Panem is a world built on the remains of our present, and is divided into twelve districts controlled by the Capitol. Once the districts rebelled against the Capitol but they lost the war. The way found by the Capitol to punish the rebels was to destroy one of the districts and organise "The Hunger Games": every year each district has to send a boy and a girl - the tributes - to an arena to fight to death against the tributes of the other districts. Katniss volunteers to the games to take the place of her younger sister and Peeta, the son of the baker, is randomly chosen to pair up with Katniss as the tributes of District 12. The whole thing is televised as a huge reality TV show and humanity seems completely lost for those who bet on the children and are thrilled by each death.

This has to be one of the fastest paced books I have ever read. It is amazingly well written! This book is the first of a trilogy so I knew the end would be a cliffhanger to make me run for the second book ([b:Catching Fire|6148028|Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1268805322s/6148028.jpg|6171458][b:Catching Fire|6148028|Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1268805322s/6148028.jpg|6171458]). It is surprising how I loved Katniss although her main instinct is to survive to get back to sister, even if it means killing everything that moves and compromising her feelings. The easy to love Peeta shows the tenderness that seems to have abandoned everyone else as he doesn't mind losing, which means being killed, if that makes Katniss the winner. Reading the way characters grow while fighting for survival and finding surprising allies is extremely enjoyable. The whole Panem is exceptionally well thought and this book is a pleasure to read, even if the whole idea of children killing each other sounds like a awful premise. A must read.