The books are far, far better...and a LOT more violent. The movie is only the first of three to come out, still a lot more story to tell. Still, the concept of 24 children killing one another in an arena is both horrifying and cool at the same time. For being a novel targeted towards older teenagers, the violence and subject matter is intense (male prostitution, torture, mind control, drug addiction).
It reminds me a lot of King's earlier works The Long Walk and the Running Man(not the stupid Arnold movie)......a brutal gameshow set in a dystopian future where a cruel and overlording government reigns over the poor masses through intimidation and propaganda.
For instance, Cato, the District 2 Tribute who made it to the final 3, was getting chewed on for quite some time by those "dogs"....though, in the book, those weren't dogs but dog-like mutations that resembled the Tributes who had been killed up to that point.