2020 EDIT: An absolutely bloody brilliant sequel. It's one of the best, most thrilling, emotional, horrific and impactful middle books one could wish for in a YA dystopian series. It couldn't have gone down any other way.
It really only misses a star because, yeah, the love triangle stuff can be frustrating, but at least it has a reason to be there, and is not the main focus in the grand scheme of things. Some people are a bit too hard on and are distrustful of Katniss, a seventeen-year-old severely traumatized girl, as well. But it is still written magnificently. This entertaining and relevant book series has a bit of everything.
Also, I wonder if Katniss's pregnancy ploy upon entering the Quarter Quell is meant to be a commentary on the hypocrisy of pro-lifers - that they don't care about the suffering and deaths of children already born, but they go all "all lives matter" when it comes to formless, faceless foetuses who haven't fully developed lungs yet, at the expense of the mother's health and choices and voice. Intentional or not, I wish that plot point could have reached further in its potential.
One thing I forgot to mention when writing my re-review of the first 'The Hunger Games' book is: Why is there no mention of menstruation once in this trilogy? Do sponsors give out tampons to tributes in the Games? Suzanne Collins never holds back on anything else in her books - in the themes, the violence, the deaths, the bodily fluids and mutilations, etc. Yet something as natural and regular as menstruation is too taboo a subject in YA books? Which the teenage girls reading them would already know about, and which teenage boys need to be educated on? What bullshit.
Further notes: Upon rereading, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that Katniss is, in fact, more optimistic about being the Mockingjay - a symbol of hope and a "spark" of rebellion for all the districts - than people give her credit for. She's a very brave, human and even sarcastic and sardonically funny protagonist. Her PTSD is superbly written, and as young as she is (seventeen - something else people seem to forget about her), she will not let it take over her entire being; her life.
'Mockingjay', here I come. I am ready for you to break and destroy me. I am ready to see Katniss become the hero people may not expect and (unrealistically) hope for; but maybe she's the hero they need, in a world gone mad, insane, violent, and desperate.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
'If it were up to me, I would try to forget the Hunger Games entirely[...]Pretend they were nothing but a bad dream. But the Victory Tours makes that impossible[...]it is the Capital's way of keeping the horror fresh and immediate. Not only are we in the districts forced to remember the iron grip of the Capital's power each year, we are forced to celebrate it[...]I will have to travel[...]to stand before the cheering crowds who secretly loathe me, to look down into the faces of families whose children I have killed...' - page 2.
In the wake of the upcoming movie, I shall review the sequel to 'The Hunger Games', 'Catching Fire'.
It is just as intense, suspenseful and violent as the previous book. If not more so, since the stakes are higher this time round.
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have outwitted the Capital and won the 74th Hunger Games together - and the Capitol won't let them get away with it. President Snow will pull as many strings as inhumanely possible to exact his revenge on our heroes and maintain the Capital's complete control over the twelve districts. Because signs of a rebellion are starting to rise in the aftermath of the last Games, and Katniss, whether she likes it or not, is the cause and heart of it all...
Life for Katniss will never be simple again after just barely surviving the Hunger Games. With victory comes more lies and deception, more urgency to protect her friends and family from the manipulative ways of Snow, and more pressure to keep up her vulnerable, innocent, lovesick girl image in front of the cameras and reporters of Panem.
No one seems to be helping her recover from her trauma. She still has to pretend that she and Peeta are a couple, and even get married to him so the public will continue to think her a silly love-struck girl incapable of forming a coup d'état.
And pretend to be pregnant with his child. To gain further sympathy and favour.
Because to top it all off, Katniss and previous Hunger Games winners are suddenly forced to take part in the Quarter Quell - a new arena for another fight to the death. A place where Snow does not expect her and Peeta to be lucky enough to live through after last time.
Katniss Everdeen - the girl who was on fire, the Mockingjay - is trapped in every sense of the word.
It's a miracle she doesn't break down and cry. No. Not for long. She keeps fighting. She is unforgiving and resilient. She is stronger than before - because she needs to be, not only for her own sake but for those she loves and wants to keep safe.
Suzanne Collins's writing is as solid as ever. It's simple, but it brilliantly conveys the claustrophobic atmosphere Katniss is suffering through. I love that everything in 'Catching Fire' feels real. The dystopian setting is full of life and death. So harsh; beautiful in its vividness, and run by cunning leaders who only care about the appearance of power.
The characters and their great complexities make the setting and story more heart-pounding in their horrific realism. Thanks to wonderful writing, they carry the book - with its themes of humanity's obsession with shallow consumption and violence/revenge - in a way that there's not a dull moment in its 450+ pages. One notable new character is Finnick Odair, a former Hunger Games winner, who is a delight to read through Katniss's cynical yet hopeful eyes.
The Quarter Quell and how it works is also very creative and clever. In some ways it's scarier than the arena in the first book, even with the constant fear of being bait, of betrayal, of dying horribly...
'Catching Fire', for all its merit and worth as a second book in a successful YA book trilogy, comes very close to receiving five stars from me. However its faults, while minor in the grand scheme of things, I feel I should mention. The first half is a bit slow on action and fast on teasing about the speculative mystery of District 13 and its "rebellion" on the Capital, thanks to Katniss. But I understand that time is needed to show the consequences of what happened in the first book. Then the Quarter Quell can be introduced, and pull the second half of 'Catching Fire' into action, without it being a copy of its previous instalment.
And poor Peeta has the worst luck in the world for someone more genre-savvy than Katniss. Something terrible is always happening to him. And Gale can be an ass to Katniss sometimes, even if it is for understandable reasons (he gets beaten almost as bad as Peeta). I found him to be a bit of a hypocrite for accusing her of being reckless and selfish. Is Gale protecting his Catnip because he wants to ensure the safety of both their district families, or is it merely because he's in love with her?
(BTW this isn't a criticism of the love triangle, which is so minor it barely exists, despite Gale clearly being jealous that Katniss and Peeta have to be together. Though he is aware it's an act; or so the girl he loves wants to think. But it's still unimportant at this stage of the Game. Pun intended).
Great sequel. Great book.
Now for the further trauma that is 'Mockingjay'...
Final Score: 4/5
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