A review by rara2018
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

5.0

The Hunger Games is literally that series. Some series are great to reread—and don’t get me wrong, rereading this has been a blast—but I so desperately wish I could read this for the first time again. The sheer whiplash and emotional turmoil these plot twists are putting me through even with the complete knowledge of what’s going to happen next is off the charts. From the beginning of the book with Katniss and Peeta coming to terms with how the rest of their life is going to be, to the reaping that changed everything, through the games that made me cry only a little (lot) bit, and finally at the ending that was the biggest mic drop in the history of literature, Catching Fire barely gives the reader even one moment of rest. As I said while reviewing the previous book, even though my elementary school self was a Gale girlie, I finally get the hype around Peeta as a character and the earnestness that surrounds him. The side characters here were also tremendously compelling and really exemplified the horrors of the society (and capitalism) in a variety of different ways. We had kind people suffering from addiction with seemingly no other way out, angry and traumatized people, people who have lost everything, etc. all within one book. This one might be my favorite of the trilogy (though Mockingjay, which I know people like the least, is still a very valid contender).