So I Read the Hunger Games.

Since there was a big media shit storm, and young adults are losing their ever loving minds, I decided to read The Hunger Games. Since the last book I read in this genre that young adults were losing their ever loving minds for was Twilight, there was really no way this could be bad. (That was sarcasm.) I didn't really know what the book was even about until a heard a synopsis on the radio. Teenagers killing each other in a gladiator arena? That sounds awesome! Have you ever had to spend time with a teenager and haven't wanted to pit him or her against each other in combat after hearing them whine and complain about stupid bullshit?

I know right?

But I digress. Here's a standard spoiler alert, because I am going to tell you how this bitch ends. YAR HAR AHEAD CAPTAIN THAR BE SPOILERS!

I have to say the writing in this book was pretty good... for the first three pages. It had the grim spare quality that I have come to associate with set-in-the-future-dystopian-world. Then it dissolved into just spare. Let me put it this way. I can't picture what the main characters house looks like, or what their town looks like. I have no idea. But I know exactly what everyone was wearing at all times. Yeah. I had a great sense of the people, but no sense of how they fit into this world.

So mostly it was a sense of characters walking around big blank white spaces that would have elevators, trains, and hover cars in them.

So the story follows whiny teenage number one, um, what's her face. Katniss. That was it. Right from the bat I knew where this story was going. No mystery there. It was a little disappointing. I knew she was going to get picked for gladiator time, and I knew she was going to win. How? Because all the main characters in the entire goddamned book tell her she is going to win. And she wins. But there is a least a twist, in that her companion, whiny teenager number two, ah, er That Guy, falls in love with her during gladiator time. Which is pretty awesome multitasking if you ask me.

Except she does not love him back.

Which is awesome.

The ending, or I should say, the lead on into the next book was pretty good. But here's what really got me, the book in set in Appalachia. You know, the place where I live. So that was interesting enough to keep me reading. Although yet, again, she doesn't describe it very well.

So I dunno. I would recommended this to a young adult before their parents figure out that it's about government sponsored gladiator combat? Probably. For that age group I think this would be a fine read. For adults? I don't resent the seven bucks I spent on this book, so take that as you will. But if you love teenager on teenager combat- that's not the porno kind- then this book is for you.

If on the off chance you were reading this to see if the book was inappropriate for your child, I would have to tell you that it's probably fine. Except for that bit where Side Character gets stabbed in the stomach, or the bit where they turn all the dead competitors into mutant werewolf things by stealing their eyeballs and then setting them loose at the last three survivors, or the bit where the mutant wasps sting everybody and they all have horrible trippy hallucinations from the poison that makes them relive terrible memories from their past and think that the dead bodies are crawling with horrible green slime. Other then that it's totally fine.

Totally.

You should read it.