The Hunger Games: Movie Tie-in Edition - Dystopian Adventure Novel for Teens & Adults - Perfect for Book Clubs, Gifts & Movie Fans

As I write this review there are now 1,756 reviews already posted; which is a lot of reviews when you think about it. I seriously doubt if I will be able to add one thing in my little effusion here that has not already been said but since it will soon be buried and will probably never be read by another human I suppose that will not matter much.Anyway....I have to tell you that like many folks here I was absolutely hooked on the first page and went through torment when I had to put the thing down in order to eat several times and to sleep once. I cannot remember when a book captivated me so.The plot has been given a pretty well going over here so I will not dwell on that much. The story, as told through the words of a young girl, takes place in a future totalitarian society; America, after things have gone horribly wrong. There is a place called the Capitol which pretty well runs everything and the country has been broken up into twelve districts (There is a thirteenth district but in this book it has been supposedly completely obliterated.) Because these districts had, 75 years ago rebelled against the Capital, they are required to give up two of the children each year, a boy and a girl. These kids are taken to an arena and forced to fight to the death until only one is left. The people in each of these districts are treated like slaves and for the most part are simply starved or worked to death in the end.That in brief, is the essence of the story.Is this somewhat brutal? You bet it is. Is this somewhat horrifying? Most certainly. Is the story plot realistic? Unfortunately, yes it is...quite believable. And this is why so many are reading this work and the two books that follow in this series. The author has done her job. Most of us are horrified and most of us do see the brutality in the situation and most of us deplore it. To be quite frank, I would quite worry about someone who was not horrified and a bit disturbed.I have some random thoughts about this book:The writing is good. We are not talking high literature here, and thank goodness for that. We are talking about a well written story that, after reading the many reviews here and on other sites, holds the readers interest page after page. Excellent plot, excellent dialog, lots of action, very fine character development...it is all here. Maybe it is not to everyone's taste, but it most certainly satisfies the reading needs of a lot of folks...both young and old.The premise of this story is certainly not new. Right off the top of my head I think of the old story "The Lottery," and a more recent novel by Stephen King, "The Long Walk." Both are similar but this idea is no worse the wear for being used again and I really think this author got it better than King did with his shot at it.Designating this work as a YA book is really a bit inaccurate as the age group who will enjoy this thing has a very wide range and in many ways the book is more suited for the adult reader than the pre-teen. I personally would have no problem with a younger child reading this thing, but each child is so different that this would be a hard call to make. I do have a great problem with those folks who seem to want to ban this work from school libraries...that is one of the silliest things I have ever heard of. Folks who want this have no clue as to what their children are reading right now. I recently read three YA books by different authors. In those three books there were vivid descriptions of vampires sucking the blood out of the necks of virgins, (and a goodly number of non-virgins), blatant and casual recreational drug use, sex, group sex (a cool thing to do, by the way), gang rape (no big deal), infidelity, murder, robbery....oh where to stop? I can assure you that none of these subjects were addressed in this book. No folks, our libraries are no longer filled with `Little House in the Big Woods' books...it is more like `Little Meth House in the Big Woods'...truth be told.The concept of having a drawing to decide which child (ages 12 through 18) be sent off to fight to the death is upsetting to be sure. On the other hand, does anyone here remember a thing called The Draft? We have been sending children, and make no mistake, an 18 year old is still something of a child, off to fight and die in wars since the beginning of so called civilization. This concept of not putting children in harms way has never held much water. During most of our previous wars we had children, young men, as young as 15 fighting and dying in them.The author has done a very nice job with the violent scenes. They are well done, not gratuitous in the least bit, are an important part of the story and not overly graphic when compared to a lot of books that are on our shelves today.Taste in books is wide ranging. This book will not be for everyone. I personally found in one of the better reads I have had over the past ten years are so and am already on the third volume of this series and dread that it will soon be over.Don BlankenshipThe Ozarks