Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire, written by Suzanne Collins, is a literary novel in the dystopian genre, with a slight fragment of romance. It is the second book in the tetralogy of the Hunger Games book series.

Katniss Everdeen, a 17 year old girl has yet to await the 75th Hunger Games (a bloodthirsty death game), while also juggling the fact that the President of Panem might be plotting to assassinate her.

To her unfortunate dismay, the President has noticed something different, and possibly worse; her second year as the female tribute from District Twelve, along with her supposed love interest; Peeta Mellark. 

This means that the President will be calling upon past victors from previous games, and using them as killing machines, until there is a new victor left.

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This time, my favorite character would be Finnick Odair, because he was a comic relief and also, one of Katniss’ later friends and allies. He had a talent with the trident, weapon of the sea, which was understandable since District Four (his own district) took up the seafood incidents.

He didn’t quite believe the romance between Katniss and Peeta, but tried to support it, despite knowing that Katniss didn’t really know what to do with the romance either, except for using it as a strength to play at the hearts of the Capitol.

That actually backfired when Peeta hit an electric barrier, causing Katniss to sob over how it should’ve been her, and also fueled Finnick to give Peeta mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, seeing how Katniss’ life actually was hurt when Peeta fell unconscious.

The characters’ lives changed from a sudden plot twist that made Katniss realize that there was only one other person in the arena who knew and understood exactly how she felt, which was Peeta.

Katniss found out that Peeta was in a deep depression; if he died, no one would really, truly miss him, probably mourning for a small time, and then carrying on with their own lives, and to which Katniss responded that she needed him. This was due to the poisonous berries trick that she had pulled on the Capitol last year, and she was still trying to convince everyone that the berries hadn’t been a mockery of the Capitol, but instead a way of telling everyone that she wouldn’t be able to survive without him.

My favorite part of the book is when everyone figures out that the arena is like a clock; every hour, there is a different, new danger that everyone has to escape from, like the stinging fog that made everyone itch uncontrollably for days, stopping only when they were in water, as it soothed their skin remarkably, and got rid of the irritation and the prickling.

Another example was when carnivorous monkeys attacked them, their speed lightning fast, and their viciousness a 100% scare to everyone near them. Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick tried desperately to fight back with their knives and tridents and bows and arrows, but losing all of them in the heat of fighting, stopping only when the hour had struck and the monkeys retreated back to their tall trees hangout, blessing them with relief and also a bit of shock.

Something I didn’t like very much was that Katniss was in trauma and in pain as she listened to the screams of the jabberjays imitating the people she loved the most in pain. Finnick was with her, and he also listened to Katniss’ cries, which included her mother, Prim, Gale, and Gale’s smaller siblings, along with his own ‘Annie’, who Katniss later learned was Finnick’s love interest.

I recommend this book to everyone who has already read the Hunger Games, as stated in my previous review, perhaps because if you try to read this book before the first, you may not have an absolute, total understanding of the complete plot, and will be very confused.

This book showcases an amazing tale of friendship, enemies, and betrayals, giving off a marvelous reading aura and would be a 10/10 must read! Thanks for reading this book review btw <3