One Paragraph Review: The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

I know I said I'd do the Dragon Tattoo next, but I'm still waiting to get my copy of the book back from a friend.  Also, I just finished The Hunger Games and couldn't help but review it.  I thought I'd try not to review the most popular books that everyone else is reviewing, but I can't NOT give my impressions of this fantastically amazingly wonderful book that I just finished devouring. :)

THE HUNGER GAMES is the first book in the latest series by Suzanne Collins.  I'm not going to synopsize the book, since you can get that on any other site about it.  Rather, I'd like to give you my impressions.  The thing that struck me most about this book was Collins's concise writing style.  Many dystopian and fantasy novels these days tend to overflow with words and excess scenes, but The Hunger Games has just the right number of scenes, and they are just the right length.  This style gives the book a quicker pace, along with imparting on the reader the same sense of urgency felt by Katniss, the main character.  Along with the fabulous use of pacing, Collins has written this book in present tense, further adding to the reader's sense of being right there in the action.  And speaking of action, there is plenty of that.  In a story where twenty-four teenagers are pitted against each other in a wilderness arena for the viewing pleasure of the rest of the world, action would be hard to avoid.  Collins manages to weave these action scenes through with heart-wrenching memories and tender exchanges between the characters, which add to the reader's identification with all of the characters, not just Katniss.  I'm a little concerned about continuing on to the sequel, because I feel the love triangle hinted at in this book will bloom into a real plot point in the next one!  I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone interested in some well-paced Young Adult reads, even if you don't normally read dystopians.

Good luck getting it from your local library. ;)  This one is golden!

Stats:
Front to back time: It actually took me almost a week, but my eye surge was in the middle.  Actual reading time was about 1 full day.

Favourite character: I hate to pick the main character, but I totally adore Katniss.  I want to be her.  She's my hero!  Runners up include: Rue and Cinna

Musical Accompaniment: Metric, The Knife, Snow Patrol

Overall Rating: 9/10  Is that too high?  Okay, fine, 8/10. :)  Room for improvement in case the next two books are even better! :)