The Hunger Games

I read this in about 3 days and enjoyed it a lot. It was like a drug and real life was put on hold whilst I tore through this novel.  It was exciting, entertaining, disturbing and frivolous all at the same time. It's written for teenagers and did bring out the latent teen gene within me!

 The idea behind the story is fantastic.  It's set in a post-apocalyptic world where America has been split into 12 districts. these districts then send two of their teenage kids off to fight to the death in a reality TV outward bound adventure world gone mental.

The premise of this is so brilliantly obscene but 'Lord of the Flies' it is not! Characterisation is minimal. It's action all the way...my problem was that I felt like a member of the despised rich district; a person who was addicted to watching/reading about what the hell was going on. So when a kid died I didn't feel particularly upset because I was just completely driven onwards by the action.

It was a totally addictive book and I loved the way it subtly mocked the American Army and the horrors of reality TV.  But I finished it over a week ago and to be honest I can't remember any of the characters anymore.

I loved it when I read it, but it was a bit like eating a massive meal, enjoyable but you feel a bit bloated afterwards.  I think that's because it's target audience was 14 and I'm 40!