The Hunger Games trilogy

The Hunger Games (374 pages), Catching Fire (391 pages) and Mockingjay (398 pages) by Suzanne Collins

This trilogy has already been blogged about on a few occasions on this blog (like here, here and here, for example), so I won't go into plot descriptions here. Let's just say it's a young adult trilogy set in a dystopian future society that has an annual battle royale tradition for its teens, and features one of the best YA heroines I've come across. Katniss is heroic but not superhuman, which I find really refreshing and realistic.

And that is what I most enjoy about the series. This series could have been so two-dimensional and contrived, but Collins made some surprising choices in her characterizations and plot that, I think, is what makes it so believable. I can understand Katniss' simultaneous disgust and delight at her beautification team; a lot of authors would have taken that opportunity to make the heroine simply fawn over the attention and pretty dresses without the element of discomfort. Also, a lot of attention has been paid to the ending of the series, with people either loving it or hating it. I loved it, in part because it was so realistic.

As I read it, the series reminded me a lot of Orson Scott Card's Ender and Shadow series. In those books (which are some of my favorites) he made complex characters who were dealing with complex political or martial situations. Anybody who liked one would probably like the other.