oldie review - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

(oldie reviews are books that I review a few years after it's come out)

Title: The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Published: September 14th 2008 by Scholastic Press

My rating: 

Summary: 

Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning? 

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

My thoughts:

When i first saw the hunger games series in my local bookshop i thought 'why does everyone love these books?' 
The cover looked too boyish for me and the blurb didn't appeal. I thought they were some kind of cross between artemis fowl and harry potter. So basically not an appealing match.
I didn't buy the books but promised myself i might read them sometime in the distant future.
It wasn't until about three months before the movie was set to be released when my friend Allyson messaged me saying that she had read the first book and wanted me to borrow the second for her from the library that i started to consider reading them sooner rather than later.
I believed her when she said they were great because we have the same taste in books and the next day i bought the whole trilogy from a bookstore and starting reading them.

I am so angry at myself for not reading them sooner as i enjoyed them so much.
The story starts rather slowly and confusing but by about the third chapter i was hooked.
The story races along with funny, charming, and likable ( and also some not so likable ) characters and terrific, heart racing suspense and action.

Betrayal, loyalty, sadness, anger, love, and passion mix together to make an inspiring and wholesome novel.

The Movie trailer:

Buy the book:

From:
Booktopia
Dymocks
Abbey's
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Fishpond
Amazon
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Buy the movie:

Barnes & Noble
Amazon
JB Hi-Fi
Movies Unlimited 
Fishpond
Booktopia

Suzanne Collins:

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The Hunger Games official site
The Hunger Games official movie site

The Hunger Games trilogy:

review - Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither (The Chemical Garden trilogy #1)

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Published: March 22nd 2011 by Simon & Schuster for Young Readers

My rating:

Summary: 

In a brave new future, DNA engineering has resulted in a terrible genetic flaw. Women die at the young age of 20, men at 25. Young girls are being abducted in attempts to keep humanity ahead of the disease that threatens to eradicate it.

16 year old Rhine Ellery is kidnapped and sold as a bride to the son of a cruel scientist who desperately pries Rhine's friend's cold dead bodies open in a failing attempt to find a cure in the cold sterile basement of the mansion Rhine is trapped inside of.
All Rhine dreams of escaping that cruel place with it's endless hallways and it's lies that hide behind the beauty of the place, and find her way back across the country back to her twin brother and her home, as unsafe as it might be.

But no matter how far Rhine runs, all ways lead back to husband she does not love with his three wives and murderous father.

Will Rhine be able to find a way to escape or will she need to learn to love her captor in the little time she has left to live?

My Thoughts:

In Wither, Rhine's character appealed to me - her stubbornness and persistence. I also like Jenna, one of her sister wives, and despite her annoying bossiness I grew a liking towards Cecily, her other sister wife too.

You only get introduced to Rowan, Rhine's twin brother through memories and dreams, but even still, I like him too.

Gabriel is a servant working at the mansion who Rhine develops feelings towards, although I found his character rather flat and two dimensional. Maybe that's just because I didn't get to see much of him, or maybe it's because I vote for Linden (Rhine's husband) to be with her.
About that, I find that Linden is a very troubled guy. His love and loss over Rose, his first wife, clouds his feelings toward Rhine and at times it's hard to determine whether he truly loves her (Rhine), or if he wants to be with her purely for the fact that she looks a lot like Rose.

Despite that, the friendship that develops over the space of the novel between the sister wives and Rhine is the realest relationship for me in Wither. The bond that they have by the end of the book is unbreakable, despite their hatred of each other in the beginning.

Overall this book is incredibly creepy. The story, the writing style (it's exquisite)  - everything about it is disturbing, but that made me love it all the more. I found it nearly impossible to put down, but not just because it's a page turner, but because I found myself feeling Rhine's every emotion - hating who she hated, and missing who she missed.
Each character had their likable traits (except Linden's father - he was one of the creepiest villains ever) and if you read carefully, there are lyrics to life in there.

Buy the book:

From:
Booktopia
Dymocks
Abbey's
Barnes & Noble
Fishpond
Amazon
Powell's Books
Books-A-Million
The Book Depository

Lauren DeStefano:

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On Twitter
On Facebook
Her Blog
Her Official Site

Books in The Chemical Garden trilogy: