Review (Audiobook) - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I would like to do something with this post that will make it a little unconventional...I will still be featuring an audiobook and writing a [mini] review on it, but as opposed to every other book I've reviewed, I'm not going to share the summary [of the book] with you. Why? Because as I was listening to the first CD or two, I realized that I myself had begun this book without reading the back cover to find out what it was actually about. This is a rarity - I found myself enjoying the book while being surprised about what was happening; though, I will admit, by the end of the first CD I read the back cover to see if I was correct in my guessing as to what was going on. 

This audiobook is read by Carolyn McCormick. She's no Josephine Bailey, but she still has a pleasant voice to listen to. I was a little disturbed how she made a cat with worms sound cute, though. And I commend her for trying to voice a man imitating a woman.

Once you listen to (or read) enough of the story, parts of it are somewhat predictable, but there is also so much originality to the story, it didn 't matter. The book is beautifully written, yet the plot almost makes you wonder what happened to the author to give them such disturbing ideas. I almost cried once, but managed to hold myself together (yay, me!).

I was so engrossed in the book that I would spend my lunch breaks sitting out in my car so I could listen to the story (I would have picked up a hard copy to read when I couldn't be listening, but there is still a large waiting list at our library for it). This is the only book (that I can recall) that I have liked so much before I even got halfway through the first book, that I picked up a copy of the second book to have on hand to read once I finished the first.
Okay, is it really killing you to know what this book is about (if, by chance, you don't already know what it is about)? I'll give you a small hint - take The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, the movies Death Race and/or Gamer, and the reality TV show Survivor, melt them all together and stir in Suzanne Collins's unique-ness, and you have: The Hunger Games.

My Rating: