Catching Fire

by Suzanne Collins

Dedication: "For my parents, Jane and Michael Collins. And my parents-in-law, Dixie and Charles Pryor."

First paragraph: "I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached into the frozen air. My muscles are clenched tight against the cold. If a pack of wild dogs were to appear at this moment, the odds of scaling a tree before they attacked are not in my favor. I should get up, move around, and work the stiffness from my limbs. But instead I sit, as motionless as the rock beneath me, while the dawn begins to lighten the woods. I can't fight the sun. I can only watch helplessly as it drags me into a day that I've been dreading for months."

Review: This is the second book in The Hunger Games series. It picks up a few months after The Hunger Games end. I don't want to say to much in way of the plot in case you haven't read The Hunger Games yet. If you haven't, go now and pick up a copy and start reading. It is amazing.

Now for Catching Fire - Katniss and her hunger games victory has caused quite a stir in the districts across Panem. I can't say much more without giving away a lot about the first book so I won't talk about the plot anymore.

As for the story. Absolutely amazing. Collins does an amazing job at writing great, intense books. The only time I put this book down was to let my heart stop racing or to let out a little wail to my husband. But the breaks didn't last long. I could only leave it alone for a few minutes at a time and then I was back.

Collins has a real ability to get you attached to the guys in Katniss' life. I honestly don't know who I want her to be in love with. She just creates these people that are so real, honest, and good and yet they are definitely not perfect that it's hard to dislike or choose between either of them. Maybe she could end up with both of them? Just kidding, but not really.

As for Katniss, she is written as a teenage girl who has to deal with major life issues like keeping her family alive but at the same time she is still a teenage girl who struggles between being a selfish teenage girl and helping all of the people in Panem rise up in rebellion against The Capitol. To me she could easily exist. She wouldn't be my best friend, but she'd be my younger sister's friend's best friend - someone I know, but not really well.

I think Collins' greatest character was a girl that you loved to hate and yet she was on the good side. How hard is it to write a character that you hate? Not too hard. But to write a character that is on the good side that you hate? Now that is talent.

I could ramble on and on about this book and how amazing it was and how unexpected everything is. I started reading the book with some possibilities for the book in my head. Let's just say I was SO far off. There is no way I could have guessed a single thing that happened in the book. Nothing was at it seemed. Things happening at the turn of every page. Awesome. I think I liked this book even better then the first, and that's saying something because I loved The Hunger Games.

.... (Edit: I just noticed part of my original review got cut off ... I'm not quite sure what I was going to say but I do know it's all praise all the way for this book, in my opinion)

Click here for Suzanne Collins' website for Catching Fire.