Catching Fire

Catching Fire
By: Suzanne Collins
Copyright: 2008
Scholastic Press

3 Bookmarks out of 5

So, here I am with my review of the 2nd book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I downloaded it to my nook, which my bookshelf is probably happy about because there is precious little space left on it. All things considered, I mainly was sucked into reading it because I bought all three and, well, I finished the first one. Without further ado, I will go into what I thought of it. This may be a short review. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN PLOT SPOILERS. PLEASE DO NOT READ ANYMORE IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE INFORMED ABOUT ANYTHING IN THE BOOK. NO, SERIOUSLY. I MEAN IT.

Okay, so Catching Fire picks up where the first book left off. What happens to Katniss and Peeta after the Hunger Games? How does life move on? The first part of the book was great as demonstrating how life changed vastly for everyone who was directly connected to Katniss' life. I loved the way Suzanne Collins shows the rift between Gale and Katniss and how life in District 12 is changing now that the Capitol is cracking down on rebels. This felt like a real trilogy in that sense. It was not the same plot, and the characters actually showed some maturation and development. I love how Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch have this unspoken bond that no one else will understand and it is a bond that cannot be broken. As a reader, I eat this stuff up. I mean, my best friends and I have been through some stuff together, but our lives have never really been on the line.

Then, much to my dismay, Catching Fire pulled at Hangover: Part 2 on all of us. It began to feel like the same story-line as the first book. During the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games, President Snow decides to further punish Panem by picking tributes from the existing pool of victors. It doesn't take the reader long to realize that Peeta and Katniss are going back into the arena. Then the book begins the long, arduous process of making sure the reader sits through every single event that happens every year at the Games yet again. The interviews. The training. The tube up to the arena. Please. I read this in the last book. It was called The Hunger Games. I really wanted to read more about what state Panem was in instead of reading about Peeta and Katniss argue over who was going to live this time.

I will say this, though - I had 2 reasons for not throwing my nook down in utter frustration of the similar plots of the two books. The first reason is the fact that I don't want to break my nook. The second reason is that Suzanne Collins put just enough of a twist on the arena to keep my attention. I won't ruin that for any of you who are still reading this review because it is honestly a high point of the book which literally made me go, "OH CRAP" out loud. After the plot did a deja-vu turn, I didn't think that Catching Fire would capture that much of an emotional reaction out of me. Hats off to Suzanne Collins for making 100 pages of mundane story pass by and then suck me right back in.

All that being said, Catching Fire turns out to be exactly what I should have expected it to be - it's the 2nd book of the trilogy. Suzanne Collins uses this book to set up the last book. There is a lot that probably could have been left out and a lot that, in my own opinion, could have been done differently to give the book its own stand-alone flavor rather than piggy-backing off the first book. The present tense is still one of the main pulls of the book and I am excited to see how the plot resolves. If readers push through this book, I'm hoping they will have an ample return in the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy. That review is still to come.