Catching Fire (Hunger Games, Book Two): Volume 2

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Nice read

Let me just say that the Hunger Games - Book 1 - was amazing, and one of the best books I have ever read. The tight narrative, fast paced action, great characters and yes - a believable story, gripped me on every page.So, Catching Fire was always going to struggle to match that. So I will rate it four stars, even though it may only deserve three. My reasoning is based on rating it as a book on its own, which you can't do, in all fairness.This is a trilogy, so if we take the three boos as one whole story, then Catching Fire will stand up better, I hope.The problem with this book, is that the pace seems rather lopsided. In the Hunger Games, the pace built up like a crescendo, and was incredibly gripping and dramatic.In Catching Fire, it struggles to know where it is going, before really picking up the pace in the final third. Perhaps few stories could keep up the intensity of the Hunger Games, so I will reserve having a go at this until I have read Mockingjay, the third in the series.Some have criticised Miss Collin's writing style. But this is first person - we are a fly on Katniss' shoulder, so we should expect the writing in this matter. It didn't bother me at all like it bothered others.All in all, Catching Fire is well written, has great characters, and is described rather well. You do feel like you are there. The Peeta / Gale angle isn't resolved here, perhaps that will be in the final book. I'd like to see President Snow get what's coming to him, but knowing Miss Collin's ability to twist a twisted tale, that may not happen at all.Do I hope for a happy ending? Well I think Katniss deserves it. She comes across as a good heroine, and not whiny as some say.So - a really good go at emulating the first book, but fell a bit short.

Here be spoilers for The Hunger Games - Don't read on if you've not read that book yet!!I reviewed The Hunger Games a while back and, actually, the gap between me reviewing the books is much longer than it took me to read them both! These books were the first paid for books I'd read on my Kindle and I have to say that I snatched every spare moment I could to read them as they were so blimmin' good.Catching Fire continues where The Hunger Games left off - Katniss and Peeta have survived the arena and returned to District 12 - but all is not sweetness and light, as both have nightmares of what they went through and, having learned that their relationship was all an act, Peeta is distinctly cool with Katniss and she's not sure whether this is good or bad. At the start of the book there is a really well written sense of Katniss and Peeta being out of place, they're no longer sure where they fit since their return and it's easy to see now why Haymitch chooses to live in the bottle.A year after the events of the first book, it appears that Katniss's small rebellion in the Hunger Games has sparked off unrest in the other districts and to stamp it out - and potentially kill Katniss and what she stands for - The Capital decide that for this year's Hunger Games, they will return former tributes to the arena. Katniss and Peeta find themselves back in danger, fighting for their lives, but this time they make some new alliances that will save them time and again.I found this book a little slower than the first, but liked that it examined more about Katniss's state of mind and about her feeling of being an outsider, even in her own home. The `love triangle' was not really to my taste as I thought it was obvious who she should choose, but then I know others have differing opinions! The action when it came was paced well and Suzanne Collins dreams up more inventive ways to kill people.The Hunger Games is a good stand alone book, but it's great that Catching Fire doesn't let it down and paves the way brilliantly to Mockingjay, the third book, which I will review sooooon!

Unwillingly or unknowingly Katniss and Peeta's "all or nothing" final act in the 74th Hunger Games that renders them both victorious, not only is historic to the Games' record but is also perceived as a challenge to Panem's totalitarian order both by rulers and the ruled. Ultimately, the message conveyed is that the Capitol can be successfully challenged!This is the background for this "Hunger Games - Catching Fire" sequel. Civil unrest spreads throughout the Districts. On tour, covering the 12 Districts, the victorious couple is paraded and thus comes in touch with the bloody and brutal repressive reality. The minimal deviation can be deadly! Everyday life is increasingly unbearable.An alleged big cover up also adds to the atmosphere; that of District 13, thought to have been razed in the war, not only exists but is independent of the Capitol.Last, but not least, this is "Quarter Quell" year! A special edition of the Games, every 25 years, which holds some unique feature that will tell it apart from the regular Games; this year the 24 tributes, male and female, will be chosen from the pool of victors! Peeta and Katniss are due back in the arena! What Katniss doesn't know yet is that arrangements, of a conspiratorial nature, will be at play to get her out alive, come what may.To the rebellion ,she's now a symbol, a too valuable "asset" to let go of. Will they succeed? Read on and find out.Great reading entertainment for all.

On the cover of my copy of Catching Fire, the second book of Suzanne Collins` The Hunger Games there's a quote from Stephenie Meyer of Twilight fame saying: "The Hunger Games is amazing." Amazing? Surely not the astonishment my dictionary mentions to explain the word. There's a line inShakespeare`s Romeo and Juliet when Benvolio beseeches Romeo to flee because he's killed Tybalt saying: "Stand not amazed." Amazed? Paralysed. Bewitched. Hypnotised at the sight of what takes place. Unable to move and to escape from danger. Do we not as readers stand thus amazed before the Hunger Games. Surely this is the amazement Stephenie is referring to. Gripping is too weak a word to describe the effect the book has on its readers. But surely there is no danger, you say. Does not the danger lie in being unable to move yet driven by the strongest of emotions? A friend on Goodreads wrote that she wanted to throw the 2nd book against the wall when she finished it such was her frustration with the author's choice of ending. When I reached the end of the 1st book I wondered why I felt both exhausted and worked up. There was nowhere for those emotions to go. Lest it be to seep into my daily life where they didn't belong. Now, having read the 2nd book, I believe I understand why. The book holds you bound in its spell while the story tears you apart emotionally. No wonder we feel elated and crushed and outraged and sad and angry and a host of other emotions at the end but have no satisfactory outlet for those emotions. At the root of the word `emotion' there's `movement'. In other words, Suzanne Collins simultaneously nails us to the spot and incites us to move with the greatest force she can muster. No wonder we are exhausted. You don't believe me? Try pushing and pulling a wheelbarrow at the same time. You get nowhere. It is very tiring and frustrating. Having said that, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from reading the book, even if I believed I could. Let the emotions role.Review first published on Secret Paths: http://about-books.secret-paths.com/?p=17

The Hunger Games and the followup Catching Fire are, in my experience, not so much to be read as to be devoured. Even though having seen the movie first dampened some of the impact of the story, it's still an incredibly well-paced, tense and beautifully characterised book. Katniss Everdeen is a wonderful protagonist - strong-willed but vulnerable, racked with PTSD but determined that in the end she'll face the Games on her own terms. Catching Fire is perhaps not as coherently plotted as the first, but makes up for that with some pitch-perfect explorations of the psychological damage that the events of the first book inflicted. Utterly compelling from start to finish.