Book Review: Catching Fire
Title: Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2)
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages: 391
Summary:Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and longtime friend, Gale. 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 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.
What I thought:
I wish I had read these books before the movies came out, 'cos I want the picture of Katniss in my head to be my own, but alas, it is too often usurped by the movie posters *sigh* Luckily I have not seen the movie yet and everyone else is my own *pets them*
I have slightly mixed feelings about this book. A great deal of the build up towards a rebellion was unavoidable and as a reader you are certainly rooting for the districts to overthrow the Capitol leadership. I still find the world that Ms Collins has built to be truly fascinating and intriguing, governed by a totalitarian government so idiotic they are asking for revolution.
My 'mix' of feelings stems from the lack of progress in the overall narrative and from Katniss. As much as the story moved onwards and District 13 has been revealed and rebellion is underway, I felt a distinct lack of ... progress or change. Granted, this may well be due to the book being part two of trilogy and thus stuck in the no mans land of securing the readers from book one, engaging them enough but not losing them for book them. Good enough, but missing real conclusion.
The Quell games were interesting but did not engage me quite the same way as the first. Perhaps because I too, as well as the audience, felt that it was 'too' much and too ridiculous to expect another round of Hunger Games to 'reinforce' the status quo.
Which is perhaps why my frustration (for want of a better word) seems to swim around Katniss. Perhaps because she seems not to have changed (yet) or progressed (yet). Still stuck in her ignorance and only at the end of book waking up to her role in rebellion. Again, perhaps an inherent flaw in part twos of trilogies.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book and obviously wish to continue. However, I feel sinister subtlies in District 13, something is not quite right there, and no matter how stupid the Capital seem to be about oppression without revolution, I don't think its going to be easy to overturn the status quo. *cross fingers*
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages: 391
Summary:Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and longtime friend, Gale. 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 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.
What I thought:
I wish I had read these books before the movies came out, 'cos I want the picture of Katniss in my head to be my own, but alas, it is too often usurped by the movie posters *sigh* Luckily I have not seen the movie yet and everyone else is my own *pets them*
I have slightly mixed feelings about this book. A great deal of the build up towards a rebellion was unavoidable and as a reader you are certainly rooting for the districts to overthrow the Capitol leadership. I still find the world that Ms Collins has built to be truly fascinating and intriguing, governed by a totalitarian government so idiotic they are asking for revolution.
My 'mix' of feelings stems from the lack of progress in the overall narrative and from Katniss. As much as the story moved onwards and District 13 has been revealed and rebellion is underway, I felt a distinct lack of ... progress or change. Granted, this may well be due to the book being part two of trilogy and thus stuck in the no mans land of securing the readers from book one, engaging them enough but not losing them for book them. Good enough, but missing real conclusion.
The Quell games were interesting but did not engage me quite the same way as the first. Perhaps because I too, as well as the audience, felt that it was 'too' much and too ridiculous to expect another round of Hunger Games to 'reinforce' the status quo.
Which is perhaps why my frustration (for want of a better word) seems to swim around Katniss. Perhaps because she seems not to have changed (yet) or progressed (yet). Still stuck in her ignorance and only at the end of book waking up to her role in rebellion. Again, perhaps an inherent flaw in part twos of trilogies.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book and obviously wish to continue. However, I feel sinister subtlies in District 13, something is not quite right there, and no matter how stupid the Capital seem to be about oppression without revolution, I don't think its going to be easy to overturn the status quo. *cross fingers*