Catching Fire Review

 Catching Fire Review

Author: Suzanne Collins

Year: 2009

(The Hunger Games Book 2)

 

They got me again dammit! So yes, I just finished Hunger Games book 2, Catching Fire. And when I mean just finished, I mean like five minutes ago. And damn, it really did hit me. The plot moves in a twisting turning motion that I didn’t expect at all. I mean I was staring at the book like, “There are thirty damn pages left, how badly is shit gonna hit the fan?” And you’ll be doing stuff like that a lot. And a large portion of the book you’re with Katniss in district 12. A good thing about this is whenever you’re done with a series, you kind of just want more good memories wherever the main character’s home is. And you don’t want that when your introducing stuff in the first story, and you don’t want it when the epic stuff is going down in the last story, so Suzanne stuffed it in right in the perfect spot! Not that it’s the good memories, it’s mostly just adding layers of plot while preparing the biggest part of the story. And then something big happens, and I had this ruined to me by assholes in class who find it amazing they read a book and they think they have to share it. But the book needs its big plot, and it happens, but you should try guessing it, and not read it in a synopsis within a review online. Anyway, after that, it’s really intense, really quickly. It’s faster paced than the last book, but it’s for good reason. If the ending came out differently, I’d probably be pissed, but I wasn’t. However, if Mockinjay sucks, I’ll be greatly disappointed. But I doubt I will be what with how epic of a cliffhanger it decided to end off on. But this was just a really nice return back into the Hunger Games world for me, with even more raw writing style, and hard hitting solid plot. And more character in depth. This time the characters weren’t held back by having to do things in the plot. Gale is actually a character, and not being held back by being in district 12. Peeta isn’t going to be a guy whose mind you’re wondering about half the time, you actually know him, and like him much more. And speaking of those two characters, the love triangle gets a big part in this as well, more at the beginning of the story when they’re both in the same proximity. Not that the love triangle wasn’t as big in the last one, it’s just that much bigger in this one, and I still have no idea how it will play out. But there is more of that “I just don’t know how to feel!” going on by Katniss, and I’m not a fan of that. It’s like pick already and let’s call it a day. Also, even though the characters are built well, there is a plethora of characters I didn’t give a shit about. She really introduces a lot of characters, and last time, I didn’t have to worry about remembering their names, and I was fine. This time no… she expects us to know who the fuck people like Enobaria are. I did like a lot of new ones though. A lot of them went in and out, but I’m sure that hardcore fans will eat up every character there is. I did enjoy the new characters I remembered, the old lady, Nuts and Bolts, Finnick, all great characters. But just so we’re clear, characters are greatly improved, and the just how in depth you get in this world increases. As always, the longer you stay in a world without having moments of disappointment make all the more reason to become a fanboy/fangirl. That being said, do I like this more than the last book? No, not really. I can pretty easily say the last one was better. It was the classic, the standard, and it all the right notes. This is more about establishing the final book, which will probably kick book 1’s ass. However this did raise the bar a lot. The story feels bigger, the turns are sharper, hell the book is bigger. That being said if something suddenly went wrong and the third book never came to existence, I would feel very disappointed, unlike the first book. But we don’t’ live in that world, and I’ll obviously look back better on this after I’ve read that book. And this isn’t a book that’s much lower on the scale than Hunger Games. If I still reviewed out of ten, Hunger Games probably would have been a low ten, if not a high nine. This one is more of a low nine, which is still a five out of five. Nothing wrong with that, still awesome on the full scale. And I can dive right into the final book, how awesome is that? Literally, I have it bought, and it’s sitting all shiny up on my shelf. That being said, I very much enjoyed Catching Fire, will hopefully see the move soon, and will guarantee picking up the next book very shortly… possibly right after this review shortly.

 

Catching Fire gets a 5/5

Spoilers: So, remember how I said you enjoy the world more? Yeah, you really start to like just being in District 12… so SHE FUCKING DESTROYS IT! SHE BURNS THAT BITCH TO THE GROUND! Ugh, that was probably the best ending that could have happened at that moment. So the revolution is upon us! I just don’t know what’s going to happen. Are we going to see Katniss shooting down an army with a bow an arrow? Who knows. Also, damn this area was cool. The jungle, the water, it was inventive. I’m glad we had a cool arena. But will we get another one that is the question. I will find out after the next book.