Catching Fire

Catching Fire was for the most part a good follow-up to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, but it suffered from some very perceivable flaws too. The book picks up a few months after Katniss and Peeta have returned home to District 12 to live a life of mostly unwanted luxury. Katniss is trying to live down the horrors of the games while providing a better life for her townspeople any way she can, and rumors abound about her defiance of the Capitol planting the seeds of revolution. But before any of that can happen, our duo have to go on a tour of the twelve districts, greeting the citizens as champion. This extended introduction (nearly half the book) was kinda hit or miss- while it allows for some very poignant scenes of the revolution starting to take shape, it can get bogged down at times by the continuing Peeta/Katniss/Gale love triangle and some ridiculous scenes of the president of a totalitarian regime going far out of his way to threaten a teenage girl. What's more, after Peeta and Katniss return home, there's a twist that really feels out of nowhere and really kills a lot of momentum- I'm starting to care about the revolution, and all of the sudden our main character gets whisked away just as it's starting? That said, the twist allows Collins to write what she writes best, but I'll go easy on spoilers. The latter half of Catching Fire may not be that important in the overarching plot of the Hunger Games, but it definitely provides some of the most memorable scenes and outdoes a lot of the action in the first book. It makes me wonder why Collins set this up as a trilogy and not a longer series, returning to the 'Hunger Games' idea several times- there's clearly plenty of action and drama to be mined from a children's battle royale. At this point I've read about how three separate Hunger Games events have played out, and all of them have been awesome without needing to top eachother in any way. Know your audience, Suzanne Collins, and also know your strengths! Give the people more kids forced to fight to the death! The way Catching Fire ended seems to indicate no more games, so we'll see what book 3, Mockingjay brings.