The Hunger Games is the story of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen. Living in a horrible world where, once every year, each of the 12 Districts that make up her country of Panem must send in tribute one young women and one young man to compeate in the deadly Hunger Games, a competition in which the 24 Tributes must fight to the death in a specially designed arena ,and only one tribute can make it out alive, Katniss' sister, Primrose, is chosen for the games. Knowing that Prim will never make it out alive, Katniss voulenteers to take her sister's place. And thus begins her adventure. In the games Katniss faces challenges that can be heartbreaking, life-threatning, or both. As she struggles to survive the deadly competition and the other well-trained tributes that come along with it, Katniss finds her life altered in ways that she never even knew about at the beginning of the book as she is forced to make choices that might save her or endanger those she cares about. Packed with action, suspense, humar, love, and loss, The Hunger Games is a book that will leave you wanting more. Suzanne Collins creates strong female caracters and a world in which the cercomstances are horrible yet beleivable. Her style (first person, presant-tense) lets you really get to know Katniss and the people that she is around. I would reccomend this for any fan of feminist-friendly novels or for anyone who loves action-packed books. There is death and graphic violence, however. But other than that--The Hunger Games rocks! It is also first in a trilogy.