Review: The Hunger Pains - The Harvard Lampoon

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 1 stars  
Cover Rating: 4 stars (It's a good parody cover.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: February 7, 2012
Publisher: Touchstone
Page Count: 157 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

If you've read The Hunger Games, this is kind of like that except a parody. This is pretty obvious, since it says it on the cover, but in case you weren't looking. There it is.

I'm just going to start by saying that as a whole I found this book terrible. There were a couple of lines that I enjoyed (as found below) but on a whole this book kind of sucked. A lot of the humor was just immature. I'm sure some people will love this, but if you want something that's actually funny, I'd skip it.

I had no problem with it making fun of The Hunger Games. I enjoyed that book and was interested to see the twist that The Harvard Lampoon would give it. I feel like anyone could've written this parody though. Jokes were made in obvious places and on a whole were not funny.

If you've liked other books by The Harvard Lampoon I imagine you will probably like this one too since they probably use the same humor again. If you were thinking about reading it but weren't sure, I don't recommend it. Luckily it is incredibly short, so if you do start it you won't have to suffer too long.

First Line:
"I awake to the sound of a growling stomach."

Favorite Lines:
"'District Twelve. Where the safety is good, but other things are less good,' I say."

"People tell stories in the Crack about a boy winning the Hunger Games with just a pot lid, although back then they took place in Japan and were referred to as Battle Royale."