Catching Fire - Anna's Review

-Anna

I wasn't sure how Catching Fire would compare with The Hunger Games. I just didn't see how the second book could be better. The Hunger Games captivated and galvanized with its original twists, intense situations and complicated emotions. Catching Fire would have to be incredible to compete. But incredible it wasn't, quite, mainly because it lacked the element of surprise that The Hunger Games carried. But it was good, oh so very good!

As the second installment of the trilogy it is a success. The characters are developed and true to themselves. Katniss is an honest character who does not hide from her flaws or herself as she discovers her strengths. Peeta definitely steals the heart, and yet Gale is there, as he has always been, steady and true. Catching Fire fosters deeper love for the characters, empathy for their plight, while it fuels hatred for the machine of the Capitol and the man, smelling of blood and roses, who controls it.

And yes, there is a cliff hanger. There are questions to be answered, situations to be resolved, and battles to win. So, like every good second book in a trilogy should do, Catching Fire makes me want to read, to anticipate, to count down the very days until release of - the third installment of The Hunger Games.