Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Sep 27, 2010 Cee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, dystopian, love-triangle

The sequel of the extremely popular The Hunger Games, Catching Fire continues the story of Katniss and Peeta, two teenagers that try to survive in a world ruled by those in the Capitol.

When they both won the Hunger Games, they defied the Capitol, and they're going to have to pay for that. Neither them or their families are safe. I can't say more about the plot without spoiling it, but expect there to be a lot of hardship. Decisions will have to be made that can either save their loved ones or se The sequel of the extremely popular The Hunger Games, Catching Fire continues the story of Katniss and Peeta, two teenagers that try to survive in a world ruled by those in the Capitol.

When they both won the Hunger Games, they defied the Capitol, and they're going to have to pay for that. Neither them or their families are safe. I can't say more about the plot without spoiling it, but expect there to be a lot of hardship. Decisions will have to be made that can either save their loved ones or sentence them to death.

The Hunger Games was so absolutely awesome, I expected Catching Fire to at least be its equal, if not even better. I guess I'm quite disappointed now. Catching Fire didn't have the same lightning fast pace, the suspense. Especially the first part of the book was terribly slow. There was a lot of switching back and forth between past and present that was so confusing and unlike this series that I caught myself wishing for an editor to clean this part up.

When the pace did pick up, 'bout halfway in the book, the story resembled the one described in The Hunger Games a little too closely for my taste. And while the one in THG was so frightening and thrilling that I was sitting on the edge of my chair, urging myself on to read quicker, the plot in CF felt a bit old. You can only kill off so much characters before it stops to be scary.

What I did enjoy in this book is that there is a lot more attention to the world of Panem, where rebellion is starting in several Districts. I liked that we got more insight into how the Capitol oppress the general masses. We also get some glimpses into several other Districts, how people live there, which was pretty awesome.

I'd also like to give another cliffhanger warning. The end of Catching Fire gives no closure at all. Expect to be gasping and panicking when you come to the final pages. Make sure to have a copy of Mockingjay nearby before finishing this book.

This was by no means a bad book, yet it's not as awesome as its prequel. It's a decent continuation of the story, but I was expecting something that would leave more of an impression. Still, this trilogy is definitely worth continuing. ...more

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Mar 03, 2011 ♥ Unaeve ♥ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

it was amazing and i couldn't let the book down until i finished it off..it took me one day and the day after for next book-the third part-so definitely looking forward to c what kind of movie will they make out of it :) ...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Vivian rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2011

I stopped reading this book about halfway in, not sure if I wanted to continue, and I was thinking it was because it wasn't as good as the first, but that's not really the case.

For me, it was the most emotional of the three because of a few key scenes. It's the only book where I actually shed some tears. It was difficult to read because it's just so darn depressing.

By the last 80-100 pages, I was so completely engrossed in the story, it made up for any pacing issues earlier on (there was a sma ...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Usagi77777772003 rated it liked it

Shelves: post-apocalyptic

3.5 stars

This was pretty much a filler book in that nothing much was going on for more than half of the book. Had the love triangle been more interesting/convincing, the filler parts might have been less obvious. Too bad the "love triangle" is written completely for the sake of having one rather than really putting in effort to create necessary dynamics/tension in order to make it believable. Pretty much Katniss likes whoever she's currently spending quality time with ATM: So, it's Peeta when sh ...more

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Oct 02, 2010 Tina Baxter rated it it was amazing

awesome! Immediately had to start Mockenjay!

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Dec 07, 2012 April rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012, young-adult, dystopian

I ate the first half of the book up! For some reason most of the second half dragged except for like the last 50ish pages or so? The ending though, gawwwwwww must read Mockingjay ASAP!

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