Book Review: Suzanne Collins's Catching Fire

Book 2 in the Suzanne Collins Hunger Games Series is Catching Fire.  If you haven’t read Book 1, it’s a must! Check out my review.  Also, I’m so enamored with the series that I’m giving away a copy of this book along with a $10 GC.  Contest ends tonight – see link for details.  Note: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!

After Book 1, the 16 year old girl on fire, Katniss Everdeen, made it home as a victor from the Hunger Games.  Peeta made it home too, but unlike Katniss, he’s nursing a broken heart.  Both of them did what they had to do to survive in the “kill or be killed” Hunger Games.  They barely made it out alive and caused quite a stir in the process.  In Book 2, unknown to Katniss, rumors of an uprising have surfaced, prompting her to receive an unscheduled visit from the diabolical President Snow.  He’s the man that smelled like roses and blood and he gave me the creeps. 

Despite all President Snow’s attempts at censorship with Katniss and Peeta’s act of defiance, a small flame has sparked an uprising among some of the Districts.  And now in order to defuse the volatile situation, Katniss was forced to continue to play the love match with Peeta.  Was it love or were they both still playing the game?  Off camera Peeta played the jilted lover, while Gale, Katniss’s life-long friend, secretly admited his true feelings to Katniss.  Sadly, Katniss was literally pulled in several directions that I wondered how she could really even decide?  The capital demanded her cooperation while Peeta and Gale wanted her love.  Her mother still saw her as a young girl and the Districts claimed her as the face of their rebellion.

Just like the games, it all happened so fast and the Capitol decided Katniss’s next course of action.  She’s now reenlisted – along with all the other District’s victors – back into the Hunger Games.  This time in the Quarter Quell; the Olympics of Hunger Games.  It was all rigged – the Quarter Quell and everything else for that matter.  President Snow figured the best way to minimize the damage is to kill all the District’s former victors or heroes.  And that’s only half of the story, guys.  I can’t tell you anything else.  It’s so damn good, you have to….HAVE TO READ IT!

I was so hooked; I went out the very next day and got the final installment, MockingJay.  I loved all three books in the series, seriously.  For me, Catching Fire was easily 4.75.  There is no question, this is one of the best YA series out there.

Mina B.