The Top 10 Everything of 2009

Almost invisible behind the juggernaut that is the Twilight phenomenon is another breakout young-adult series, one that's better written and in many ways more powerful: Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games books, the second of which, Catching Fire, came out this year. They're set in a future dystopia ruled by a totalitarian technocracy that once a year forces the population to stage a grotesque gladiatorial spectacle: 24 children are placed in an arena bristling with traps and weapons, where they fight to the death. Katniss, our heroine, is the reluctant champion (she's pure murder with a bow and arrow) who would rather be fighting for freedom.

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