniss is a well-developed character, and the story is entertaining. The Hunger Games is Book One of a larger story, but Collins doesn't leave us completely dangling at book's end; there are plot lines and character developments waiting to be developed and resolved in the next volume, but the principal storyline of this volume does come to a satisfying end.
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