Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

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. In Catching Fire, the second novel of The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before…and surprising readers at every turn.

Wow!! Suzanne Collins has once again written an incredible, ground-breaking novel. Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games is just as riveting, just as action-filled, and just as utterly incredible as its predecessor. Suzanne Collins’ keeps up her intense, flawless writing, blend of action, horror, and romance, and well-developed characters. The only problem I found was that the first half of the book covered a lot of time, not allowing for deep detail found in the first book, but eventually, the narration slows down and Collins is back to her old detail-thriving self. The School Library Journal stated that “though more of the story takes place outside the arena than within, this sequel has enough action to please Hunger Games fans and leaves enough questions tantalizingly unanswered for readers to be desperate for the next installment”. The third and final book, to be released in 2010, cannot come soon enough!