The Hunger Games is a survival story about a 'reality show' where 24 kids from different districts of an imagined totalitarian country have to compete and fight for their lives by killing each other in a specially prepared arena. It is yet another story about people driven to extremities, but when compared to other similarly themed novels, this one can be distinguished for its high pace. 
 The author knows exactly how to keep the reader interested and literally glued to the book. Of course, you know that it's a trilogy and thus it's almost obvious that the main character should survive at least the first book, but this doesn't decrease the tension. 
 S. Collins has done a great job creating a very vivid picture of every moment in the story without getting into tiresome descriptions of the characters and scenery. It seems that most contemporary authors think that by describing mountains, forests and atmospheric weather on thousands of pages they will show off their creative abilities, but in reality it takes much more talent to create images in the reader's mind by using just a few words. Pen-pushing should be banned among authors. 
 Another innovative aspect of this book is that Collins created a new type of female character. With Twilight and similar stories being popular nowadays, one is used to purely girlish type of characters, but Katniss in The Hunger Games is a true representative of what's happening to young women in the modern world. She is bound to stand up for herself on her own, fight for her life and protect her family. Men seem to be quite secondary, although she does need the comfort only a man can give her at times, but mostly her safety and security is in her own hands. 
 Some parts of the book did seem a wee bit predictable, but all in all the idea, the story and characters were quite unique. One has to be completely phlegmatic and emotionally frigid not to get hooked on this book. 
 A solid 5/5.