Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games Trilogy, Book 2)

Ok, so can I begin by saying WOW?! wow wow wow wow wow!!! …. Just needed to get that out of my system. Now, on to the review.

 

Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games is the story of Katniss, a 16-year-old girl who lives in post-apocolyptic America. The country is divided into 12 districts and each district is controlled by the government, called The Capitol. Each year they hold a televised event called, “The Hunger Games” where one boy and one girl is randomly chosen from each district and must participate. The games involve all players being put in an isolated location and then they must fight against each other to become the only survivor. The survivor is then treated to a life of luxury. Check out my full review of The Hunger Games if you would like more of an idea of what the first book was about and what I thought of it.

Catching Fire is set after Katniss and Peta return from the hunger games, both surviving due to some quick thinking by Katniss. The Capitol is unhappy. They feel that Katniss manipulated them. Her small act of defiance, in order to save her life and that of her friend, has caused some unrest in the districts and The Capitol are worried that they have a rebellion on their hands. Katniss does what she can to calm the districts when her and Peta take part in the traditional victors tour but little does Katniss realise, she has become a source of hope that the districts can be freed from the oppression of The Capitol and her mockingjay pin has become the symbol of the revolution.

Katniss Everdeen survived The Hunger Games. Now The Capitol wants revenge.

I really loved the first book in this series. When I reviewed it I gave it a rating of four stars and was looking forward to reading the next book. It just took me a while to get around to it and now, I have no idea why I waited! This book was FANTASTIC! I didn’t think it was possible to be much better than the first but I was wrong. This book took the story of Katniss forward in leaps and bounds!

It begins with Katniss and her family settling into their new lives, living in a big house in the victors village of their district. But all is soon to come unraveled as The Capitol put into action a shocking plan to deal with the problem of Katniss Everdeen once and for all. Now, Katniss must once again fight for not only her own life, but for the lives of those she loves the most.

I really want to write more about this novel, but I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I read this book without knowing much of what was the story involved and after the first few chapters I was hooked! I couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes young adult fiction! This series is one of the best out there in my opinion.

I have only one complaint. The final novel doesn’t get released for another 7-8 months!!

Rating 5/5