Mini book review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I'd been waiting for ages to read The Hunger Games - very popular at the library - and took it with me on vacation last week. I tore through it, loving it, this suspenseful, fast-paced, violent blockbuster of a post-apocalyptic YA novel, and when I finished, thought, "I'm so going to love writing a review of this book."  But now I find I don't have much to say about it, other than I'm looking forward to the other two books in the series and am also looking forward to the movie adaptation.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen is a great character: tough as nails because she has to be, yet vulnerable because she's yet only a girl; smart and adaptive to her world but often oblivious to the feelings of the people in it.  Brave and loyal, broken and battered, she's a wonderfully flawed heroine, fighting for survival in a vicious world, the ultimate reality t.v. show, The Running Man for the modern age.  Other characters are less fully developed, but that may be because the story is told from Katniss's point of view and her focus is on killing/not getting killed.

So that's all I've got.  I fear there is more murder and mayhem ahead for Katniss and Peeta, and heartbreak as well.  I'm on the waiting list for Catching Fire - hopefully I'll have more to say about the second book.  And hopefully I'll like it as much as I did The Hunger Games.