Catching Fire written by Suzanne Collins is a dystopian fiction, thriller novel and a sequel of The Hunger Games.
I only realised that I cannot review without spoiling The Hunger Games book as Catching Fire is a sequel of the same. So make sure you read Hunger Games before you are here.
To be honest, as the Hunger Games ended, I wanted to stop as I had no big expectations for the Catching Fire because
A) The Hunger Games is over, and Katniss won so if there is sequel then it is not in the arena and I was not sure if I can read 2 whole books without the arena or watch arena as a mentor.
B) In the end, I could sense the revolution which means bloodbath and I was not sure If I was ready for that as Rye’s death made me cry so much.
But I was intrigued. I kept wondering how the revolution is going to take its turn. Katniss seems to have no intention of revolution till the end of The Hunger Games so where she got that motivation from?
No mater whatever way she got the motivation, how will a 16-year-old girl will manage to bring President Snow down as he is already on move. And it is no small task, so she has a community but how she is gonna manage?
So, I started reading and I was not disappointed. I truly was not.
The story starts with Katniss managing her life after The Hunger Games. Though she thought that after winning the Games she would return to her normal life one way or the other, things do not go her way.
She set something in motion while she did her berries trick back in the arena to keep herself and Peeta alive in the end. But it must be stopped else the consequences will be unbearable. She has only one chance to make things right which is the Victory Tour. Will she be able to pull it off?
Plus, there is the Quell, which is the 75th Hunger Games. Every 25 years there would be a change of ways of how the tributes are getting selected. Katniss and Peeta won the Games so that means they are going to be mentor for this Quell. How are the tributes are going to get selected this year? Will Katniss survive the crisis she set into motion?
The whole story kept me wanting for more. Halfway through the book, there was this twist about the Quell which I could not digest, and I set the book aside to take in everything slowly just like Katniss does. Yes, that intense it was!
The sequel can easily take you into the story as you already know the rules and the people.
There are three parts to the story,
Part I: The Spark
Part II: The Quell
Part III: The Enemy
This whole book will keep you at the edge of your seat as the story takes turn in a way that you would not even imagine.
I did not watch the movies. So, I am in no place to talk about the movie adaption. But I did watch some highlights. I can tell the movies gave its own twist in terms of the technologies which was good to see. In books, we are shown everything from Katniss eyes, so it is hard for me to watch movies where every character plays their own role. I agree that this is the best way where they can show how people and things work. But reading books means you see everything through Katniss eyes.
There is only Mockingjay book left for me to read. And I already can’t wait to read what happens next. This trilogy is undoubtedly one of the best go for me to read books after months.
Have you read this book? Or planning to read it? Let me know in the comments section. I would love to talk.
-A review by Sumi