Book #6 of 2025: Catching Fire
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.
Quick synopsis: Do you like love triangles? This book contains one of the most classic/hated ones. Also people try to overthrow the Capitol.
Brief opinion: I did not enjoy this book at all. I liked Katniss even less in this book than the previous one, and I really really hated the love triangle (AKA: Everyone Wants Katniss). Also this is a trilogy of books, I wonder what #4 is in this collection? Maybe the two novellas set before book 1 are counted as #4.
Plot: In Book 1 the Capitol was upset with something Katniss did. Basically all of this book was them using her and then trying to kill her. Fake wedding is planned, apparently everyone in the Capitol loves the Katniss/Peeta romance. (God I hate that spelling of Peter.) But the districts are restless, so President Snow decides Katniss has to die.
In addition to the yearly fight to the death battles, every 25 years there's a special one. That just happens to be this year, so the Capitol brings back all the former living victors back to fight in it, so Katniss would get killed.
But hey, look, the "destroyed" District Thirteen actually still exists (SHOCKER ...not) and comes in to rescue her, because Katniss is the most important person on the planet and the revolution cannot happen without her (really, that's what they said).
This book ended on a cliffhanger, same as book 1.
Writing/editing: I spotted one editing issue, otherwise it was all fine.
What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: What is with the weird names some characters had? Woof? Wiress? I swear half the names were some odd form of a common noun.
I really wish these books had been about Haymitch instead of the teenagers. Imagine surviving the games and then every year having to coach two new kids to go die in them. Now that would be a story!
My biggest grump in the book: Haymitch has been an alcoholic for decades. Drunk every single day. Then the two kids decide to just take all his alcohol and sober him up cold turkey for weeks. You can't do it that way for someone who has been an alcoholic that long, poor guy would be dead.
Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️ - Disliked. I was grumpy through most of this book. I guessed the plot from the beginning and the love triangle was the worst. ...I still might read book 3 though, just to be complete and even if the story annoyed me, it was still a fast read.