The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Winning will make you famous.
Losing means certain death.

The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment, and as a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 through a lottery system to participate in the games. The ‘tributes’ are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.

When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

Book Overview:

Author: Suzanne Collins | Series: The Hunger Games | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick | Length: 11 hours, 11 minutes | Publish Date: September 14, 2008 | Genre: YA Dystopia | Literary Awards: Georgia Peach Book Award (2009), Buxtehuder Bulle (2009), Golden Duck Award for Hal Clement Award for Young Adult (2009), Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards for Older Readers (2012), West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award (WAYRBA) for Older Readers (2010)
Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Book Award (2011), Red House Children’s Book Award for Older Readers & Overall (2010), South Carolina Book Award for Junior and Young Adult Book (2011), Charlotte Award (2010), Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award (2010), Teen Buckeye Book Award (2009), Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award for Young Adults (2010), Rhode Island Teen Book Award (2010), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award (2010), Evergreen Teen Book Award (2011), Soaring Eagle Book Award (2009), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2010), Sakura Medal for Middle School Book (2010), Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award (2009), Florida Teens Read (2009), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for Preis der Jugendjury (2010), Iowa High School Book Award (2011), New Mexico Land of Enchantment Award for Young Adult (2011), Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (2010), The Inky Awards for Silver Inky (2009), Lincoln Award (2011), Kinderboekwinkelprijs (2010), Missouri Truman Readers Award (2011), Cybils Award for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2008), Literaturpreis der Jury der jungen Leser for Jugendbuch (2010), The Inky Awards Shortlist for Silver Inky (2009), Prix Et-lisez-moi (2011), Missouri Gateway Readers Award (2011), Oklahoma Sequoyah Award for High School and Intermediate (2011), Premio El Templo de las Mil Puertas for Mejor novela extranjera perteneciente a saga (2009)  | Rated: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: HECK YES

“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”


I’m pretty sure that I’m going to have to do another Book vs Movie post after reading this. Someone remind me!

Anyway, I finally made my way to this book, after years and years and years of not reading it, even after all of the movies came out on DVD. It’s been ten years since this book first published, and yet this was my first time reading this book. I feel like I made the mistake of waiting for so long to read it, but I’m so glad that I did.

In typical dystopia attire, Katniss Everdeen lives in a place that used to be North America, before current North America that we know was utterly destroyed. This place is called Panem, and there are twelve districts that society inhabits in this future place. While the Capitol, and some of the closer districts like Districts One, Two, and possibly Three are thriving and rich, the others are extremely poor, with their citizens always on the verge of starvation. Society is separated into these districts because of a war that happened so long ago, and this is their way of punishment.

If that wasn’t enough, every year the districts have to choose one boy and one girl to compete in a fight for their lives in what is known as the Hunger Games.

The only reason Katniss was ever a tribute in the Hunger Games was that her little sister Primrose was unlucky enough to be chosen in the drawing for tribute. Katniss did something completely unheard of in their district: she volunteered as tribute. And now, along with Peeta, they have to fight for the lives, knowing that only one of them can be the winner. How can they go about this game knowing that they may have to kill the other?

This book was very interesting as far as the storyline. It reminded me of a movie that I watched with a similar premise, except it took place in Japan and it was an entire eighth-grade class that was taken to a secluded island. They were tasked with killing one another, or risk being killed themselves. It was the same concept in that this was all punishment for some sort of war or rebellion that took place years prior, and in both books, we are forced to watch children slaughtered without mercy, without guilt, all for the sake of entertainment.

I don’t really like having to watch children die for no reason, or any reason at all, and it makes it worse that this is deemed as an annual game that the entire nation watches. These children are being killed by their peers because they have no choice, and since the ages range from 12 to 18 years old, it always seems to be the younger ones that are brutally murdered by the older, more skilled fighters. It’s not a good thing, and it’s not all fun and games as those in the Capitol make it seem.

But this is just the beginning, and throughout the games, even before the Tributes set foot in the arena, it seems like there is more to this year’s game than meets the eye, and there may be a rebellion on its way. All it needs is a little spark.

If you haven’t read this book but have watched the movie, I highly recommend reading it as well. It explains more than what the movie shows, and there are some aspects that weren’t included at all that make certain scenes even more heartbreaking than they were on film. Go get it from your local library or bookstore and dive right in!

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: in Hartford, Connecticut, The United States
           August 11, 1962
Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult

Since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been busy writing for children’s television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She also co-wrote the critically acclaimed Rankin/Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! Most recently she was the Head Writer for Scholastic Entertainment’s Clifford’s Puppy Days.

While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children’s author James Proimos, who talked her into giving children’s books a try.

Thinking one day about Alice in Wonderland, she was struck by how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who, like her own, lived in urban surroundings. In New York City, you’re much more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole and, if you do, you’re not going to find a tea party. What you might find…? Well, that’s the story of Gregor the Overlander, the first book in her five-part series, The Underland Chronicles. Suzanne also has a rhyming picture book illustrated by Mike Lester entitled When Charlie McButton Lost Power.

She currently lives in Connecticut with her family and a pair of feral kittens they adopted from their backyard.

The books she is most successful for in teenage eyes are The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. These books have won several awards, including the GA Peach Award.
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

the longing.

Once Grace and Sam have found each other, they know they must fight to stay together. For Sam, this means a reckoning with his werewolf past. For Grace, it means facing a future that is less and less certain.

the loss.

Into their world comes a new wolf named Cole, whose past is full of hurt and danger. He is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of being a human. 

the linger.

For Grace, Sam, and Cole, life a constant struggle between two forces–wolf and human–with love baring its two sides as well. It is harrowing and euphoric, freeing and entrapping, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But will it be enough?

Book Overview:

Author: Maggie Stiefvater | Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Dan Bittner, Pierce Cravens, Emma Galvin, & Jenna Lamia | Length: 10 hours, 38 mins | Publish Date: July 13, 2010 | Genre: YA Fantasy/Paranormal Romance | Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Goodreads Author, Favorite Heroine, Favorite Book, Young Adult Fantasy (2010) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe

“This is a love story. I never knew there were so many kinds of love or that love could make people do so many different things.
I never knew there were so many different ways to say goodbye.”


Oh my gosh. I am so very frustrated with this book. I feel like giving it 4 stars is generous.

Let me explain.

So I feel like I could have read the first one, and it would have been fine to leave it the way it was. The way that Shiver ended was absolutely perfect. There was a happy ending, true love between a girl and her wolf, and that was that. Nothing else needed to happen, and I wouldn’t have known that things were actually not okay.

But of course, I kept hearing such great things about this series so I had to find out what the next book contained. I still don’t know whether or not it was a good idea, and the reason is Grace and Sam.

Yes, I understand that this series is about their love: Grace, a human girl, and Sam, a boy that becomes a wolf. Somehow, they meet when Sam becomes human during the fall, and their love is one that is supposed to be epic. It’s clear that they love one another, and they proved that they would do pretty much anything to make sure that they would be in each other’s lives.


“I just looked at her, feeling utterly empty. I didn’t know what I was supposed to say to her. My life is in that bed. Please let me stay.” 


So now we come to this book, and that love has pretty much consumed their lives. While Grace’s parents have never been good by any means necessary – her father forget her in the car on the hottest day of the year and she almost died as a child – but I don’t think that gives Grace the right to be a brat. She is so disrespectful to her parents, and I understand that she’s hurt that they never thought to be actual parents to her, but that doesn’t excuse her behavior. She constantly defies them and yet she expects to have the luxuries that they have provided her? Like her car, for example. Does she not realize that they could easily take that way from her (not just the keys), and she can’t say anything about it? She was just a lovesick little teenager that believed that she knew everything about life and didn’t need her parents.

Yet what happens when she gets extremely sick? Who has to take her to the hospital? Oh, and does she know who’s paying for her health insurance? Yeah, I bet it’s not her.

My favorite part of this book was having Isabelle’s point of view. She was the only one that was actually thinking straight and even called out Grace and Sam on numerous occasions for when they decide to be stupid. Isabelle lost her own flesh and blood for goodness sake, and yet she can see things in rational ways and is considered the voice of reason. Too bad nobody wants to listen to her.

That’s all I can really say about this book. Yes, Grace and Sam are cute… well they were in the first one. In this one, they are just way too irritating for me to appreciate it.

So I guess I have to read the third one to find out how all of this ends… We’ll see if it ends on a better note.

Book Blog Collaboration: Buddy Read with Brittany

Book Blog Collaboration: Buddy Read with Brittany

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 1 Comment



Hey everyone!

 I’m so happy to announce that I have another book blog collaboration! Everyone meet, Brittany, and go check out her blog: bookwormbrittanyy. Together, we will be doing future buddy reads, starting with When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. I am so excited to be doing an official blog collaboration with Brittany, as we have done two buddy reads together so far. Stay tuned for our discussions! Here’s our Q&A with Brittany so you can get to know her more:
Q1: Three words to describe yourself.
A1: Loyal, passionate, and determined.

Q2: What’s your favorite genre to read?
A2: YA is probably my most commonly read, but I think I enjoy psychological thrillers most of all. YA psychological thrillers are my idea of cloud nine. 

Q3: Is there a series that you can reread numerous times without getting tired of it? Which series?
A3: I have a guilty pleasure series from when I was quite a bit younger by Kate Brian called the Private Series. I have reread it twice since and though the stories seem a lot less logical now, I still love it just as much as I did when I first picked up the series. 

Q4: Without naming the book, which book could you absolutely not love no matter how much you wanted to? Explain why. 
A4: I very recently read a YA book that all other reviewers seemed to adore, but I just could not force myself to like it. I love YA but I hate reading about incessant teenage drama (I get that there will be some of this drama in a YA, but I can’t stand a book that is consumed by it). This book was just a bunch of teens constantly fighting with one another or feigning for someone’s attention and it just wasn’t my type of book. 

Q5: What is your favorite fictional place, and from which book?
Q5: I’m not sure I have one, to be honest. I am not a huge fantasy or magical realism fan (Readers, please don’t hate me. I just wasn’t that big on Harry Potter, I’m sorry). So, most of the books I’ve read are in real life settings. 

Q6: How many books do you want to read in 2018? 
Q6: I have my reading challenge on Goodreads set for 40 books…. but I fully intend to read more than that if my work and school schedule will allow it. I’d really love to shoot for 60-75. 

Q7: Are you participating in any reading challenges this year? If so, what are they?
Q7: I am! I actually recently completed the Copy Cat Challenge for January (where you are paired with another participant and must choose one of their read books to read and rate), and I am participating in the year-long A-Z Challenge for 2018! I’d like to join some more should time allow, but we will see. 

Q8: Three words to describe your love for reading.
Q8: Never-ending, obsessive, and enjoyable. 

Q9: Why did you start your blog?
Q9: I really decided to start posting my reviews on a blog as a way to keep track of them all for myself, but to also have more than one platform to express myself on. I love writing reviews but the whole upkeep of a blog can be very expressive and creative and fun, and I like that aspect of blogging. 

Q10: Who is your favorite author?
Q10: I have never been able to narrow down an answer to this question, unfortunately. I am always simultaneously obsessed with numerous authors at the same time. I have a special place in my heart for a few authors though, who include: Sarah Dessen, John Green, and Ellen Hopkins (what a weird group of authors, I know). 

 Are you guys ready? If you’d like to participate in this buddy read, leave a comment for us below! The more, the merrier. I am so looking forward to this read.