** spoiler alert ** 
 Well I can't really say enough good things about the Hunger Games series. It's just such a good series, and this book has to be like the best book in 2008. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I recently fnished the last book in the trilogy, Mockingjay, and it's even better than this. This book is just so original, and it manages to include everything, from romance to action to thriller to comedy to depressing - ness if thats even a word. Best series! 
 Ok I might as well go into some depth about this. Well firstly, the only books that have ever caused me to cry, laugh and stop and take a deep breath my heart is racing so much are the Harry Potter books. This book is amazing in the way that it can actually physically make me feel numb all over etc. when it's katniss who's experiencing it. The way it's written makes you feel it like it's actually happening. Ever since we were little, we were taught that a good narrative gives you a mental picture of whats going on. Well then this has to be a 1000 times good narrative because not only does it give you a mental picture, but you can feel it, hear it, smell it all around you. For the little time that you read it you're transported into that world. It's amazing because the world is so different to now in this book, that normally you would find it very hard to believe, and very hard to explain. But this book explains it so perfectly that you won't be left with any doubt that it is a real world, and not make believe. 
 Also, ever fallen impossibly in love with a story book character, and found yourself dreaming about them, wishing they were actually alive over and over again. Well I officially have. yeh so I likedd Edward Cullen, he was pretty hot, caring... etc. But this has just been brought to a whole new level - with Peeta Mellark, the boy from district 12 who was chosen along with Katniss. I loooove him, like literally, just the perfect guy in my books. He'd throw down his life in a second to save Katniss and he's also increeedibly hot. 
 Ok well I've rambled on for long enough, but hoefully you get the picture that this is not a book to miss. You need need neeeeed to read it, and then the two books that come after, Catching Fire, and the Mockingjay. Just the best series ou've ever read, I guarantee it. :)