Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

 

Hi everyone! I just finished reading the second book in the series The Hunger Games and wow, this book is even better than the last.

In Catching Fire, Katniss now lives in her new house in the victors village along with Peeta and of course, Haymitch. Katniss has been trying to move on from the Hunger Games because it left her such a traumatic scar. She is not talking to Peeta because of a fight they had in the previous book. President Snow, the leader of Panem, visits Katniss to talk about her finding a way to get her and Peeta out of the arena alive. He views it as an act of defiance towards the Capitol and a spark that could create rebellions in all the districts. He says the only way for him not to kill the district's symbol of rebellion (Katniss) was for her to convince the districts that the only reason she put on this show was because she loved Peeta so much and couldn’t live without him. Now that they are victors, they have to go on a tour throughout all the districts. So, again, Peeta and Katniss have to pretend to be in love all over again. The lights and cameras are all back and the pressure to convince all the districts that their “act of defiance” was because they were so in love is greater now more than ever. 

As they go on the tour, they see tiny sparks of rebellion in many districts and people using a picture of a mockingjay as a way to communicate that they want to be a part of the rebellion (Katniss wore a mockingjay pin in the arena last book). This ultimately makes things worse for Katniss, which President Snow voices to her, telling her that he wasn’t convinced and therefore, the districts weren’t either.

This may be considered a spoiler so don’t read if you are planning on reading this book: This year’s Hunger Games are special. Since they are the 75th Hunger Games, they are called a Quarter Quell meaning that the games will have a special twist. Other years they had twice the number of tributes, the game that Haymitch won. This year, all the tributes will be previous victors and since Katniss is the only female victor, she will be going back into the arena. Her partner, though, had a chance of being either Haymitch or Peeta but it ultimately ended up being Peeta and this time, since last time Haymitch was trying to keep Katniss alive, Katniss told Haymitch that they were going to do everything they can to get Peeta to win.

In this book, we meet many new characters. Finnick, from district 4, who won his games when he was 14, Johanna from district 7, Beetee from district 3, Mags from district 4, and Wiress from district 3. 

This book has so many surprising twists that I quickly finished it. Like I said before, this book, in my opinion, is better than the first one and I would totally recommend reading it! There is so much suspense and action that I spent hours reading it at a time. I’m excited to continue this series and hope that the next book is just as good as these past two.

-Sofia