The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was definitely a page turner that kept me in suspense from beginning to end. It combines elements of 1984 and the idea of “big brother” with the reality television shows of today. The book takes place in the not too distant future and features a boy and girl from each of the twelve districts that comprise the combined governments of the new world order called Penam. The twenty-four contestants are placed in an arena and forced to fight to the death. The winner gets…to live. While in the arena, the adolescents are viewed by the rest of the country as they struggle to stay alive in their proudest moments and in their most undignified. The manipulators of the game have the ability to control aspects of the weather through technology in order to create adverse conditions for players making for a more suspenseful show. Technology works against the characters in this book and shows how the government or any higher power can use technology to their advantage and to the misfortune of the people.
