Hungry? Why Wait? (Catching Fire Review)

I waited as long as I could.  Really.  After reading The Hunger Games, I immediately went out and bought the sequel, Catching Fire, before I realized that this may not be the best idea.  The Hunger Games was really, really good (in case you didn't read my review).  It was the first in a trilogy about a young woman, Katniss, who lives in a world where twelve oppressed districts are ruled by the Capitol.  Each year, the districts must hold a "reaping", where one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen to compete in the Hunger Games, an annual "celebration" held by the Capitol to remind the districts of who's in charge.  See, several years ago, the districts rose up against the Capitol in rebellion, but they lost.  Now the Capitol holds all the wealth, all the power, while the twelve districts all but starve in the most miserable conditions one can imagine.  Anyway, twenty-four teens are chosen for the Hunger Games.  They are thrown into a large arena.  The last one surviving is declared the victor.

Sound depressing?  I suppose it is.  The Hunger Games was an emotional ride filled with small gems of happiness amongst an onslaught of pain and misery.  Twenty-four teenagers are thrown against their will (except for the "Careers", but that's another story) into this arena.  Twenty-three must die while their parents and friends are forced to watch the highlights, as if this was some football game being covered on SportsCenter.  That any glimpses of humanity could be found within such a dark world is remarkable, yet the story that Suzanne Collins has unraveled here is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

So, why did I not want to read Catching Fire yet?  Well, the third and final book of the trilogy's not out and won't be until August, that's why.  I thought perhaps I could hold out until at least July before reading Catching Fire, but I cracked.  Call it weakness.  Now that I've finished it, things are just as I feared.  I have to try to keep myself together and not go crazy from anticipation.  If The Hunger Games was really, really good, then somehow, Catching Fire was even better.

For some reason, when I started reading this series I thought that this was Suzanne Collins' first book series to write, but I was quite wrong.  She's been writing since 1991, and has even written for some Nickelodeon shows like the excellent Clarissa Explains It All.  Eventually, she tried her hand at novels with the five-part The Underground Chronicles series before tackling The Hunger Games.  As a budding writer, this came as something of a relief, for if this had been her first book series, I may have cried.  It just wouldn't have been fair for someone to be so good so early on in their career.

I'm going to be as spoiler-free as possible, but I won't hide the fact that your narrator, Katniss, survives the first book and is once again your eyes and ears.

Over the course of this book, I finally figured out why this series does such an absurdly good job of taking hold of your heartstrings and slinging them around like some mad spinster.  The books are in first-person.  This puts you right in the action and, if the author's good enough (which Suzanne Collins is), will trick your brain into seeing the events of the books more as memories than a fictional story.  What keeps your brain even more actively involved in the story is that Katniss narrates in the present (as in, "she hunts for food", not "she hunted for food").  It may sound strange, but it works disturbingly well.

Catching Fire picks up right where The Hunger Games left off.  Let's just say that "unrest" is the name of the game here, as the events of the first book have set things in motion that might not be able to be stopped, and Katniss is right in the middle of it all.  What amazes me about this series is that Katniss is a very intelligent girl, yet often times her sound reasoning leads her to assume things that are incorrect, so that when something counter to her expectations happens, not only can you instantly see why her assumptions were incorrect, but the surprises manage to be genuine without being cheap.  Plot twists abound, yet never did I once think "what the hell?"  A few twists actually garnered an audible "oh no!" or a "craaaaap" from me, and I rarely, if ever, speak with my books.  Oh, and darn it all, but this one had a moment that made me cry, too.  I'd say that reading from a girl's point of view has turned me into one, but that'd be sexist and rude, so I won't.

To be honest, I don't have much else to say about Catching Fire without spoiling things.  Katniss and the characters around her are deep and fascinating and constantly full of surprises.  This book will keep you glued to the edge of your seat for the entire ride.  You will not be able to put it down, and you will not, as I must, be able to wait until the final book hits the shelves this fall.  Please do not miss these books.