6 reviews for The Hunger Games- Catching Fire
You must be logged in to post a review.
The Hunger Games- Catching Fire
by Suzanne Colins
Description:
Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol – a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create. Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. In Catching Fire, the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before…and surprising readers at every turn.
About The Author
Suzanne Collins (born August 10, 1962) is an American television writer and novelist, best known as the author of The New York Times best selling series The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games trilogy (which consists of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay). Collins' career began in 1991 as a writer for children's television shows. She worked on several television shows for Nickelodeon, including Clarissa Explains It All, The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, Little Bear, and Oswald. She was also the head writer for Scholastic Entertainment's Clifford's Puppy Days. She received a Writers Guild of America nomination in animation for co-writing the critically acclaimed Christmas special, Santa, Baby!
After meeting children's author James Proimos while working on the Kids' WB show Generation O!, Collins was inspired to write children's books herself. Her inspiration for Gregor the Overlander, the first book of The New York Times best selling series The Underland Chronicles, came from Alice in Wonderland, when she was thinking about how one was more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole, and would find something other than a tea party. Between 2003 and 2007 she wrote the five books of the Underland Chronicles: Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Marks of Secret, and Gregor and the Code of Claw. During that time, Collins also wrote a rhyming picture book, When Charlie McButton Lost Power (2005), illustrated by Mike Lester.
In September 2008, Scholastic Press released The Hunger Games, the first book of a trilogy by Collins. The Hunger Games was partly inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Another inspiration was her father's career in the Air Force, which gave her insight to poverty, starvation, and the effects of war. The trilogy's second book, Catching Fire, was released in September 2009, and its third book, Mockingjay, was released on August 24, 2010. Within 14 months, 1.5 million copies of the first two Hunger Games books were printed in North America alone. The Hunger Games was on The New York Times Best Seller list for more than 60 weeks in a row. Lions Gate Entertainment acquired worldwide distribution rights to a film adaptation of The Hunger Games, produced by Nina Jacobson's Color Force production company. Collins adapted the novel for film herself. Directed by Gary Ross, filming began in late spring 2011, with Jennifer Lawrence portraying main character Katniss Everdeen. Josh Hutcherson played Peeta Mellark and Liam Hemsworth played Gale Hawthorne. The subsequent two novels were adapted into films as well, with the latter book split into two cinematic installments, a total of four highly successful films representing the three books.
As a result of the significant popularity of The Hunger Games books, Collins was named one of Time magazine's most influential people of 2010. In March 2012, Amazon announced that Collins had become the best-selling Kindle author of all time.Amazon also revealed that Collins had written 29 of the 100 most highlighted passages in Kindle ebooksand on a separate Amazon list of recently highlighted passages, Collins had written 17 of the top 20.
Skryf Review
“Amazing Reading”
Abbas
Catching Fire was maybe not as striking as the first book in this series, The Hunger Games, in making me disturbed about myself, but it definitely had its moments. Also, I was in my second week of law school and had just gotten back from an exhausting wedding when I read it, so I might not have had the capacity to self-reflect that I normally do. If you don’t know already, even though you should know, the premise of this series is a that in the future, post-apocalyptic world of the super-badass Katniss Everdeen, one rich city controls twelve poor-to-starving cities that produce all of the goods for the rich city. In order to keep the poor cities in fear, the rich city requires each of the poor cities to send one teenage boy and one teenage girl as tributes to play the Hunger Games. In the Hunger Games the kids have to kill each other until there is one survivor, who gets to party for the rest of his/her life but never really feels like partying because everything’s so fucked up. Usually they go crazy, if they didn’t start out that way. It’s veryLord of the Flies, and yes it is the same premise as Battle Royale, but not as determinedly nasty as those two books. Also, girl action hero!
Hiten
Catching Fire starts up not far from where The Hunger Games ended. Katniss is living in the Victors Village with her family. You’d think she could finally be able to relax and live the cushy life. Well that wouldn’t make a good book. There are rumors of rebellion and since Katniss and Peeta won the Hunger Games in defiance they have become the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol, particularly President Snow, is not happy with them. Now Katniss has to worry about looking as in love with Peeta as possible to quiet down the rebellion, but is that what she really wants? So what do you read after a book like this? Well, you could look for a book that’s just as addictive and gripping as this (Yeah, good luck with that), or read a book about kittens chasing after butterflies in a open meadow. Then you’ll probably start thinking that there is a secret underground society of kitties just waiting for the right moment to emerge, and you find out that the butterflies are their spies! You see, this is the type of thinking you have after reading the book. It’s beyond epic. Until the third book finally comes out I’ll be hanging butt naked by a spider thin thread.
Helly
To be honest I cannot believe I actually liked this book. I had very low expectations which is unusual since this series is so popular and has A LOT of hype surrounding it so people would probably have high expectations. Right? Well, I didn’t and that’s mainly because of the first book. I had watched the movie and knew what was going to happen in the first so I was ehh about it. I liked it but not like everyone else but this book is AMAZING. I liked it so much more than the first and there is more stuff going on in this book. The first did have a lot of action but this book was just better. I actually now understand why this series is popular. I’m so excited to carry on the series and I think the next book is going to be even better. This wasn’t a proper review because I feel like I’m too late to do a full review.
Vishvesh
me and teen fiction are now irrevocably bound. what started as some kind of screamin jay hawkins voodoo spell and me helpless to resist has blossomed into something – a magical love like between a child and a vampire… okay, so i still refuse to read that one. but this series is just too good. it doesnt read like teen fiction at all. the characters are well drawn, there is great tension and imagination – i cant rate this highly enough. when i got to the end of the first one and saw “the end of book one” i got mad because i thought this would be one of those things that goes on forever and i have no desire for that kind of commitment. but now that i know it is going to be a trilogy and then stop, i am calmed. her other series (which i havent read) did something like 5 books and stopped, so i appreciate her understanding that when something is finished, it doesnt need to be milked forever. because with the teen market, they will keep buying them if they keep being written. i appreciate her restraint. but the book – i am actually excited to see how it all wraps up. i got this the day it came out, like some harry potter soccer mom, and now i have to wait (again) for the last part. maybe this will preserve my youthful glow. now i gotta go read an adult book, just so i know i still can…
Ira
Trilogies, whether they’re books or films, are always tricky to pull off because they so often fall into the same basic pattern: Part 1 introduces us to the characters and the conflict, then gives us a simplified version of the Big Climactic Ending that’s being planned for Part 3. Part 2 might introduce some new twist or conflict, but mostly its job is to set up Part 3. Part 3 is where everything pays off and the trilogy ends in either a brilliant blaze of glory, or a godawful mess. It’s all very interesting and well-paced and exciting, but no matter how good Catching Fire gets, we can’t escape the sensation that Collins is just biding her time, distracting us with this second-Hunger-Games plot while she works up to the book that really matters – the third one. It’s an entertaining stalling tactic, but a stalling tactic none the less. Now I understand why my roommate immediately downloaded Mockingjay on her Kindle as soon as she finished this book. We have to get to the good stuff!Okay, now I’m going to discuss two major issues I had with this book, and since they are both spoiler-riffic but I don’t want to mark the whole review as a spoiler, I’m going to give you chance to exit out of this review and avoid ruining the ending.