When it comes to The Hunger Games, you will hardly find anybody who has never heard of this book. I knew what it was about pretty much since its publication, but always avoided to read it because of the ridiculous hype it received. Suzanne Collins has influenced an entire genre with her trilogy, inspiring popular series like Divergent or Legend, which can be considered an achievement to be admired for. The opinion that this series is way over-hyped still hasn't left my mind, but by now, I can finally see why this book is so beloved by readers all over the world. Easy to get into, easy to read, not too complex, yet fast-paced and cleverly plotted with characters you can easily get attached to - that's what defines The Hunger Games, in my opinion. Some of its qualities can be considered negative in a literary context, but for me it also became a book which it was impossible to take down after a certain amount of pages, and even inspite of its clearly present flaws, Suzanne Collins managed to create an engaging adventure story in a dystopian setting. 
 The adventure aspect in this book was the most intriguing. I didn't know about most of the plot points before reading it, so the book continued to surprise me with every chapter. Fast-paced as it was, boredom never managed to overtake the excitement of learning what was to come next, as well as the interior urge to learn what happened in the past to divide the districts in such a way. Unfortunately, a historical background to previous events in the novel's timeline which lead to the way Panem is structured in this story was the last thing Suzanne Collins thought about to give her readers, but I still don't lose hope that we get a more insightful exploration of this topic in the following sequels. Also, it's difficult to believe the explanation for the introduction of the Hunger Games as a method to keep citizens from organizing another uprising against the powerful government. Some plot points felt forced, as if Collins needed to take the plot in a certain direction and sacrificed her characters for the sake of the plot, but ultimately, she managed to create a balanced story with both engaging plotlines and interesting characters. 
 The novel cannot be praised for its originality; in fact, a lot of people have already pointed out before how similar it is to the earlier published Japanese Battle Royale, but reading it for what it is, that fact doesn't take the excitement away from the novel. I practically inhaled the last 200 pages in the course of a few hours, always wanting to know what was to happen next, and the portrayal of Katniss Everdeen as the female protagonist helped a lot with this: Katniss is strong, cunning, she doesn't mind what others think of her, and she doesn't hesitate to use certain events to her own benefit, even if it means manipulating others. A lot of other authors have since then tried to come up with more characters like Katniss, but most of them feel like bad copies (yes, I am totally referring to Divergent's Tris). In addition, the reality television aspect was an outstanding part of the novel which I particularly enjoyed. It seemed like a very believable and realistic addition to the story. 
 Ultimately, even if there are things you can criticize about The Hunger Games, those aspects never became strong enough to disrupt my enjoyment of the excitement that was this book. I am definitely going to read the sequel, even though I'll wait some time in order to escape my usual antipathy against second books in a series. I don't exactly regret never having read it earlier, but it is also a good feeling to have read it now and to finally know the reasons for the hype it received.