Set in a post-apocalyptic world where Capitol reigns supreme, 12 districts annually bend to the will of their leaders, sending one boy and one girl out for  slaughter. The 24 children, ages 12 to 18, are placed in one arena and must hone their natural skills to survive in a battle to the death that ends when only one stands. Every district must watch the national Hunger Games daily and observe as their children murder each other.

Appearing on the New York Times best seller list for 100 consecutive weeks and selling 800,000 copies, “The Hunger Games” gained popularity after its release Sept. 14, 2008. In 2011, a teaser trailer premiered during the MTV Video Movie Awards, stating that a movie based on the first novel was scheduled to come out last Friday. With this, the excitement around the books sparked back up.

Freshman Katelyn Sanders became drawn to the books after hearing about the movie.

“They were really well written,” she said. “It kept you hooked because you didn’t ever know what was coming next. Suzanne Collins took you for a turn.”
senior Chris Douglas compared the popularity of the Hunger Games to a blockbuster hit.

“Harry Potter is the closest series that can compare with the “Hunger Games,” in both hype and popularity,” he said. “People are excited for the movie for the same reasons they were excited for Harry Potter movies, they’re great books. The genre isn’t quite the same, but still comparable.”

English teachers caught on to the build-up around the book and began assigning it to students in English I.

“Students absolutely loved it,” English teacher Amber Wallace said. “When the bell would ring everyday for the class to end, you would hear this ‘aww, no’ at the end of every class. Kids have had zero interest in reading up until this. It’s changed them. I’ve got kids reading that have not picked up a book before and have now purchased the second and third book and are ripping through those so there have been lots of positive reactions from the kids. It’s something modern, it’s something that wasn’t written in the 1500s or whatever, it’s something they can relate to now.”

However, for the same reasons people love the series, they worried that the movie would ruin the plot.

“I watched the trailer and it seemed like it was going to be pretty on,” Sanders said. “I hope they keep the intensity and that they stick to the way that it’s written. If they change too much, it won’t be any fun.”

Douglas shares the same reservations about the movies and said he hopes his favorite scenes in the book are upheld in the movie.

“I hope that they stick to the plot and that the characters are kind of the way I imagined them like how they act and stuff,” he said. “I am most excited to see the games themselves, more specifically, the very beginning of the games, the banquet scene, and the running from the ‘mutts’, because the way Suzanne Collins wrote them made me picture those scenes as incredibly captivating. On the flip side, if they mess up those scenes I will be very disappointed.”

Although sophomore Molly Bradley remains cautious in going to see the movie, she said she is hopeful for the movie

“I’m always hesitant when they make books into movies because they usually do spoil a little bit of it,” she said. “So there is that, but otherwise I’m pretty excited. I hope that they stay as close to the story.”