Review: Catching Fire

by Suzanne Collins
publisher: Scholastic
date published: September 1, 2009
format: hardcover
pages: 391
source: borrowed from a friend
Amazon / Goodreads / B&N
challenges: Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge; 2011 YA Reading Challenge

From Goodreads:

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

What I Thought

When I first began reading Catching Fire, I was worried that the book would follow the trend I've been noticing in the series I've been reading as of late. That is, I was worried that the second book would lack the pop of the first book. At first, I thought it would be so as Katniss's everyday life in the victor's village is detailed. It didn't stay that way for long, however. It quickly becomes apparent that Katniss is in great danger. From that moment on, I was sucked in just as thoroughly as I had been in The Hunger Games.

Katniss didn't change much as a character, which I was glad of since I liked her so much in The Hunger Games. She was just as determined, just as wary as before. I loved the way her mind worked as she thought out all possible scenarios when judging who she could trust and who she could not. Though she may not have always been right, the fact that she was able to come up with so many different possible motives was fascinating. As for Peeta, he became more firmly established as an honorable person. Even when he is telling a falsehood, it is with a very specific purpose in mind, the results of which can be of great help to a land under the most severe oppression. You will know exactly to what I refer once you read it. Finally, many of the new characters were very interesting to watch develop. I look forward to seeing them grow further in the next book. I want to find out what makes them tick.

My favorite thing about Catching Fire is that I was always kept guessing. I can not recall a single instance in which I had already figured out what was going to happen. It is fairly rare that my intuition failed to hone in on the outcomes. By the time the book concluded, I was left with my jaw dropped. I love a book that can keep me guessing. There is nothing better than a shocking development in a plot to really make you stop and think about what you have read.

I am really hesitant to say much more about this book, lest I give too much away. I certainly wouldn't want to do that! This book is well worth the read. I have the feeling that I am going to be buying my own copies of the books in this series very soon. I give Catching Fire 5 hoots.