The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I thought this would be the perfect book to start my blog with because it is the first book I really fell in love with! I haven't read it in years, and I just reread it for a class and WOW, THE NOSTALGIA. 

There's a bunch of things that I want to point out, so here we go! (Spoilers ahead, obviously.)

First of all, this book is SCARY. It sounds weird, but I kind of forgot that this book is about KIDS KILLING EACH OTHER. And people cheering them on. AGH. Reading the reaping scene for the first time in years, putting myself in the shoes of these kids... it was heart breaking and horrifying. For anyone but maybe the kids from Districts 1 and 2, getting your name picked is a death sentence. And most of the other tributes are portrayed as villains, which makes sense, but they're still just kids that were (for the most part) forced to be there and ahhh, I'm sad. And they only got a few minutes to say bye to their families. And the poor parents that have to watch their kids die! Okay, this is getting sad, I'm gonna move on. 

The characters in this book are great. First of all, obviously PEETA IS WONDERFUL. 😍 I now remember why I loved him so much. He is so caring, selfless, and funny and AHH, I LOVE HIM. And he's smart! He plays everyone in the Games so he can keep Katniss safe (and fights Cato so she can get away, aww) and he figured out how to kill Cato in the end when Katniss couldn't, which was pretty awesome. (And also very sad, because it was like the worst death in the book, but anyway...)

Katniss can be annoying because she gets annoyed with Peeta, which upsets me, but, given the circumstances, it does makes sense. I love Katniss, though, because she is UNBELIEVABLY smart. Everyone talks about how she outsmarts the Capitol in the end, which, of course, is awesome, but she is able to catch Haymitch's signals throughout the Games to get more sponsors, which I LOVED. Also, though there isn't a long list of people she truly loves, when she loves someone, she LOVES them and will do anything for them, which is a great thing to see. And yeah, obviously she's a great hunter and she's super kick-butt and she takes no crap which is also awesome. 

The dynamic between Effie and Haymitch is so fun to watch and I low-key ship it, it's fine. I love their character development, even through just the first book, and it's just great how much they end up caring about Katniss and Peeta. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON CINNA, WOW, WHAT A GUY. I love him. He's great. 

Also, I just feel so bad for Peeta because he's liked Katniss for literally forever and he starts the star-crossed lovers act thing for the Games but LIKE. Katniss knows that she needs to keep up the act to get sponsors so she does all the lovey dovey stuff for the cameras (also she's starting to think that maybe she likes him but she's not exactly sure?) and PEETA DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS ALL FAKE UNTIL LATER, MY POOR BABY. 

Anyway, those are my stream of consciousness thoughts about the characters in The Hunger Games. It was great, I give it 5 stars. 

^^ Katniss looking for Peeta by the river after the announcement is made that there can be two victors