Paperback, 391 pages
English language
Published Sept. 10, 2010 by Scholastic.
SPARKS ARE IGNITING. FLAMES ARE SPREADING. AND THE CAPITAL WANTS REVENGE.
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.
Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that …
SPARKS ARE IGNITING. FLAMES ARE SPREADING. AND THE CAPITAL WANTS REVENGE.
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.
Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. Katniss is about to be tested as never before.
Catching Fire seems to take a long time to get going. There's plenty of time to plant the seeds of rebellion in the readers' minds but then it all seems a bit rushed near the end when the real action takes place. However, the end is a cliff-hanger so make sure you have the final book ready to read back-to-back!
A thrilling read - and it's not just about the Hunger Games anymore. As good or better than the first book. Maybe it's just my cold heart, but I'm glad this one wasn't as cheesy sentimental as the first one - why do I not care about Rue's death?
Much like it's predecessor, and still the story of Katniss kicking ass, far too busy to take names. However, I did find it somewhat less satisfying. Perhaps it's because, as Katniss herself is aware, Katniss is mostly a sidenote to the main action. She's no longer alone, and she no longer thinks she's alone; many other people are helping her to survive and trying to help her win.
I do like, still, that Katniss is more moved by loyalty and friendship than love and romance. Teenage romances are pretty dumb (I speak from experience) and not something that particularly interest me, and they don't much interest Katniss either.
This book was structurally a bit weird; the pace did not at all follow the line of punctuated rising tension we are accustomed to finding in novels, and there's a point at which one could practically have split the book in half …
Much like it's predecessor, and still the story of Katniss kicking ass, far too busy to take names. However, I did find it somewhat less satisfying. Perhaps it's because, as Katniss herself is aware, Katniss is mostly a sidenote to the main action. She's no longer alone, and she no longer thinks she's alone; many other people are helping her to survive and trying to help her win.
I do like, still, that Katniss is more moved by loyalty and friendship than love and romance. Teenage romances are pretty dumb (I speak from experience) and not something that particularly interest me, and they don't much interest Katniss either.
This book was structurally a bit weird; the pace did not at all follow the line of punctuated rising tension we are accustomed to finding in novels, and there's a point at which one could practically have split the book in half and called it two books.
Also, at several points, I knew what was going and Katniss did not, which was a little disappointing to me, because Katniess is not stupid. However, to be fair to her, I have the benefit of knowing she is in a book, and am familiar with narrative.
So, all in all, satisfying, with a few bumps which although I have enumerated them, were actually pretty minor.
The problem with trilogies is that often the middle book lags because it has to follow a strong first book while also setting up for a atrong ending. Catching Fire is no different -- while it is a good step up in terms of complexity from the first book -- and it doesn't seem quite so much like a ripoff of every dystopic future gladiator story of the last 40 years -- it lags in the pacing, especially in the beginning. It also feels somewhat repetitive from the first book. None the less it was still a lot of fun to read and I'm looking forward to the last book.
This book definitely had some plot twists that I didn't expect. It actually made me so mad at one point that I slammed the book close and glared at it for a couple minutes before I had to pick it up again to see what happened. Can't wait to read Mockingjay!
Ah yes. What a good week to be stuck at home after a surgery! Just finished this in time for the last book to be at my door. In the second installment of The Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss and Peeta have returned to District 12, but now the time has come for the Victory Tour and they must resume their pretend love affair in order to prevent disaster (read : revolution and death) from landing on their families. I love the story, the characters, the whole deal. However, I still find the pretend love affair between Katniss and Peeta to be absolutely unbelievable. Perhaps it's just me and I'm too cynical to simply be able to accept it, but I honestly don't see how something so...silly could prevent an entire world from uprising against their tyrannical overseers. All in all a great book, though.
2.5-ish.
Would be higher if I didn't find the romance storyline so INTENSELY ANNOYING. And if the plot wasn't so redundant. She basically should have just skipped to the end of this book and gotten to the actual story. This felt like tarrying.
Best of the 3.
