The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) by Suzanne Collins

Format: Audio (BorrowBox)
Read: October 2026

Somehow, despite spending 4 years as a school librarian and reading pretty exclusively YA in that time, I never read The Hunger Games (though I did read many of its derivatives – Divergent, Maze Runner (DNF), The Selection, etc.). I think I tried once on a train journey, couldn’t get into it and forgot to ever give it another shot. Anyway, decided to read it basically because it was available in BorrowBox and it might give me a chance to complete another series for Law of Fives. I had middling expectations and didn’t expect it to be so gripping!

I found myself wanting to listen to it all the time; I even just sat on the sofa listening at one point. I have also been ill with a horrible cold, so laying in bed with it on with a bright spot in a pretty bleak week! It works brilliantly as an audiobook due to its immediate first-person perspective, something that I think is actually used to good effect. The writing style is functional; I don’t think anyone is going to be blown away by the prose, but keeping it simple allows the action to fly, and what a propulsive plot!

While at first you might think that Katniss is a little underdeveloped as a personality when I reflect on her now, I think that this is her character. She’s been in survival mode since she was twelve as the only provider for her family after her father died and her mother had a breakdown. She has never afforded herself the luxury of fun or friends; even Gale is more likely a colleague. Her comrade in survival. She can also be frustrating in how quick she is to anger, seems unable to consider multiple points of view or differing motivations of others; but she is also a teenager with limited life experience, and there is growth by the end of the novel.

Peeta, I thought, was great, and what we had to read between the lines – on the edges of Katniss’s understanding – was very interesting. We can never be entirely sure what his true motivations are, but his ability to understand the game is to be admired, and he appears to be more intelligent than Katniss necessarily notices. I also liked that he is softer than Katniss. Yes, there is a love triangle building, but I think it was well done, and it exists for now in the background of the story.

The setting – which I’m sure everyone knows from how huge the movies were – is a Dystopia post-America known as Panem, where twelve districts are ruled by an authoritarian government from The Capital. One tool The Capitol uses to keep order is The Hunger Games, an annual tournament in which a boy and a girl from each district, between the ages of 12 and 18, are sent to an arena to fight to the death. This first book doesn’t really flesh the world out much but rather keeps a tight focus on the event of The Hunger Games, from Katniss’ POV. There are hints about the wider political situation in the behaviour of some adults (I am fascinated by Haymitch), but because Katniss has only ever known this life, she doesn’t question or think too much about anything. I expect the following books in the series will go into this more.

There are a lot of references to the Roman Empire, most obviously ‘Panem’ and in the Colosseum-like gladiatorial arena and the decadent excess that the people of the Capitol live in while the people in Katniss’s district are always on the brink of starvation. Huge amounts of food are wasted, while her family are literally living off squirrels, and she spends her days hunting. Many of the character names are lifted from Romans, but I don’t think there are direct character references. Everything is surface level; there isn’t really anything of literary depth to get excited about… This is, after all a children’s book, and given that I appreciate that Collins has sprinkled in little breadcrumbs like this for the literary-inclined kids to get started with.

What is most striking to me about The Hunger Games is how it is a product of the 2000s when reality TV and competition shows were really at their height. Public image and building a story for the audience to buy into, to attract sponsor support, is as vital to Katniss’s survival as her hunting skills. Arguably more so. She and Peeta are always aware that they are being broadcast. There was a vicious voyeuristic cruelty to the reality TV of that era that this is obviously a response to, and this is something that I feel hasn’t disappeared; it’s just transferred to Social Media. Now it’s happening on TikTok in comment sections, and if anything, I think it would be a more brutal experience.

In general, I think that reading this as an adult with more life experience, knowledge and awareness of what Collins is referencing allowed me to have a deeper reading than what is actually written. I understand the tactics the government is using to keep people divided, and how they are so effective (and can see it at play IRL). I know that these are children; then 16-year-olds are children, and the 12-year-olds are babies; it’s abhorrent! Realising that Katniss doesn’t seem to be able to accept kindness from her community without needing it to be a transaction. I can imagine Katniss within her world beyond her own POV and recognise her mother’s trauma, why Haymitch might be how he is, and how the other adults must view Katniss supporting her family (people aren’t kind just because they love Primrose so much). If I’d read it as a teenager, I think the nuances would have escaped me. As an adult, I can see what might lie in the space that Collins left.

So while The Hunger Games lacks depth in what is on the page, it has undeniably got something compelling and opens up bigger avenues for thought and conversations. The way Collins balances simplifying her adult themes down to a digestible format for a young audience, without necessarily losing any of the potential, and having it be incredibly readable is honestly very impressive!

I look forward to reading more in the series.

(Final note… Peeta is a baker’s son; tell me he wasn’t named after “pita” bread? There was something about the way Tatiana Maslany, narrator, said his name that made me start to believe this!)

Law of Fives – this is the first in a series and a book from 2000s.