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• first episode of The Hunger Games (next: Catching Fire)

In a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called the Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill, or be killed.
When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her sister's place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Suzanne Collins was born on August 10, 1962 in Hartford, Connecticut. She graduated from Indiana University with a double major in drama and telecommunications. Today, she resides in Newtown, Connecticut, with her husband and their two children.
Her writing career began in 1991. She wrote for children's television shows. Later, she wrote five books of The Underland Chronicles.
In 2008 was released first of the books from her Hunger Games trilogy - The Hunger Games. This trilogy became very popular and Collins won many awards for the novel. In 2012 was released a movie based on the book.

PLOT:

The story is written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in future in a country of Panem. Panem was established after the destruction of the North America. It consists of a wealthy city called Capitol and 12 poor districts under Capitol's hegemony.

As a punishment for a previous uprising against Capitol, every year there are the Hunger Games. From each district, one girl and one boy between the ages of 12 and 18 are picked by a lottery and take part in the Hunger Games. It is also possible to volunteer, but this is quite rare, because the participants have to fight in a huge arena with forests, fields and lakes until only one person is alive. People from the districts are forced to watch their children dying, to see the Capitol's power.

Katniss lives in District 12 with her mother and sister and they are very poor. When Katniss is 16, there is another public "reaping", where is Katniss's younger sister chosen to participate in Hunger Games. However, Katniss volunteers to save her and she goes to Capitol with Peeta Mellark, who was chosen from boys.

In Capitol, they prepare and train themselves - Katniss can handle a bow, Peeta is very strong. The day before the Games, all of the participants are interviewed and Peeta reveals his love in Katniss. The crowd is excited and makes Katniss and Peeta the "star-crossed lovers".

The other day, the 74th Hunger Games begin. Katniss runs away into the forest, searching for water and food. She survives on her own for a few days while the others are killing themselves.

After a few days, to make the Games more interesting to watch, the Gamemakers change the rules. Now, both participants from each district can survive. This makes Katniss go and find Peeta, who is still alive, but seriously injured. At last, he recovers and they kill their last competitor.

But the Games aren't over yet, because a voice suddenly appears and reverses the previous change of rules, so now they have to kill each other. Peeta wants to sacrifice himself, but Katniss suggests eating some poisonous berries so they will die both. But this isn't what the Gamemakers wanted so they stop them before they can commit the suicide.

This way, Katniss and Peeta both win, but Peeta's leg had to be replaced by an artificial one. After a few weeks of recovering, they finally get back home to the District 12.

MY OPINION:

I liked the book very much. The plot was interesting and catchy, although it isn't a new idea, it was very well written. I read this book in English, with a dictionary of course, and I understood almost everything (except for some idioms etc.). There were many new words, and I started writing them down. In spite of that, I have forgotten a lot of them, but some of them are still stuck in my head, so I don't think it was pointless to read the book.