This article is about the novel. For other uses, see The Hunger Games (disambiguation).
The Hunger Games

North American first edition cover
Author(s) Suzanne Collins
Cover artist Tim O'Brien
Country United States
Language English
Series The Hunger Games trilogy
Genre(s) Adventure
Dystopian
Science fiction
Action
Publisher Scholastic Press
Publication date September 14, 2008
Media type Print (hardcover, paperback)
Pages 374
OCLC Number 181516677
LC Classification PZ7.C6837 Hun 2008
Followed by Catching Fire

The Hunger Games is a 2008 young adult novel by American writer Suzanne Collins. It is written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are 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 book received mostly positive feedback from major reviewers and authors, including authors Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer. It was praised for its storyline and character development, though some reviewers have noted similarities between Collins' book and Koushun Takami's Battle Royale (1999), both of which deliver tales equally gripping, yet less dark than the genre's original master work: King's The Long Walk (1979). In writing The Hunger Games, Collins drew upon Greek mythology, Roman gladiatorial games and contemporary reality television for thematic content. The novel won many awards, including the California Young Reader Medal, and was named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of the Year" in 2008.

The Hunger Games was first published in hardcover on September 14, 2008 by Scholastic, featuring a cover designed by Tim O'Brien. It has since been released in paperback and also as an audiobook and ebook. After an initial print of 200,000, the book had sold 800,000 copies by February 2010. Since its release, The Hunger Games has been translated into 26 languages, and publishing rights have been sold in 38 territories. The novel is the first in The Hunger Games trilogy, followed by Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010). A film adaptation, directed by Gary Ross and co-written and co-produced by Collins herself, was released in 2012.

Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Plot
3 Themes
4 Publication history
5 Critical reception
6 Film adaptation
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

BackgroundCollins has said that the inspiration for The Hunger Games came from channel surfing on television. On one channel she observed people competing on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the invasion of Iraq. The two "began to blur in this very unsettling way" and the idea for the book was formed.[1] The Greek myth of Theseus served as a major basis for the story, with Collins describing Katniss as a futuristic Theseus, and Roman gladiatorial games provided the framework. The sense of loss that Collins developed through her father's service in the Vietnam War was also an influence on the story, with Katniss having lost her father at age 11, five years before the story begins.[2] Collins stated that the deaths of young characters and other "dark passages" were the most difficult parts of the book to write, but that she had accepted that passages such as these were necessary to the story.[3] She considered the moments where Katniss reflects on happier moments in her past to be more enjoyable.[3]

PlotSee also: The Hunger Games universe
The Hunger Games takes place in a nation known as Panem, established in North America after the destruction of the continent's civilization by an unknown apocalyptic event. The nation consists of the wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts united under the Capitol's