Book Review: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games Book 2) by Suzanne Collins

Book Title: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games Book 2)

Author: Suzanne Collins(http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/)

Pages: 391

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Sci-fi

(Scale Explanation: 1) Meaning awful, 5) Meaning not good, but not bad, equal, 10) Meaning wonderful)

PLOT - 10

CHARACTERS - 10

BEGINNING - 10

ENDING - 10

FLOW - 10

OVERALL - 10

What I liked about this book: What could I not like about this book? The Hunger Games series has taken my breath away and has become my new obsession. I cannot get enough of this series. It has the perfect mixture of suspense, romance, morbid situations, and adult themes. Katniss is a great character that is strong, yet has a turmoil to battle. I thoroughly enjoy the character of Peeta because he is Katniss’ strong shoulder to carry her through anything. Also Peeta is very smart and a great speaker for the uprising. TEAM PEETA!

What I disliked about this book: Gale. LOL I know that is so wrong, but I don’t like Gale. Although, we haven’t got to see much of him, he just seems to be someone that Katniss should feel like is family, rather than a love interest. He seems whiny and if he truly loved Katniss before, he should’ve said something. Other than that, President Snow is disgusting but an interesting villain.

Who I would recommend this book to: Anyone that loved the first book in the trilogy. Anyone that is looking for a good action-packed book to read.

What I felt the book was about: Katniss and Peeta have survived the hunger games and are back in District 12. They are preparing for the Victory Tour, but having a hard time keeping up the façade that is their romance. Haymitch has gone back to his heavy alcoholism ways and Katniss and Peeta each have a lovely house in the Victor’s Village. They’re receiving food and everything that one would need to survive as well as helping everyone in District 12 with those needs. Hunky dory, right? Wrong. Gale planted a kiss on Katniss a few days after arriving home and President Snow saw it, even though it was outside the fence. He give Katniss a visit and threatens her that if she doesn’t make the romance with Peeta full-on what it needs to be, there will be consequences, mainly ones that involve her mother, Prim, and Gale. This is after Katniss witnessed a special report on the TV of the Mayor at the Victor’s Dinner in District 12. The special report stated that District 8 was rebelling. Apparently, things had calmed down a bit, but District 12 suffers for this rebellion. The food doesn’t come in, there is a blizzard, and a new batch of awful peacekeepers make it into the District. Katniss sneaks out to meet Gale, when she finds two peacekeepers. These are not real peacekeepers. They are escapees from District 8 and they are on their way to the ruins of District 13. It is speculated that there is a group of independent humans living underground there. The escapees have a piece of bread with a stamp of the mockingjay pin that Katniss wore in the first hunger games that she competed in. She makes it back over the fence, climbing a tree, because the fence has been turned back on and bonds with Peeta. Gale is caught walking the streets with a wild turkey that he had killed and is whipped in the town square. Peeta and Katniss stop the whipping and take Gale to Katniss’ home. Gale recovers and goes back to his house. On the Victory Tour, Peeta proposes to Katniss and she accepts. There is a grand celebration held in the Capitol, at President Snow’s home. Katniss meets Plutarch Heavensbee, the new head gamemaker for the Quarter Quell Hunger Games. He shows her his timepiece, and Katniss makes out that there is an iridescent picture of a mockingjay on it. She can’t put this together, but goes on. They get back to District 12 and President Snow announces how the Quarter Quell games will go. It’s shocking. He says that this years tributes will be pulled from the existing batch of victors. This means that Katniss is going back and that she is going back with either Peeta or Haymitch. Peeta starts training them like Careers and Haymitch is chosen on the Reaping day, but Peeta takes his place. They go to the Capitol to prepare and Cinna is back at his excellent designs. Katniss keeps overhearing how things are harder for people in the Capitol to get, things that are produced in different districts. An uprising is in the midst. When they get their scores, Peeta and Katniss each score a 12, due to a defying act for the gamemakers. Then, when they have their interviews, President Snow makes Katniss wear one of her wedding gowns, though Cinna has modified it to turn into a Mockingjay outfit when Katniss spins. This is revealed and everyone cheers. Then Peeta takes his interview to the stage and announces that Katniss and he had already been married in a private ceremony at home, because they couldn’t wait. He also says that Katniss is pregnant. This shocks the people of the Capitol and there is a rebellion there as well, everyone is angry that the hunger games are being played and they’re calling for a stop to them. Katniss and Peeta have met all the other tributes and there are some strange people, but they make allies with Finnick. They enter the arena and it is a dome, not very much space to move around in. They figure out the whole setup pretty quickly and figure a way to kill the last of the surviving tributes that are a threat to them. The whole time, Peeta is fighting for Katniss to stay alive and Katniss is fighting for Peeta to stay alive. Sounds like love to me.  Anyway, they rig up a charge to shock the last few tributes, but this goes haywire and Katniss spots a chink in the armor that is the force field, she ties the wire to her arrow and shoot it. This blows up the whole dome. A hover craft comes in and picks her up. She is assuming she is dead, but what is revealed after she is in the hovercraft will send her into a slight depression. She finds out that Peeta was picked up, but he was picked up by a Capitol hover craft. She finds out that Plutarch Heavensbee was in on an underground society that has been plotting to overthrow the Capitol for years. Haymitch is there and they were just able to save Gale, Prim, and her mother before District 12 was demolished. I can’t wait for Mockingjay!

Favorite excerpts or quotes from the book: “I do,” I say. “I need you.” He looks upset, takes a deep breath as if to begin a long argument, and that’s no good, no good at all, because he’ll start going on about Prim and my mother and everything and I’ll just get confused. So before he can talk, I stop his lips with a kiss. I feel that things again. The thing I only felt once before. In the cave last year, when I was trying to get Haymitch to send us food. I kissed Peeta about a thousand times during those Games and after. But there was only one kiss that made me feel something stir deep inside. Only one that made me want more. But my head wound started bleeding and he made me lie down. This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Peeta gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this in an entirely new kind.” – Page 352