Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

Publishers: Scholastic

Pages: 480

Main Characters:

Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark

Catching Fire is the second book in Suzanne Collins’ epic trilogy The Hunger Games. The novel continues with the two main characters from the first book as they return to District 12 as victors of the Hunger Games.  The victors Katniss and Peeta are set to start their victory parade around the other 11 districts of Panem. However after a visit from Panem’s president Coriolanus Snow, Katniss is threatened to keep the romance between her and Peeta alive or risk the Capitol taking and murdering her family. To keep Snow happy and to prevent the uprising of the other Districts, Katniss tries to keep up the false relationship with Peeta, even though her feelings towards her friend Gale are stronger.

However, this false relationship is not enough to keep the Districts from revolting. To prevent the revolts spreading further, the Capitol reveals that as the next Hunger Games is the 75^th it is therefore a Quarter Quell, a special Hunger Games that only happens every twenty five years. The surprise for this Quarter Quell is that the tributes for the games will be made up of past victors. Katniss soon works out she will be the tribute for District 12 as she is the only female winner from her District. Whilst Peeta knows he will have to return to the games, as Haymitch is not up to the challenge. Katniss is thrown back into the games with the sole purpose of keeping Peeta alive. With the help of allies from the other Districts such as Fennick Odair from District 4, Katniss fights her way through the toughest Hunger Games yet.

This was a great book. However it was not what I thought was going to happen. I thought after the victory of Katniss and Peeta in the first book, the fight to over throw the Capitol would start in this one. I was therefore shocked to find that they would both be re-entering the Hunger Games and have to fight for their lives a second time. I know some people might think this abit repetitive from the first book but it really wasn’t. This Hunger games was so much different. We see Katniss and Peeta become ‘the Careers’ in their second games, fighting with allies in a group against the other tributes. The arena is also different from the one in the first book as they are fighting in a tropical environment with some of its own quirky secrets. We also get to meet the old tributes from the previous Hunger Games and learn their stories, as well as finding out how Haymitch won his games.

This was a great book, totally different to what I expected which only made it that much better too read. The ending is also brilliant but I won’t give too much away. It was also nice to meet new characters such as Fennick, Johanna and Beetee who are all tributes in the games and play major roles in the rest of the series. Definitely read this book if you have seen the movie. The movie was good, but there were parts it missed out or shortened which the book gave much more detail on.

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