I was very reluctant to pick up this book. On one hand I love a good dystopia, on the other Suzanne Collins claimed to have never heard about Battle Royale before writing this book. I find that very hard to believe, there are numerous similarities between the two. It's really too bad because if she had said that she had written this book as an Americanized YA version of Battle Royale I would have read this series years ago!

That being said, this book went above and beyond my expectations! I love all the survival elements of it. Sure, the premise alone should be enough to make one think this will be a horrifying tale, but there were truly terrifying moments in the story that I was not expecting. A lot of people hate the love triangle aspect, but I actually appreciated it in this case. It gives our protagonist, Katniss, flaws, which is great because I don't want to read a book where everything is morally black and white and the heroine is perfect. To be fair, she is portrayed as socially awkward too, but that is so overused in YA that I feel it hardly counts against a character at this point. Either way, I wasn't sure if I would continue with the series when I first decided to read this, but I am very excited for the next book.