Are you Hungry for the Hunger Games? Part 1

I've been wanting to post about the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins for a while, but wasn't sure if I wanted to do it one book at a time, or the trilogy as a whole.  After careful consideration and much thought (not really, but it sounds good)  I decided to talk about the whole trilogy as the story works best over all three books.  My initial thoughts after finishing the trilogy was mostly that the 2nd book wasn't really needed.  There were a few good revelations that I felt could have easily been split between the first and third book (a feeling I have with a lot of trilogies...except the Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers which is actually my favorite of the three)  Overall I liked the whole story but felt there were some definite weak spots. 

The author did a fantastic job of setting up a dystopian post war society.  The class divide and structure is clear and interesting and sets up a plausible environment for some the horrors that are so blithely accepted.  For those of you living under a rock here is the basic premise.  In an undetermined future North America has suffered from a major war/catastrophe and been rebuilt as Panam around the Capital, which is the ruling/political/upper class.  Surrounding the Capital were 13 districts that were populated by lower class citizens, tightly controlled and forced to work to supply the Capital with all it's wants or needs.  There is a more detailed description of the districts and such here.
Eventually the districts rose up and rebelled against the Capital, an ugly war followed ending with the total destruction of District 13.  The results of this rebellion was a harsh crack down on the remaining 12 districts and the heinous ritual called The Hunger Games.  To remind the districts that there insurgence was not only fruitless, but resulted in the total domination by the Capital, each district must offer up a Tribute of one boy and one girl between the ages of 12-18 to the Games  once every year.  The Tributes are chosen through a lottery system.  The Tributes are sent off to the Capital to be primped and pimped out to the public, doing there best to represent there district and garner support from the rich upper class of the Capital to potentially help them through the Game.  After a few public appearances, training, and skills test the Tributes are placed into the arena to fight to the death.  To keep things interesting various challenges are introduced as the Game continues.  The Game keeps going until 23 of the children are dead, either from exposure, accidents or killed by one of the other children.  This heinous (I love this word so descriptive)  ritual is not only tolerated by the people of the Capitol, but looked forward to as a betting sport, just like football or Survivor.  Okay now that the simplistic yet long winded explanation is over, lets get to the books

Lets start with book one The Hunger Games
This was by far my favorite book, the tension was amazing, the character development wonderful and the world building stellar.  The book centers around Katniss who has looked after her mother and sister Prim after her father died in a mine explosion.  Her best friend Gale helps her hunt in the forbidden woods (all good stories have a forbidden woods) to help supplement the meager rations they are allotted.  When it is time for the Reaping (this is what they call the picking of Tributes) Effie Trinket comes to do the official drawing.  A 16 year old boy named Peeta, the bakers son is chosen as the male Tribute.  Prim is chosen as the female Tribute, unable to watch her sister go off to almost certain death, Katniss volunteers to take her place.  The two say there goodbye's and one of the village girls give Katniss a pin with a mockingjay on it, which becomes a powerful symbol later on.
 They leave with Effie, and their mentor the drunken Haymitch.  At the capital they are assigned stylists to help them with there public appearances, Katniss is assigned Cinna who is fairly normal (and my favorite character) amidst the flamboyant excess that is the rest of the Capitol population.  He helps her become "The Girl on Fire" and garner attention for her quietly stubborn personality.  Katniss and Peeta, along with the 22 other Tributes are released into the arena to fend for there lives, and presumably take the lives of their fellow Tributes. It is noted that the Tributes from Districts 1 and 2 are called Careers, they are children who train most of there lives and volunteer to be Tributes.  This results in a higher then normal win amount for these two districts, and exceptionally violent, sadistic children.  Throughout the game Katniss befriends a girl named Rue from District 11 who she eventually has to watch be killed in front of her, this leads to Katniss respectfully mourning her friend.  Distraught Katniss runs into Peeta, who confesses his love for her and under there mentors instructions declares her love back.  This little love story encourages the people of the Capital to send gifts of food and medicine to help them survive (I love how she does not get all romantic here, but uses it to keep them alive.)  When they are down to just a few Tributes left, an announcement declares that in a change of rules two Tributes may survive to win the Games.  When it finally comes down to just Peeta and Katniss, the rules are changed once again to only one Tribute can survive and one of them must kill the other.  Out of desperation Katniss offers to take a handful of poisonous nightlock berries to save Peeta the horror of having to kill her.  He refuses and makes the same offer, they decide that if one of them has to die that they will die together each ingesting the berries leaving no winner.  This is unacceptable as having a winner is a way to keep control of the districts, and appease the people of the Capital so they have to let both Peeta and Katniss win.  After the ordeal is finally over Katniss receives a visit from President Snow, informing her that her little "rebellion" had better be the product of foolhardy love and not a sign of defiance toward the Capital.  She reassures him  her only thoughts were of saving Peeta, he tells her that she better make sure that he is convinced by her actions during the Winners Tour, or who knows what could happen.
I really like the borderline hopeless feel to this book, it made the little triumphs all the sweeter.  The horror of children killing each other juxtaposed (fun word) with the delight the Capital crowd takes in it is chilling.  I like that this book is chock full of contrasting views, from the districts forced to watch there children die, to the lavish viewing/betting parties of the uppercrust Capitalists.  For all the horror and darkness there always seems to be a little glimmer of light which makes it possible to continue reading.
Ok so this is getting to be a really really long post, so I will work on part 2 later.  Let me know your thoughts on the story so far!