The third/final book recently came out, so I thought I'd post it up.
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is set in the future in the land/country of Panem, which is divided into 12 "districts" and the Capitol. Each district produces a certain product type, which stops them from being independent but allows Panem to survive.

The Hunger Games are an annual competition which draws a girl and a boy to the Capitol in a fight for the death--the last one standing wins, and the competition serves as a warning to the Districts that all of them are under Capitol control.

I really liked this series because it was fast-paced, exciting and full of action. The protagonist is a 16-year-old competitor in the Hunger Games.

Books in the trilogy:
The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay

The target audience of the series is definitely a bit younger than the people here (think a tad older than Percy Jackson), but it was a good series nonetheless. The only problem I had was that the last book lost the action and excitement of the first two underneath a veil of...morals/confusion/depression, which was rather disappointing.

If you do plan on reading the books I suggest not reading the Wikipedia page first, because it will destroy the fun of plot twists with a massive, crappy spoiler section.

 

I enjoyed it, though it was very YA-ish (i.e. some implausible worldbuilding, too much telegraphing, and the obligatory love triangle). Also it was annoying that Katniss was unnecessarily dense and paranoid just so the readers could figure out what's going on before she does.

The last book proved Collins can write a better (and more brutal) conclusion and epilogue than Rowling, though I could have done without Katniss repeatedly going into a coma followed by an infodump of what happened while she was out.

 

Read the first one. Not impressed. My sister-in-law loves this kind of book. I despised it. Plot was stale and predictable. Writing was not inspired. These books are basically the anti-Twilight. Aimed at a similar demographic, but more 'action' than 'romance.'

 

I found The Hunger Games was pretty well written. The romance was not fantastic; the love triangle annoyed me. Come on; according to this book the two guys had been into her for quite a while and she takes the longest and possibly worst time to figure it out.

Katniss was interesting; the brutally of her world had forced her to grow up pretty quickly and become fiercely independent. But emotionally she was still a kid, she had no idea what she really wanted, the only thing she seemed sure about was that she had to kill to get it.

Her relationship with her mother was good, after her father’s death and her mother’s depression she had to take control of the family or end up staving. This was well done and realistic.

The Hunger Games 'games' itself was very interesting; I enjoyed reading the action and tension that came with it very much.

Without the games going on, or the War in the last books the reading becomes a bit dull. The action was epic and if Susan Collins focused more on the conflict and less on the romance and personal relationships it would be epic. Also Katniss, while I liked her at first there was not much character growth.

All in all I give The Hunger Games 4/5, maybe 4.5/5.