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raethereviewer 's review for:
Catching Fire
by Suzanne Collins
Continuing on with my reread of the series, I finished Catching Fire in one afternoon (that somehow turned into 2 am). I truly couldn’t put it down. There were certain quotes and scenes that were stuck in my brain but I’d forgotten the context for them. When I got to those moments, it brought back all the original emotions from 13 years ago and more.
I think disability is handled a lot better in this one than The Hunger Games. The terminology used isn’t harmful and it seems like she put more research into it. There are some inconsistencies in how Peeta’s disability is represented. It only ever seems to come up for plot reasons but I feel like it’s something that needed to be acknowledged more in the Games.
District 11 is described more thoroughly in this one since it’s the first stop on the victory tour and we are expanding on that Rue connection. In The Hunger Games, I thought Suzanne Collins was drawing inspiration from sharecropping but when we get to District 11, it honestly just makes me think of slavery. I have a lot of complicated feelings about this, especially because it seems District 11 as the “Black district” may have been altered in the casting of Sunrise on the Reaping. I don’t have the language quite yet for unpacking this but it’s something I’ll be thinking about more and more as I begin Mockingjay.
Overall, I really enjoyed the pacing of this one. Collins breaks down the events and time frame in a way that is easy to follow but keeps the momentum going. I enjoyed it more than the first book (which is probably also true of my 12-year-old self) and the ending makes me excited to go back into the world of Mockingjay.
I think disability is handled a lot better in this one than The Hunger Games. The terminology used isn’t harmful and it seems like she put more research into it. There are some inconsistencies in how Peeta’s disability is represented. It only ever seems to come up for plot reasons but I feel like it’s something that needed to be acknowledged more in the Games.
District 11 is described more thoroughly in this one since it’s the first stop on the victory tour and we are expanding on that Rue connection. In The Hunger Games, I thought Suzanne Collins was drawing inspiration from sharecropping but when we get to District 11, it honestly just makes me think of slavery. I have a lot of complicated feelings about this, especially because it seems District 11 as the “Black district” may have been altered in the casting of Sunrise on the Reaping. I don’t have the language quite yet for unpacking this but it’s something I’ll be thinking about more and more as I begin Mockingjay.
Overall, I really enjoyed the pacing of this one. Collins breaks down the events and time frame in a way that is easy to follow but keeps the momentum going. I enjoyed it more than the first book (which is probably also true of my 12-year-old self) and the ending makes me excited to go back into the world of Mockingjay.