Hunger Games Readers: Help needed!

I dunno about you, but I'm excited about The Hunger Games hitting the screens soon.  Here's a little taste of what you'll see:





Haha, that looks awesome!  And it got me thinking: what was it about The Hunger Games that makes it so awesome?  Suspenseful?  Different?

I mean, I remember the first time I read it, I flew through the pages because I just HAD to know what was going to happen to Katniss and Peeta and the adorable little Rue.  My heart pounded at times.  I was mad at my hubster for reminding me we needed to eat at some point because that meant I had to leave the arena and the characters I had grown to love and enter back into my own life.

So, back to my question, what makes it so awesome? I determined to figure it out by rereading the book.  You know, for research.  So I opened the book, focusing on the word choice, the imagery, the descriptions.  Beautiful.  Love it!  And then the last line of the first chapter did me in.  I went back to turning those pages, flying through the book, though I already knew how it would end.  I devoured that book again.

I debated reading it a third time.  But I think the same thing might happen.  Maybe I need to read it backwards.  Read the last chapter, then the second to last, etc.  Who knows.  Somewhere in that book is the secret to Suzanne Collin's success and I want it.

So, I'm asking you, please help me out.  What do you think is Collin's secret?  Characters? Plot? Word choice? Chapter endings? What did she do to make The Hunger Games such a success?