9 days, 3 books, 3 films

People have been telling me for years that I'd love The Hunger Games, well, they were right! So much so that after watching the first film I downloaded the first booked to my Kindle the same night and read the book over the next couple of days. 9 days later I have read the complete trilogy, watched the first two films on DVD and went to the cinema with a fellow fan to see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

It's rare that such a good book or series comes along that takes my interest in this way. I can count on my fingers over the years how many have. I love getting such a buzz from reading, it really feeds into my own writing and since finishing reading The Hunger Games I have gone back to editing my own book with renewed vigour! Good readers make good writers, reading informs and inspires.

So in your post-Christmas phase where life can sometimes feel a little flat, I thoroughly recommend reading! Escape to another world, country, planet. Live a whole other life and go on adventures you could never dream of by opening a book and jumping between it's pages :)

And if you fancy The Hunger Games, I give it a doubel thumbs up. The Hunger Games is a science fiction novel by Suzanne Collins. It's written in first person from the view of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games is an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death. The Hunger Games is punishment for an uprising many years prior to the novel, and the subsequent novels deal with the reaction to Katniss' outcome during the first book and the revolution that is brewing within the 12 districts of Panem.

I can't really say much more without giving away too many spoilers from the first book. I personally enjoyed the up close encounter of each event through Katniss' eyes. I'm not usually a big fan of first person as I like to be able to get an overview of what is happening elsewhere, but it's handled so well by Suzanne Collins that it only adds to the tension within the plot. But it also gives you that closeness to Katniss, a very strong yet flawed female protaganist who unwittingly inspires others by her actions. There is also an element of romance in the series, with a typical love triangle, but this really does take a back seat to the action throughout. I'm not one for romance usually (though I am a self confessed Twilight fan!) but it does add a subtle extra dimension to the characters problems and long term outcomes, and influence decisions.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Hunger Games, and wear my Mockingjay brooch with pride :)

'May the odds be ever in your favour!'