By: Jessica Hicks

“May the odds be ever in your favor,” is just one of the many lines that made me shudder while reading Suzanne Collins’s well-crafted tale “The Hunger Games.”

Reading the book before the film is out is a massive accomplishment for me. I cannot tell you how many times I have said, “Oh, I should really read that before the movie comes out.” A few months later I am sitting with my popcorn in hand and no book in sight.

“The Hunger Games,” is a dystopian sci-fi story set in the country of Panem, which is sectioned into 12 districts and ruled over by the Capitol. The main protagonist is 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who is thrown into the Capitol’s main event, the Hunger Games. Every year, the Capitol hosts the Hunger Games in which a boy and girl from each district are picked to fight to the death on live television.

Everdeen, unlike so many female characters in young adult fiction, is very head strong and preoccupied by adult problems. Though she does have bouts of naivety and selfishness, she is capable of making life or death decisions.

One of the best things about this book is that it is not focused completely on a love story. Too many times in young adult fiction, the main predicament is a love triangle or other romantic problem. “The Hunger Games” shows that even though you are a teen, you are capable of having adult conflicts and can even deal with them.

“Katniss is a brave, strong and talented young woman, but at the same time has moments of weakness and vulnerability,” said University of Akron junior and business organization major Jayne Snyder. “She shows readers, especially young women, that it’s possible to exude confidence and strength and those moments of weakness.”

Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop, and the pages kept turning late into the night. “The Hunger Games” is heart-wrenching and addicting. If you are looking for a book with complexity and characters you can really root for, pick up a copy of “The Hunger Games.”