Twelve days of kindle #12

My final choice from this year's kindle reading is another irresistible trilogy.  I took a long time getting around to 'The Hunger Games', but once I did, it was inevitable that 'Catching Fire' and 'Mockingjay' would whizz straight onto my kindle.  I raced through all three books of Suzanne Collins' compelling young adult trilogy, and then I went back to the beginning and started again more slowly! 

Like many young adult books, especially sci-fi and fantasy, 'The Hunger Games' deals with some weighty issues of politics and responsibility, while also keeping the reader on tenterhooks by putting an appealing set of characters through some major challenges. 

The heroine of 'The Hunger Games', Katniss Everdeen, is a bit of a misfit, but we instantly warm to her when we see how protective she is of her sweet younger sister, Primrose.  It's because of Prim that Katniss ends up as tribute for her district, taking part in the brutal Hunger Games: a televised trial of twenty-four teenagers - one boy and one girl from each district - which only one person can leave alive.  That last point takes on a greater significance as during the games Katniss begins to develop a tentative friendship with Peeta, the other tribute from her district.  Peeta isn't shy about showing his feelings for her - but in the duplicitous world of the Hunger Games, Katniss isn't sure how she should respond. 

It's a tribute (pardon the pun) to the sense of reality and inevitability Suzanne Collins has created in these books, that in writing about them, I kept having to remind myself to explain concepts such as tributes and The Games.  Like all the best stories, once you've read them, or indeed seen the film, they take on a reality of their own.  Katniss and her life will always be part of my mind now, and the world is a more interesting place because of it.