Competition is a friendly rivalry. Competition to the death? Not so easy.
“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins adds in a new twist for the numerous “life after us” types of novels. The Hunger Games is about the outcome of what would happen if America had been destroyed. Corrupt governments, starvation, and different “districts” for each social class outline the book.
“It’s a unique plot, it’s been done a lot but its a new twist on how we’ll end up,” said Junior, Taylor Jensen.
Then there are the annual Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games are a government organized competition between two contestants, one boy and one girl from each of the 12 districts. The contestants fight for survival and glory against one another in this modern gladiator turned into reality TV competition. The only one left alive is obviously the champion.

The champion has to fight with numerous opponents, enduring starvation, physical hurt and the mental toll for killing and watching the other contestants die. Those other contestants might be strangers, friends or even in one case the person they love. Twenty three people had to die for the champion to stand where he or she is at in the end.
The Hunger Games revolve around Katniss Everdeen, a poor girl from District 12 who decided to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games. Katniss goes through the Hunger Games relying on only her skill and past experience from her childhood. Peeta Mellark is the other contestant from District 12 who had once given Katniss and her family bread during the winter to survive.
“There’s a feeling of not knowing in the book,” said Melissa Schmidt, who had read the series in her book club. “Katniss is surviving while others are dying. Surprises do happen:
Katniss has connections with the people who she has to kill.”
Suzanne Collins the author claimed that the idea came to her while she was surfing the channels and happened to cross a competition on a reality TV show then a documentary on the Iraq War. The Greek myth “Theseus” also helped morph the novel. The Hunger Games started out small with little more than 50,000 copies. Over 200,000 copies have been printed in 26 languages and countless awards have been credited to the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games have reached new heights where some popular books such as Twilight and Harry Potter reside.
“It’s just like Twilight, change the name, change them from being vampires, and you have it. It’s annoying,” Jensen said.
What once started out as a small book has now turned into a Best Seller and an upcoming movie. Lions Gate Entertainment owns the rights to the movie and had started production late spring of 2011. Jennifer Lawerence, who played Mystique in X-Men: Origins, plays Katniss. Joshua Hutcherson who played in “Bridge to Terabithia” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth” plays the role of Peeta. The movie is set to come out March 23, 2011.
“The Hunger Games” takes the definition competition to a whole new level.