Catching Fire

Catching Fire

By Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press

ISBN: 978-0-439-02349-8

4.25 stars

Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy. My review of The Hunger Games is here. I’ve tried to avoid spoilers but if you really don’t want to know anything, you may want to stop reading now.

Katniss and Peeta are back home after winning the Hunger Games attempting to live normal lives. Instead, they spend their days and nights coping with the aftermath of the Games and the affect their actions, in and out of the arena, have on their loved ones. Katniss and Peeta are supposed to be in love and they do their best to pretend in public but her feelings are a jumbled mess and she’s not sure what she feels for Peeta. Her friend Gale is back in the picture and she doesn’t know what to do with him or her feelings for him either.

Talk of rebellion is all around and Katniss constantly wonders if her actions in the arena were the cause. When she and Peeta embark on their Victory Tour of the districts, they end up causing more trouble, some unknowingly and some intentionally. Now Katniss needs to prove to the Capitol that her actions mean nothing before everything comes back to haunt her.

I preferred death match in the area to inciting rebellion. I’m not sure what they says about me but even though I liked The Hunger Games better, I found Catching Fire just as addicting. Some parts of Catching Fire felt like a re-hash of The Hunger Games to some degree since certain events take place all over again. Katniss is still trying to decide between Peeta and Gale. Frankly, I’m almost as frustrated as she is with the choice. She is still sullen, self-centered, and annoying as ever (I must point out though that it works for her and is not the turnoff you think it will be.) and you have to wonder why anyone would love her. Yet, they do.

Catching Fire is a really fast read and really entertaining. It’s brain candy at it’s ultimate with all the addicting qualities you want out of it. It’s just as violent as the first and ends in the same appallingly annoying way: end of book two. Now I have to wait until August to find out what happens next.