Hunger Games Short Summary

The Hunger Games is a book by Suzanne Collins based in an apocalyptic world. First, we meet our 16-year-old protagonist named Katniss Everdeen. She is a tough teenager who hunts to provide food for her family. She lives with her younger sister Prim and their mother in District 12. Her hunting partner is a young man named Gale who might like her.

There is an annual event named The Hunger Games that sees members of all twelve districts gather in the Capital. In this event, each district is supposed to randomly have two individuals (tributes) a girl and boy drafted after which they will be taken to an arena where they are supposed to fight until death. There can only be one winner in the hunger games. Things go wrong when Prim (Katniss’s sister) is chosen. Katniss volunteers to go in her place in the company of the other tribute, Peetah. Peetah might also like Katniss.

After the process of selection, named reaping; the pair is taken to the capital in preparation for the hunger games. They have a support team consisting of a former champion named Haymitch, Effie, the wrangler and stylists named Portia and Cinna.

The stylists dress the two up in flames ad this sparks much attention. Katniss excels in training and scores very high in archery. Peetah, on the other hand, scores low and requests separate training. Peetah reveals his crush on live television and Katniss decides to play along as it worked in gaining support from the audience and even sponsors

The 24 tributes are taken to the battle arena. Katniss is alone at first but then meets Rue, a young District 11 girl who reminded her of her sister. Peetah teams up with some Career tributes led by Cato who were from the wealthy families and enjoyed the games. Rue and Katniss destroy the food supplies of the career tributes and in the process, realize that Peetah was not among them. One Career tribute kills Rue. Katniss honors her by covering her body with flowers.

Katniss seeks out Peetah who was wounded. She finds him in a mud camouflage and takes care of his wounds. The romance angle would pay off. Cato was the only other tribute alive by this point, and they knew they had to face him. They are suddenly chased by mutated dogs, and Katniss finds an opportunity to shoot Cato who falls to the pack. The announcer reveals that there can only be one winner.

Peetah and Katniss decide to take poisonous berries as a way to enact a double suicide as they cannot kill one another. The announcer reappears before they take the berries and says that both won. After the games, they keep up their romance routine. However, Katniss realizes that Peetah is genuinely in love with her, but she does not feel the same for him. They play this down and smile for the cameras.