The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

WARNING: SOME VAGUE SPOILERS AHEAD.

 

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are still alive.  Katniss should be relieved, but now there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

As the nation watches Katniss and Peeta, the stakes are higher than ever.  One false move and the consequences will be unimaginable.

Suzanne Collins' sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, avoids the second book slump; even if the dreaded love triangle becomes more prominent.  I had defended Katniss and her un-decidedness in my review of The Hunger Games, but I think the situation starts to become more YA typical in this book, unfortunately.  There's more important things to worry about other than boys, you know!

Most of Catching Fire details what happens directly after the last games, and the consequences that Katniss faces for making sure that both herself and Peeta survived.  This means there's a lot of exposition and hardly any action.  Don't get me wrong, it is interesting exposition; learning about previous victorious tributes, a possible secret district etc.  However, when I finally reached the Quarter Quell, I appreciated the action in the arena, more so than the last book, and thought that the "clock" was rather inventive.  Although it's rather obvious that the tributes weren't meant to stay in the arena long, as I was running out of pages to read!

This wasn't a bad read, and the ending is pretty interesting, setting plenty of plot points up for Mockingjay, the final instalment in the trilogy.