Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to like it, even a quarter of the way through. It reminded me of a movie called "The Condemned" where a bunch of prisoners were made to fight to the death and the survivor is set free from imprisonment. They made the battle a tv show. Yet, even with a very similar plot, I LOVED this book! Once I really got into the "games" part of it I was hooked. 
 Why I loved it: It wasn't just the action and the characters I connected with. It was the messages within it. Collins, if you watch interviews with her, intended those messages to be in there. Messages on: the problems with reality tv, with displaying war on the tv and not covering the good but just letting blood lead the news, of hunger, of desensitization, love, teamwork, of division of classes, government control and government overthrow, of doing what's right and not what you are told, and so much more. This book has been challenged and banned at many places because it was just "too much" for children. I thank Collins for not holding back, like most YA authors do, on those messages and on the violence because violence, sadly, is reality. She gave them the truth, along with an enjoyable story. I have since read all of the books I think she did a fine job of it. But if you don't like violence and can't handle the truth of reality, then this book is not for you.