I was completely obsessed within pages. I love Katniss. I love what she did to save her sister. I love how tough and aware she is. I absolutely adore that she's not some weak simpering female placeholder sitting there waiting for some big strong man (boy) to take care of her. I am completely enamored of her honesty, realism, and strength. And quite honestly, I found it awesome that throughout the entire book, she didn't have a single cocky mean moment (out loud) for the in this case weaker boy she was dealing with.

I found the premise of kids fighting kids abhorrent as a potential reality, but the book was amazing, and while it certainly didn't make the Hunger Games all pretty and fluffy and nice, or gloss over any of the truly atrocious things behind it, it also didn't over do it on the bad stuff. This could have turned into a graphic, gory, nauseating novel, and it didn't. The characters were human, in a terrible situation, facing death, but there was no epic shock value to take away from the story. And bottom line, the Hunger Games was central to the plot, but it was far from the entire plot. There were real characters, emotional struggles, relationships, hopes and dreams... And fighting.