Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Catching Fire

The Hunger Games’s sequels capture attention and contribute to the story just as well as the first book. Catching Fire is a great remarkable book, and my favorite of the series.

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night3aven's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Hunger Games: Catching fire - review

The Hunger Games are about emotion.
The Hunger Games are about choice.
The Hunger Games are about playing.
But the Hunger Games are also rebellion.
They are also a fight for freedom, a fight for justice, a fight for a better world, for friendship, for family, for love.

And today, girl on fire, you managed to envelop the arena in your flames.

I can happily say, that this book belongs on the list of the best novels I have ever read.
Suzanne Collins' writing captures the reader's attention throughout the book. The characters she creates are so realistic, so well defined, that the reader can't help but become attached to them and experience every single event with them.
Many concepts from the first book of the saga are obviously taken up in this second volume, but their repetition is not excessive or oppressive for the reader.
The beginning of the book is relatively quiet (at least compared to other parts of the story), but the author's writing style is still impeccable. We find for the entire course of the first act, a careful focus on the duality of the plot. Katniss's (and Peeta's) private life on the one hand, as opposed to the image that must be maintained in front of the cameras and in Capitol City on the other.
Katniss' point of view is useful to make the reader understand every injustice, every lie, every way to hide one's wrongdoings that the dictatorial government of Panem, once it has concealed its revenge against the districts through the Hunger Games, uses to keep its citizens under control.
The moment the book's plot really takes off, however, is the third act.
The arena is skilfully recreated by the author, who manages to present it in a new, creative and different way. The emotional involvement is very high, there are twists and turns around every corner and the writing style during this juncture is simply superb. The arena, the danger, the love, the worry, the fear,

while the rebellion breaks out outside of that place...

... make the reader carry a very high emotional load. The ending is perfectly crafted: as events progress, along with Katniss' growing confusion, so does the confusion in the mind of the reader, who struggles to understand what is happening and finds himself completely projected into the mind of the protagonist.

After events such as the shooting of the man from District 11, the public whipping of Gale, the increasing control of Capitol City and the evolution of the rebellion, we come to the final act of the plot.

The final revelation of events, even though it could be noticed by the reader through some clues thrown in the story, is shocking and perfectly opens the door to the third volume of the trilogy.

In: "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire", Suzanne Collins turns out to be an excellent author, who knows how to involve the reader in her stories and how to tell a story that is well defined but still full of emotions.
Her experience as a theatre scriptwriter and the division of the book into three acts are certainly complicit in her narrative skills.
The author uses her words to convey a profound and topical message, combining this with an emotional drama, frequent twists and turns, excellent world-building, characters with a characterisation bordering on perfection and an excellent and evocative writing style.

The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion.

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