A review by ravensandlace
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

slow-paced

5.0

Title: Catching Fire

Author: Suzanne Collins

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian

Format: own paperback book

Series: The Hunger Games (#2)

Star Rating: 5 stars

Please note that this is a review from 2016. At that time, I did not keep track of trigger warnings so apologies. Young Lacy did not know what she was doing back then. 

This review will contain spoilers for The Hunger Games. Read this review at your own risk. 

As you can see, I powered through this book and this series. This book continues after Katniss and Peeta have won the Hunger Games. President Snow is not happy and takes Katniss' berry trick as an act of defiance and an invitation to start riots in his peaceful districts. To be fair, he does have a point. Katniss knew what she was doing. 

In this book, Katniss is trying to live with what has happened in the arena. She is still in survival mode. To be honest, though, I don't think she has ever even left survival mode. She grew up in the poorest district and fought to survive every day. She is constantly in flight or fight mode. That girl is wound so tight, that it would take years to break through. The amount of therapy that girl needs though. Amazingly, she is as functional as she is. If I was her, I honestly would need to be committed. I am far from as strong as Katniss. 

Anyway, not going to spoil the entire book and talk about a lot of details but Peeta and Katniss have to go back into the arena with the victors of the previous Hunger Games from different districts. Katniss has to learn who the enemy is and how she will get her and Peeta out of this one alive.

We see Katniss grow a little more. She starts to see the grey area that I had talked about in my review of The Hunger Games. There were parts where she drove me mad, though. Like her treatment of Peeta and Gale. It's almost like she just uses him and he doesn't deserve that. I ship them so hard though, even though Katniss is kind of horrible to him. I also never liked that she and Gale were almost a thing. He is a good friend but I could never see them as anything more than friends.

Overall, I will always recommend this series because I love it so much. My reviews will never do this book series justice. Sometimes, with the middle books of a series, it can fall kind of flat. Or they are just filler books to get you from point A to point B. This was not the case. There was action and intrigue and all that good stuff in this book as well. It sets the scene for the last book.