Catching Fire ~ Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games – Book 2) ~Suzanne Collins

SPOILER ALERT! This book is part of a series. If you have not read The Hunger Games, read on at your own risk!

Against all odds the Katniss and Peeta have convinced the world they are star crossed lovers and survived the 74^th Hunger Games. Never before have there been two survivors of the nation of Panem’s annual contest that pits teens from each of the 12 districts against each other, fighting to the death in an arena of the Capitol’s making. As victors they are expected to go on a tour of the nation, stopping at each district and participating in a celebration of their victory. But Katniss and Peeta cannot bring themselves to enjoy their win. For one thing, Katniss knows now that Peeta truly does have feelings for her, but she has no idea how she really feels about him. To make matters worse, President Snow arrived at her house in person before the tour to threaten her. She must make the love affair with Peeta seem real or face dire consequences. No one is allowed to make a fool of the Capitol and live to tell about it. When the tour ends Katniss finds that she has failed to convince President Snow that her love for Peeta motivated her to challenge the Capitol during the Hunger Games, and she has unwittingly become the symbol of a growing unrest in the districts of Panem. The 75^th Hunger Games draw near. Every twenty five years a special version of the games is held called the Quarter Quell. While the regular Hunger Games have a set of hard fast rules, anything can happen during the Quarter Quell. Katniss doesn’t see it coming, but the Quarter Quell sets her up for disaster. The announcement is made that the contestants for the 75^th Hunger Games will only be victors from previous Hunger Games. Katniss is the only living female victor from her district. She is faced with a fate she thought impossible. She is returning for a second round of the Hunger Games, and steadfast Peeta will not let her go without him. Katniss is forced to realize that she can no longer go along with the Capitol, keeping her head down and trying not to create a stir. More and more she sees that there will never be safety for her and those she loves as long as the Capitol exists.

When I started reading Catching Fire I thought, “Wow! I like this book much better than the first one. The characters are finally thinking about rebelling against this awful government they live under, and there are no Hunger Games in this story.” WRONG! I didn’t have to read too much farther before I realized there WAS going to be a Hunger Games in this book, too. And the main characters that I had become sort of fond of by the beginning of the second book were going to participate. Sigh. Well, I’ll say this much it kept me reading. I followed my favorite character right into the next Hunger Games and watched as this one became even more deadly than the Games in the first book. All I kept thinking was, “I am going to hate this book if he dies.” Sometimes I felt like the only thing that kept me reading was that I wanted to see if he lived. I even peeked ahead. Gasp! Something a hardcore bookworm should never do. I just didn’t know if I could handle reading all this horror only to find that the character I cared most about was a goner. I think the author did her work very well because keeping Peeta alive is all Katniss cares about, too, at least in the arena. So, after peeking, I kept reading on and on, thinking the story had to have some sort of resolution in the end. WRONG AGAIN! Big time cliff hanger! When I finished this book, I said, “Arrrrrgh!” in my head though because I was reading in bed next to my sleeping husband. It was late, and I was so tempted to get up and go get the third book from the office. The only thing that stopped me was knowing that my daughter would be getting me up early. If I started reading Mockingjay at that hour, I knew I would not be stopping anytime soon.

One might think that my eagerness to read more indicates that I loved the book, but I’m not sure that’s true. As I said after reading the first book, it’s hard to love something that is this disturbing. I think the books are very thought provoking and they have the potential to begin hundreds of valuable discussions about human nature, our government, the growing insensitivity to violence, poverty, etc. I could go on and on. It reminds me of the movie Saving Private Ryan. I saw the movie three times in the theater, and my dad, who knows how sensitive I am, was impressed that I wasn’t totally repelled by the violence and gore. I told him that it was hard for me to watch, but I felt like my generation needed to see things like that in order to have some inkling of what war really entails. We aren’t old enough to remember Vietnam. At the time, we didn’t have friends who were coming back from war with their minds and/or bodies destroyed. Sadly, since that time September 11, the war and Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq have happened. And I still don’t think the people of my generation or the generations behind us really understand what war is like. It seems strange. This is the information age after all. We can get Facebook updates from our friends stationed overseas, so why don’t we have more of a grasp of the horrors happening in the world? I don’t have the answer. Maybe it’s because people haven’t been drafted into our current wars, or maybe it’s because the war isn’t happening here. Just think how awful September 11 and the days shortly thereafter were. I can’t imagine living in that kind of fear full time, but that is some people’s reality.

I’ve gone off on a tangent, but my point is this. While books like those in the Hunger Games series are not my all time favorite reads, I think they are quite useful if the readers are willing to really think about what the author is trying to express. The books are entertaining in a twisted way, but I know the author did not write them merely to be entertaining. In fact in her notes she thanks her father for, “laying the groundwork for this series with his deep commitment to educating his children on war and peace.” Suzanne Collins wrote these books to teach and enlighten as well as to entertain. I hope that teachers, parents, and the young people themselves will take this opportunity to expand their awareness. I, for one, find myself still thinking about the story, even now. I see so many similarities in our world to this horrible fictional world that is supposedly so far removed from the world we know. It’s slightly terrifying. Katniss Everdeen and the citizens of Panem have let their world turn into something awful while they weren’t paying attention. If this book does nothing else, hopefully it teaches us that. We should ALL be paying attention and thinking about the true consequences of our every action AND inaction. Of course there is also the danger of the other extreme, allowing oneself to be whipped into a state of constant paranoia. But that’s the subject for another book.

Plop! That’s me hopping off the soapbox. Thanks for “listening”. J Pick up this series if you think you can stomach some fairly disturbing violence. You have to read all three though. I admit that when I had only read the first book, I didn’t truly get the connection between our world and Panem. In fact, it wasn’t until the third book that the value of the series really started to sink in.