Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2)

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

This review contains spoilers for The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) !


 
First of all, I have to say that I was really pumped for Catching Fire after having read the first book to the series, but I was afraid it wouldn't stand up to my high expectations. But it did.

At first, I thought it a bit lame (and predictable, actually) that Katniss and Peeta would be sent into the arena yet again - and I predicted they would win again due to the fact that there is a third book to the series, but that plot twist at the end left me speechless.

Having read the second book right after having finished the first one, I didn't have any problems getting used to the first-person present-tense narrator that I usually take time to get accustomed to. I remember this being the only minus to the Hunger Games #1 that I mentioned, but it made sense. It really made sense, although I'd have loved to have an auctorial narrator to tell me what's going on in President Snow's head.

Speaking of which, Collins had a very clear way of distinguishing between good and evil, but at the same time creating ambiguous characters that have positive as well as negative character traits that make the reader decide what to think of them. That's why the love triangle works perfectly here. The fact that there is even such a thing as Team Peeta and Team Gale is proof of her abilities as a novelist. 

There is no clear romance between either one of them and Katniss, but the fact that Katniss doesn't take advantage of it leaves an interestingly broad space for interpretation. That's what keeps readers reading a series and, in my opinion, Suzanne Collins has perfected that trait about her work. 

I will have a review up for Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3) soon and I can tell you at this point, the second book was the best in the whole series. Not only because there was so much room for speculation and the plotting was geniously done, but because the character development was extraordinary.