Catching Fire

Let’s not even pretend this is a review: spoilers ahoy!

This story continues the PanAm rebellion saga from a year after Catniss survived the previous Hunger Games. All the districts are either rebelling or about to, so President Snow decides to hold a special “Quadrennial” Games only for winners of previous Hunger Games. Thus Catniss, Peeta (along with coach Haymitch) must compete once more to save their own skins and protect their loved ones. I like the premise of the story even though it seems grafted on to the end of what was originally a standalone book (until the publisher came up with phat book advance loot - I’m just speculating here - no actual research - don’t flame me). Its just horrifying that you can have won Hunger Games and are then “rewarded” with a HG redux. (Quit Picking on Plucky Catniss!)

I like the continued love triangle (chaste! so “like triangle”?) between Catniss, Peeta and Gale. We get it from Catniss’s POV and that’s fine: she’s too young and preoccupied to worry about dumb boys. (BTW, Catniss’s last name is Everdeen, just like Bathsheba in Far From the Madding Crowd. Someone, I am sure, has done some good character comparison article pointing out all the similarities between the two characters.) And this time Peeta announces the fraud that Catniss is pregnant with his child in order amplify the drama surrounding their participation in the games. (and nobody from the capital tries to verify this?)

But anyway, the games begin and it turns out that the gaming territory is arranged as a giant clock face, with new monsters, traps, threats appearing every hour in the appropriate slice of the clock. So the games are more arbitrary and deadly than last time. We have new competitors from different districts for Catniss and Peeta to team up from the start of the games. And the other competitors are pretty sympathetic so this amps up the tension in the story because no one wants to kill someone they like. And this ain’t Game of Thrones so I don’t want characters I like getting killed off.

Now for what I didn’t like: The ending is just messy and too hard to follow. Maybe if I was reading I would re-read and understand, but this is supposed to a “popcorn” story that I listen to in the car between errands and I do not want to work that hard!

Catniss and her team plot some sort electrified trap/ambush plan that fails (or is disrupted - don’t know) and then in the chaotic aftermath of broken plan Catniss realizes she has no idea who in the Games is on her side. She conveniently remembers that the real enemy is the PanAm regime, so Catniss shoots an electrified arrow through a gap in part of the forcefield surrounding the games (because, actually the game is in a giant terrarium?!?!) which causes all sorts of explosions presumably hurting the game makers and destroying their evil equipment. Hooray, the games are over!

Catniss has been wounded and is picked up by a hovercraft where she sees Caesar Flickerman (the head Game producer) is waiting, she thinks, to punish her for messing up the games. She wakes up strapped to a hospital bed (because she is dangerous? angry?), we don’t know where exactly. We find out that Caesar is in cahoots with Haymitch, and the rebellion is seemingly much bigger and well organized than we were lead to believe. But Haymitch couldn’t tell Catniss (because she is too important?!?) that her escape from the HG terrarium was planned before the games began. However, oops, they couldn’t rescue Peeta and that’s where the story ends but we know that Catniss can’t lose Peeta without a struggle so there has to be a sequel. (Oh and district twelve doesn’t exist any more, but her family is someplace safe, so don’t worry.) Gah.

I mean this book is actually pretty good, its just a bit sloppy and strains credibility in the last 30 minutes. The disappointment I feel is that it didn’t live up to the immaculate quality of Hunger Games, but that’s pretty tough ask. Stay tuned to see if I can overcome my ambivalence and carry on with the next book.