Catching Fire

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the sequel to The Hunger Games, a book Connor and I read last year after hearing a lot about it. I don't want to summarize Catching Fire since that would completely give away the first book--so I'll summarize The Hunger Games so you can get the gist of it. The Hunger Games is about a society consisting of the Capitol and 12 districts where the Capitol is in complete control of all the people's lives. To show its great power and dominance, the Capitol hosts the "Hunger Games" every year where 2 children ("tributes") from each district are selected (in a lottery system) to participate in a fight to the death. This "game" is broadcast on television for all the districts to watch and to entertain the Capitol. The games end when one tribute has survived--and the other 23 have been killed. Hunger Games tells the story of Katniss, one of the tributes, and her fight to survive.

Catching Fire (like Hunger Games) was a book that I both hated and loved. (Meaning I loved it.) Such terrible things happen in the book that I have to cry or be completely angry. But the book is so engaging that from the time I started it yesterday to the time I finished it today, it was all I thought about. I dreamt about it last night; I woke up with the story consuming my mind. This book is a wonderful read because the situations are compelling and the characters are real. Unfortunately, both books in this series so far have ended less than ideally because they leave things wide open--forcing you to eagerly await the next book in the sequel. So...I will wait.

Rating: * * * (3/3 = Loved it in a hating way)