Book Review - Catching Fire

Best thing about reading any kind of "ology" after they've all been out for awhile instead of as they are released is not having to wait to read the next book.

I finished Hunger Games Friday morning. As soon as I finished, I cleaned the kitchen's breakfast mess, swept the floor underneath the table, took Henry to speech and then opened up Catching Fire. With some off and on reading throughout the day, I managed to turn the last page close to midnight.

Anytime an author can get a reader to read two of her books in less than twenty-four hours, she is doing something right. Without a doubt, she has created a fascinating world of survival and intrigue and although I found myself a little more irritated with predictable characters and the necessary repetition of basic plot lines to get obtuse or forgetful readers up to speed, I kept turning the page. What in the world is going to happen?

I thought for awhile that Collins would be forced to abandon her Hunger Games premise. After all, this was Katniss's story and Katniss had survived the games. What now? Oh...that.

I was disappointed in a plot twist whose kink didn't take the story to a new place but, instead, returned it to an old one. While I cared because I was invested, I was a little tired of the game. It may have been because I had just left the games hours earlier, instead of the year both the book and real-life intended, but my heart wasn't as into it. The description of the arena didn't fit inside my head as easily, with the clock format and hourly disasters in pie shaped areas hard to picture. Like Katniss, I kept trying to see it in a bird's eye view, which removed me from the setting. I couldn't get in there, on the Island or in the jungle like I did with the cave and trees and lake in the first book.

However, I loved getting to know Panem better. Where are these other districts and who are the people who live in them? How will a rebellion ever occur if they have no means of communication? Are they going to risk everything to escape their oppressive conditions?

Once again, Collins asks her readers to think about what might be worse than death. Obedience to a government who can change the rules on a whim? Torture? Poverty? Life without your loved ones? Although it lacks the wonderful plot pacing that I so enjoyed in the first book, and the growth and motivation from most of the main characters seemed stunted, Catching Fire is a solid sequel in an interesting series.

Mockingjay review tomorrow, me thinks.