2011 Book Review #49: Catching Fire

[jethrien]

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA dystopia (Book 2 of 3)
Thingummies: 4.5

Synopsis: When Katniss' daring victory at the Hunger Games begins to stir up rebellion in Panem, she must convince the world that her actions were those of simple, love-sick girl instead of a rebel, or everyone she cares about will be at risk. But she's not actually sure whether she's in love or not; worse, she's not sure that rebellion is such a bad idea.

Thoughts: The second book in the series is equally compulsively readable as the first. The overall structure is almost exactly the same. (Minor spoilers ahead.) Again, we have the set up in District 12, shock, training sequence, and the games.

This time, the players are almost all adults, which changes the tone a bit. I appreciated the reflection on the games from the perspective of previous survivors, as well the difference of having Katniss and Peeta some of the youngest people in the arena. The fact that everything is so much more personal is also a nice twist. In the first book, Capitol's cruelty felt enormous, almost a force of nature. Now, President Snow gives it a focus, a face. It's not just that Capitol wants someone to die for its entertainment--it's that Snow specifically wants Katniss to die. The differences keep the plot from feeling too stale.

On the other hand, Katniss' obliviousness has begun to grate on me.

Much more serious spoiler: I was not as devastated by Cinna's death at the time as I am in retrospect. I think all along, I expected them to find and rescue him from Capitol in the third book. It wasn't until later in the third book that I finally accepted that he really had died and there would be no miraculous reappearance. Like many other readers, I liked Cinna quite a bit--he may have been my favorite character in the series. I wish he'd been given a slightly more definitive death--at the time, I wasn't sure how badly he'd actually been beaten.

As testament to the potato-chip compulsion of these books, I'm just going to point out--I finished The Hunger Games on Tuesday. I finished Catching Fire at lunch yesterday, and then completely abandoned my plans to work on my story/novella thing I was supposed to be writing to finish Mockingjay last night. If you start these, clear your schedule, 'kay?

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I don't think I liked this as much as the first one, but I appreciated the view on the games from the perspective of Katniss having already survived (as had the other competitors). I, too, found her indecisiveness and complete lack of awareness utterly off-putting. I mean, if you're savvy enough to hunt and survive being hunted, why the hell can't you pick up the subtle clues that things aren't as they seem? She got a lot whinier about being used, etc. etc., too. Pity. I hope they do more with Mockingjay.

Pity about Cinna. I figured he'd be brought back. Guess not, huh?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Nope. He does get a nice tribute in the next book, though--he's not forgotten. But yeah, he's totally dead. Sorry.