Review of Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games"

I enjoy dystopian novels. It's fun and a little sadistic to think about how the Earth will change. Will it become more Orwellian? Or will it just disintegrate?
I've been hearing a lot about this series. I generally don't go for fad books because they're all based on other things. I guess that could be said of any book, but I find that fad books are highly unoriginal. I will admit that I read the Twilight series... three times. They're entertaining and they have good character development. They're basically a violent "Pride and Prejudice" except written by a fourth grader. 
I read this book in the car one day. I highly enjoyed it. It was an entertaining read with good visuals. Some of it was unique, but for the most part, my opinion about fad books has been true. 

As usual, here are my "things I liked" and "things I didn't like":

Things I liked about this book:

• I liked the amount of ceremony that was involved. From the lottery to the outfits and costumes, from the interviews to the televised brutality. 
• I liked the emotional confusion. Is it real? Is it an act? 
• I like the survivalism. This has been something that has always intrigued me. 

Things I didn't like about this book:

• If you've ever seen or read "Battle Royale", you know the story. 
• It was fairly obvious how the book was going to end. 
• When the ending finally arrived I was unamused. It was supposed to be some kind of cliffhanger. I decided to give up at that point. I mean, I might read the next one... but then again, I might not. It was just a bad ending. 
• The characters that are encountered in the actual arena are not ones that you will learn to love. They come and then they go. You don't appreciate them like you should. I guess I'm trying to say that the character development is lacking. 

Overall:
The book was entertaining. It's nothing to rave about, but it was enjoyable.