Book Summary

The book starts with Katniss at home and she explains everything about her life, about her home, her sister, the

mangy orange cat named Buttercup, except in the movie it’s a black cat, her mom, District 12, the Seam, which isn’t really mentioned in the movie, the dystopian government, Gale, and the Meadow/forest. She also explains the reaping, which is a system where children aged 12-18 get randomly picked, although there is a thing called the tesserae where you get more rations in exchange for putting your name more times that was not mentioned in the movie (I think), to participate in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a live event run by the capitol where 24 teens from 12 districts fight to the death and the one victor is rewarded with riches and fame, in the movie this was all explained at the start with just white text on the screen on a black background, which surely isn’t the best way to do that but I’ll talk about that more in my review. Anyways, it’s reaping day and Katniss is in the forest with Gale, her best and really only friend. They’re talking about their life and Gale suggests that they could just run away from it all and fend for themselves in the forest, which they probably could do, they’re both excellent hunters. Katniss is offended by this, she thinks about life in a very real way, no time for fantasies because she has to take care of her sister and mother. After this exchange it’s time for the actual reaping itself, there’s a lot of suspense but finally the first name is called. It’s Katniss’ 12 year old sister, Prim. Before she can even think, she immediately shouts, “I volunteer as tribute!”, taking the place of her sister. This causes a bit of an uproar because this is the first time in recent memory that District 12 has ever had a volunteer. She goes up on stage where there’s a Capitol representative, named Effie, and the previous winner from District 12 who will be the tributes’ mentor, a belligerent drunk named Haymitch. In the movie, Haymitch is a lot less of a drunk and a lot less belligerent, in the book he ends up falling off of the stage because of how drunk he is. The 2nd tribute is named Peeta who Katniss kinda knows, and they shake hands. After the whole process tributes go through they’re on a train to the Capitol. On the train, they meet Effie and Haymitch is already blackout drunk, only in the book. Eventually Haymitch sobers up a little and Katniss and Peeta prove to him that they are actually fighters, so Haymitch says he’ll actually do his job if they do exactly what he says. After a few days the train arrives at the Capitol.

At the Capitol Katniss and Peeta get their outfits created for the Opening ceremony. During the games your outfit has to

be vetted by the Gamemakers and you’re only allowed one token from your district, Katniss’ is a mockingjay pin she got from Madge in the book, but in the movie it's from a random old lady in the Hob. They then begin their training where Haymitch tells them to keep as low of a profile as possible. After training is over, the tributes do one final demonstration in front of the Gamemakers where they receive a score. During her demonstration Katniss shoots an arrow at the Gamemakers out of frustration, luckily it hits an apple in a pig's mouth. This fiery display earns her a 11, the 2nd highest score possible, and the highest out of all of the other tributes. Then they do interviews where Peeta reveals that he’s been in love with Katniss for years. Katniss is shocked and upset at this, but eventually comes around when she realizes that she can use this to get sponsors. Finally, the Games start and all of the tributes are transported to an arena, luckily for Katniss it’s a forest. She gets distracted by Peeta at the start of the Games causing her to almost get killed. She gets away and sets up camp in the forest. Night falls, and she climbs up high in a tree to sleep. When she wakes up she hears Peeta’s voice in a pack of Careers’ voices. She’s confused by this, did Peeta betray her, or is he just “playing the game”. That doesn’t really matter though because the Careers are trying to smoke her out of the tree. When Katniss looks in the distance at another tree, she sees Rue, someone she met during training, point to what looks like a wasp's nest that’s hanging from the tree. Except it’s not a wasp’s nest, it’s a tracker jacker nest which is a deadly type of wasp. She knocks the nest down causing the Careers to get stung, harming most of them, and killing one. She also gets stung and “hallucinates” Peeta telling her to leave. After waking up from a small coma, she meets back up with Rue and they hunt together. They devise a plan to destroy the Career’s supplies which Katniss successfully does, but Rue gets stuck in a trap. A tribute kills Rue with an arrow and she dies in Katinss’ arms.

Before the tribute can get away Katniss has already killed him with an arrow, her first actual kill. She eventually finds Peeta

who is almost dead with a very infected leg. There’s an announcement that 2 people from the same district can both win the games. She gets medicine that heals Peeta enough. They make it to the final 2, but before they win there’s an announcement that the previous change has been revoked. They plan to kill themselves but the Gamemakers stop them. They’re both declared winners, but the Capitol is mad at them