The Hunger Games

"What happens if we choose entertainment over humanity? In Collins's world, we'll be obsessed with grooming, we'll talk funny, and all our sentences will end with the same rise as questions. When Katniss is sent to stylists to be made more telegenic before she competes, she stands naked in front of them, strangely unembarrassed. "They're so unlike people that I'm no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet," she thinks. In order not to hate these creatures who are sending her to her death, she imagines them as pets. It isn't just the contestants who risk the loss of their humanity. It is all who watch."

--Publishers Weekly, Megan Whalen Turner, STARRED REVIEW

"...brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced...a futuristic novel every bit as good and as allegorically rich as Scott Westerfeld's 'Uglies' books."

--The New York Times, John Green

"[The Hunger Games] is a violent, jarring, speed-rap of a novel that generates nearly constant suspense...I couldn't stop reading it."

--Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly Review

"...enthralling, imaginative and creepy..."

--Los Angeles Times

"Collins's characters are completely realistic and sympathetic as they form alliances and friendships in the face of overwhelming odds; the plot is tense, dramatic, and engrossing. This book will definitely resonate with the generation raised on reality shows like "Survivor" and "American Gladiator."

--School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

"[A] plot-driven blend of suspense, science fiction, and romance."

--USA Today

"The plot is front and center here—the twists and turns are addictive, particularly when the romantic subplot ups the ante—yet the Capitol's oppression and exploitation of the districts always simmers just below the surface, waiting to be more fully explored in future volumes. Collins has written a compulsively readable blend of science fiction, survival story, unlikely romance, and social commentary."

--Horn Book, STARRED REVIEW

"Populated by three dimensional characters, this is a superb tale of physical adventure, political suspense, and romance."

--Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

"I was so obsessed with this book that I had to take it with me out to dinner and hide it under the edge of the table so I wouldn't have to stop reading. The story kept me up for several nights in a row, because even after I was finished, I just lay in bed wide awake thinking about it...The Hunger Games is amazing."

--Stephenie Meyer

"[A] stylish postmodern 'Lost' in direct collision with 'Lord of the Flies.'"

--The Wall Street Journal, Katie Roiphe

"Themes of government control, "big brother," and personal independence are explored amidst a thrilling adventure that will appeal to science fiction, survival, and adventure readers. The suspense of this powerful novel will keep the reader glued to the page long after bedtime."

--VOYA, Deborah L. Dubois

"The Hunger Games is as close to perfect an adventure novel as I've ever read. I could not put it down. Collins has transformed the ancient Labyrinth myth into a terrifyingly believable tale of future America. Readers will be hungry for more."

--Rick Riordan

"Impressive world-building, breathtaking action and clear philosophical concerns make this volume, the beginning of a planned trilogy, as good as The Giver and more exciting."

--Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW

Catching Fire

"Collins has done that rare thing. She has written a sequel that improves upon the first book."

--The New York Times, Gabrielle Zevin

"Again, Collins' crystalline, unadorned prose provides an open window to perfect pacing and electrifying world-building, but what's even more remarkable is that aside from being tremendously action-packed sf thrillers, these books are also brimming with potent themes of morality, obedience, sacrifice, redemption, love, law, and, above all, survival. Honestly, this book only needs to be good enough to satisfy its legions of fans. Fortunately, it's great. And if you were dying to find out what happens after the last book, get ready for pure torture awaiting the next."

--Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

"Whereas Katniss kills with finesse, Collins writes with raw power...The Hunger Games and Catching Fire expose children to exactly the kind of violence we usually shield them from. But that just goes to show how much adults forget about what it's like to be a child. Kids are physical creatures, and they're not stupid. They know all about violence and power and raw emotions. What's really scary is when adults pretend that such things don't exist."

--Time Magazine

"Gladiator" meets "Project Runway" in Suzanne Collins's gripping dystopian novel "The Hunger Games" and its new sequel, "Catching Fire." Collins has joined J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer as a writer of children's books that adults are eager to read."

--Bloomberg.com

"...doesn't disappoint when it segues into the pulse-pounding action readers have come to expect. Characters from the previous volume reappear to good effect: Katniss's stylist, Cinna, proves he's about more than fashion; Haymitch becomes more dimensional. But the star remains Katniss, whose bravery, honesty and wry cynicism carry the narrative...Collins has also created an exquisitely tense romantic triangle for her heroine...by book's end (and it's a cliffhanger), readers will be picking sides—Peeta or Gale?"

--Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

"Stellar, imaginative writing."

--Los Angeles Times

"Beyond the expert world building, the acute social commentary and the large cast of fully realized characters, there's action, intrigue, romance and some amount of hope in a story readers will find completely engrossing. Collins weaves in enough background for this novel to stand alone, but it will be a far richer experience for those who have read the first installment and come to love Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch and the rest of the desperate residents of this dystopia. A humdinger of a cliffhanger will leave readers clamoring for volume three."

--Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

"...this sequel has enough action to please Hunger Games fans and leaves enough questions tantalizingly unanswered for readers to be desperate for the next installment."

--School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

"Collins ratchets up the tension in the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. With a host of well-drawn new secondary characters and more lives on the line, this will keep readers of all ages up long past their bedtimes."

--Romantic Times Book Reviews, ****1/2 STARS

"Collins has once again delivered a page-turning blend of plot and character with an inventive setting and provocative themes."

--The Horn Book Magazine

Mockingjay

"At its best the trilogy channels the political passion of "1984," the memorable violence of "A Clockwork Orange," the imaginative ambience of "The Chronicles of Narnia" and the detailed inventiveness of "Harry Potter." The specifics of the dystopian universe, and the fabulous pacing of the complicated plot, give the books their strange, dark charisma."

--The New York Times, Katie Roiphe

"Collins does several things brilliantly, not the least of which is to provide heart-stopping chapter endings that turn events on their heads and then twist them once more. But more ambitious is the way she brings readers to questions and conclusions about war throughout the story. There's nothing didactic here, and sometimes the rush of events even obscures what message there is. Yet readers will instinctively understand what Katniss knows in her soul, that war mixes all the slogans and justifications, the deceptions and plans, the causes and ideals into an unsavory stew whose taste brings madness. That there is still a human spirit that yearns for good is the book's primrose of hope."

--Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

"This dystopic-fantasy series, which began in 2008, has had such tremendous crossover appeal that teens and parents may discover themselves vying for -- and talking about -- the family copy of "Mockingjay." And there's much to talk about because this powerful novel pierces cheery complacency like a Katniss-launched arrow. Look skeptically at computer and television images, it suggests, be aware of spin, gaze upon the young faces of the world's soldiers. Children forced to kill children? It's not just in the pages of a novel."

--The Washington Post

"The indelible conclusion to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy proves once more that the greatest fantasy novels hold an incandescent mirror up to reality."

--Parade, Parade Picks

"But being the Mockingjay comes with a price as Katniss must come to terms with how much of her own humanity and sanity she can willingly sacrifice for the cause, her friends, and her family. Collins is absolutely ruthless in her depictions of war in all its cruelty, violence, and loss, leaving readers, in turn, repulsed, shocked, grieving and, finally, hopeful for the characters they've grown to empathize with and love. Mockingjay is a fitting end to the series that began with The Hunger Games (2008) and Catching Fire (2009) and will have the same lasting resonance as William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Stephen King's The Stand."

--School Library Journal

"The final installment, the grimmest yet, is a riveting meditation on the costs of war...Clear your schedule before you start: This is a powerful, emotionally exhausting final volume."

--People Magazine,4 OUT OF 4 STARS

"This concluding volume in Collins's Hunger Games trilogy accomplishes a rare feat, the last installment being the best yet, a beautifully orchestrated and intelligent novel that succeeds on every level... In short, there's something here for nearly every reader, all of it completely engrossing."

--Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

"Fans will be happy to hear that Mockingjay is every bit as complex and imaginative as Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Collins has kicked the brutal violence up a notch in an edge-of-your-seat plot that follows Katniss as she tries to fulfill her role, protect her mother and sister and, in the end, finally choose between her two greatest loves. B+."

--Entertainment Weekly

"Mockingjay" is without question the most brutal of the trilogy. Nobody emerges unscathed – very bad things happen to everyone from fan favorites down to characters so minor a reader has to pause and think, "Now, who was that again?" before recoiling in horror at their fate. Collins doesn't take war lightly – her characters debate the morality involved in tactics used to try to overthrow the rotting, immoral government, and they pay a high cost for those tactics. It is also an entirely gripping read. In Katniss, Collins has crafted a heroine so fierce and tenacious that this reader will follow her anywhere."

--Christian Science Monitor

"Much of the action takes place on a battlefield akin to Iraq — where innocent civilians are murdered to further a cause and each side resorts to unsavory tactics that could lead to a terrorist label. More maudlin than the first two books in the series, "Mockingjay" is also the most violent and bloody and, based on the actions and statements of its characters, its most overtly antiwar — though not so much that it distracts from a series conclusion that is nearly as shocking, and certainly every bit as original and thought provoking, as "The Hunger Games." Wow."

--Los Angeles Times

"Suspenseful... Collins' fans, grown-ups included, will race to the end."

--USA Today

"Throughout the trilogy, Collins has asked readers to consider heavy questions. What level of violence is justified to achieve needed change? How much integrity can one compromise for a just end? To what extent does responsibility to others demand sacrifice of self? How much control does anyone have over the construction of self? Katniss is the ideal vehicle for this dialogue, her present-tense narration constantly putting her own motivations and even identity under scrutiny.It's not giving away anything to reveal that Katniss will be tested sorely, that allegiances will shift, that heart-thumping scenes of combat will yield to anguished reflection, that she and readers will find themselves always wondering just whom to trust, that she and readers will lose friends they love. In the final analysis, this is exactly the book its fans have been hoping for. It will grab them and not let go, and if it leaves them with questions, well, then, it's probably exactly the book Collins was hoping for, too."

--Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW