Best Book of October...

It's not even November yet and I can already tell you what the Best Book of October was: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Absolutely, this choice is a no-brainer :)

It seems to me that I've been hung up on YA novels lately: Shiver, Vampire Academy, Wicked Lovely, etc. I don't generally read lots of YA novels but I've been hanging out quite a bit in my local library's YA section and I keep finding all this good stuff. I did try to read A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray but it just wasn't for me. The Hunger Games, however, was totally and completely awesome.

Suzanne Collins has created a world where the (former) United States is more like North Korea: the citizens are kept under airtight control with poverty and starvation. To reinforce the sovereignty of the Capitol, each of the now twelve districts are forced to hand over two of their young people to be pitted against one another in a survival game to the death. And the citizens are required to watch this spectacle where their children may die on live television after they've been turned into celebrities. The main character, Katniss, volunteers to take her younger sister's place in the games and is sent with Peeta, a boy who she doesn't really know but has a sort-of history with. This book was riveting with its fast pace and smart writing. There isn't a boring part in this book and I had to make myself put it down for the night when I was reading it; otherwise I would have been up way too late and if I didn't hate mornings so much, I would have stayed up to finish it :) Catching Fire, the sequel, wasn't quite so good as The Hunger Games but I think that's more because I became so emotionally invested in the characters and a lot of crappy things happen to them. The next book, still untitled as far as I can tell, will most likely not be out until next September. Ugh. Write faster!