Quite often I find YA books written from a female point of view a bit predictable. I get irritated by the angst over the inevitable boy because I remember my teenage years and I know that in the not too distant future she’ll be mystified as to how she missed the fact that he’s a prat. I’ve no patience with the mammoth dramas that the female character blows up out of next to nothing and for the most part, her self-indulgent navel-gazing makes me want to poke her repeatedly in the eye. The Hunger Games was unexpectedly different.  Katniss is a refreshingly honest and forthright lead character, she doesn’t require rescuing every 30 pages and let’s be fair, the challenges she faces are a little more demanding than the school quarterback fancying her best friend rather than herself. Each of the characters in the story is well developed and individual, with their own role and their own qualities to help or hinder Katniss in what she has to do. The Games themselves are very imaginative, in a rather disturbed sort of a way. Suzanne Collins writes action sequences well, the descriptions take you right into Katniss’s world and allow you to picture exactly what she’s seeing and feeling. All in all I’d definitely recommend The Hunger Games, it was so compelling that I even carried on reading it while washing my hair in the bath, which to be honest didn’t end so well for the book, it’s certainly discouraged me from attempting it with the Kindle. A compelling story which I’d suggest you don’t start reading unless you’ve got time on your hands because I suspect that like me you’ll struggle to put it down.