The Amazing Race, American Idol, Project Runway, The Biggest Loser, Man vs. Wild, Dancing with the Stars–reality shows are all over television. 

But what if winning Survivor meant being the last one left alive?  What if the bloody battles of the Roman gladiators had been broadcast as reality TV?  Reality TV meets Lord of the Flies in the gripping new YA thriller The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) by Suzanne Collins.

The Hunger Games takes place in a brutal and harsh future.  North America has been decimated by war.   One central Capitol rules in tyranny over twelve districts.  Broken by their failed rebellion, starving and deprived, the districts are forced to send their resources to the Capitol:  coal, jewels, grain, weapons.  The Capitol controls the food supply, the economy, the government, the media.

As punishment for rebellion, the twelve districts must also send an annual tribute to the Capitol:  one girl and one boy, twenty-four in all, each of whom will fight to the death in the annual televised “Hunger Games.”  The voyeurism of reality TV takes a grotesque twist as citizens tune in–some by choice, some by forced decree–to watch the 74th Annual Hunger Games.

Sixteen year old Katmiss and her family live in District 12.  Poverty and hunger ravage most of its citizens, and Katniss and her family very nearly starved the year her father was killed in a mine accident.  But Katniss learned to hunt wild game and barter (even though the Capitol forbids both), and has managed to keep her mother and younger sister Prim alive.  

Then Prim’s name is drawn in the lottery for the female tribute for District 12.  Katniss insists that she go in Prim’s place and travels to the glittering, decadent Capital with Peeta, the male tribute from District 12.  Katniss barely knows Peeta but recognizes him as the baker’s son who, years earlier, saved her life and gave her hope by giving her a loaf of bread. 

Soon Katniss and Peeta are being groomed for the pageanty and brutality of the Hunger Games.  Besides the obvious prize of sheer survival, the victor of the annual Hunger Games also wins a house and an annual stipend for life.  A roof over your head and a full belly for life–what could be better?

Katniss is torn between her instinctive liking and gratitude toward Peeta and the knowledge that in the end they will have to be enemies:

To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope, and the dandelion that reminded me that I was not doomed.  And more than once, I have turned in the school hallway and caught his eyes trained on me, only to quickly flit away.  I feel like I owe him something, and I hate owing people.   Maybe if I had thanked him at some point, I’d be feeling less conflicted now.  . . .  Because we’re going to be thrown into an arena to fight to the death. 

Trust is foolishness, a terrible weakness that only gives enemies an advantage.  Only one person can survive the Hunger Games.  It is kill or be killed.  Only one tribute will return home victorious.  But should Katniss and Peeta trust each other and work as a team?