Review for Catching Fire

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Source: Bought
Summary (from Goodreads):
  
"Sparks are igniting, flames are spreading and the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol-- a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before... and surprising readers at every turn."

                                           Review

 

I read (and was told) that Catching Fire was the boring second book. So many people said you just had to push through it in order to get to the last book where all the excitement takes place. What do I have to say to those people? You’re completely crazy!

Catching Fire was so well written and just as captivating as the first one. I’ll admit that when I was reading and found the victors were going to be returned to the Games I was a bit put off. At first I thought Collins was just doing it because she had all these left over ideas that she never got to use in The Hunger Games and this was her chance to get it all out there. But the more I read, the more I realized that wasn’t the case at all.

She introduced new characters, characters that I grew to care for. Like Finnick Odair and the little bite we saw of Mags. I thought at first Katniss and Peeta were so stupid to trust him, but no, I was wrong again. He was such a good guy, and the more you read about him the more you grow to care about him as a character you want kept safe.

And my favourite part? The part that made me squeal and smile so freakin’ wide my cheeks hurt? Do I even have to say it? The kiss with Gale. Oh. My. God. Just the way she described the way he took charge and did it… Katniss? What the hell, woman? Why are you not responding to that damn kiss? Argh!

Even though I did like how Collins returned them to the games, I will say that it wasn’t as exciting the second time around. It did feel played out at times, even with the new twists and turns, but I think it worked because she didn’t draw it out. It was faster paced this time and then the ending hits you and you’re like BAM! Now what?

Now what indeed?