And, the hottest ARC of the summer is...

Today, my morning started with a happy dance, because my turn came to read the ARC of Catching Fire.

Scholastic didn't give me an ARC, but the teen selection librarian got her hands on one. She showed us at the teen notable books meeting and got mobbed! She started a list, and huzzah! Today it became my turn! I'm already a hundred pages in.

So, I thought I should finally review...

The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins

In retaliation for a rebellion, every district must send two children to the capital every year to compete in the Hunger Games. It's a battle to the death and the winner is set for life. When her younger sister is picked to go, Katniss volunteers to go in her place.

Everyone and their brother has reviewed this book and I will say I really liked it and will definitely read the sequel, but I didn't love love love it the way other people seem to have. This is not my all-time favorite book ever, but it's a grand adventure that completely sucked me in. It's also hard to review a book that everyone loves because when I say I didn't like it as much, it seems like I didn't like it at all, which isn't the case. Let's say, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being awesome, I feel like the rest of blog land gave this a 12. And I'm giving it an 8.

I was talking with Sara at Book Club a few months ago. and she said she thought of it as a Middle Grade novel instead of Young Adult. She was surprised that other people found it overly violent and bloody because she thought it didn't go far enough, especially when compared to Ender's Game. I had just started the book, so I took those thoughts in mind as I read. I haven't read Ender's Game yet, but I have read Lord of the Flies. Lord of the Flies is a lot more violent and bloody and they were just trying to survive. They didn't *have* to kill to win. In Hunger Games they do. That doesn't take away from the book, though. It's more of a side note. I wouldn't go so far to put Hunger Games as Middle Grade per say, but I will put it on the younger end of the YA scale (7th grade up)