Reviews - En llamas | The StoryGraph

46.1k reviews for:

En llamas

Suzanne Collins

4.32 AVERAGE

sideshowmomo's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

aveshute's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

jaffatastic7's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-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

obtchinnis's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

allisonmellick's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous tense

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

biacoelho's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

izzy_reads7's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Something that this book did great with the characters is showing that they have trauma. Going through an event like the Hunger Games, an event where children are randomly selected to fight to the death, that’s going to do some numbers on people. A lot of times in the fantasy and sci-fi genres I read these book and the characters go through awful things; war and whatever else, and they never have any issue with it. It’s just like OK that happened. That’s unrealistic. If you went through traumatic situations, you’re going to have trauma. That was greatly depicted here. Every single character in this book is traumatized from the events of the first book and it’s displayed well how that is different for everybody.

In the first book, I talked about how some instances of Katniss being in her head annoyed me, but it made sense: Why she was like that. In the second book that is falling on Peeta. He gets angry and upset about being left out a certain things and as a mature adult, I understand why he was left out of these things, but I have to remind myself: He is a teenage boy so his reaction is not only is going to be the most mature and it makes sense for him to feel these ways. However it got kind of irritating to read that I’m not going to lie.

Lastly, my biggest issue with the characters in Catching Fire was the romance, the love triangle. It’s kind of iconic when you think about these movies you were either on team Gale or a team Peeta. I was team Gale. personally. I get that it can adds tension to the character dynamics and relationships, but I don’t need that. I’m not a fan of love triangles.

I do think the world building was better and did improve. We get to see almost all of the districts in this book rather than just district 12 or the Capitol. Although, I’m still left with some questions mainly about how this rebellion is funded and the background to it. I also have questions about the peacekeepers and avoxes. I need to know how their systems work.

For the writing itself, the words and prose being used, I’m a fan of it. I do really like the bluntness. It’s very easy for me to read. There were some instances of info dumping when we are back in the arena, but I don’t think that took away anything from the story However, the first half of the book had major pacing issues for me. It was like “there seems to be a rebellion forming. Our characters are being threatened. Let’s dillydally about that for 45% of the book.” I was so bored and over that waiting for something to happen. I get that we are building to the rebellion and I do think this book really has second book syndrome. This is filler we have to get from point a to point B but first we have to have this stop in between, we have to light that fuse for this rebellion or maybe all out war to start.

This plot didn’t make me think as much as The Hunger Games one did. One of the themes that we are really introduced to in the middle of the book is how money and sudden wealth doesn’t fix everything. Everybody handles fame and fortune differently. For some it’s too much they get excessive drugs and alcohol and some just don’t know what to do with that time on their hands leading to boredom. I think it really points out that family and safety of those people you love are really what matters in this world. Excess and glamour doesn’t take away a threat. Even if you have some wealth, it doesn’t matter to the people on top. Something that I picked up on this time around that I didn’t when I was a kid was how much this is the capitol’s fault for being hypocritical or constantly switching up and being wishy-washy with things. This was all they’re doing that led to this, but they have to have a scapegoat or should we say Mockingjay? Whichever faction you want to be in, the revolution or the capitol, will see that differently.

Something that I picked up on was there was a lot of telling rather than showing in the writing. I do think that led to some of the tediousness of that first half of the book therefore not leading me to be as intrigued. I wanted to get past all of that and I was bored wanting to get to that next major event or plot point. Something I did love was how little things came up later and that every little thing had an implication for something that would come around. The author did a good job at tying up loose ends. I did love this book and I’m shocked that I’m only giving it a four out of five because this was my favorite book in my teenage years but obviously now I do see a lot of faults in it. Maybe it could’ve been different if I didn’t read it back to back with the first book. Or maybe this book is just better around reading the one time rather than two.