Catching Fire
- ISBN13: 9780439023498
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Cap… More >>
I had serious problems with the first book in this series, “Hunger Games”. I thought it was a trite rip-off of “Battle Royale”, complete with an asinine, unworkable premise and a veritable checklist of sci-fi, distopian future cliches. My opinion of it remains unchanged.
Thankfully “Catching Fire” is somewhat better, but only somewhat.
The story picks up with the end of the first book, showing Katniss (what a stupid name), and her friend, Peeta (what a stupid name), traveling across Panem (what a stupid… oh, you get the idea), on a victory tour. They’re basically being sent out to quell any notions that the local districts might have about rebellion. Hmmm… the government rounds up and basically murders large groups of children every year and, surprise, there’s a rebellion? Big shock, and just part of why the premise is fatally flawed, but moving on.
Eventually it’s announced that there’s going to be a Big Super Special Hyper-Mega Cool Hunger Games this year with several of the survivors from the earlier games going in to compete. Guess who ends up getting picked?
Mostly the book is just rather dull. There’s some interesting scenes, like Katniss meeting up with the President and a nice moment involving a wedding dress, but even some of the more interesting scenes just come off as retreads of the first book. Even the set-piece, the Games, aren’t that interesting.
There’s also an odd morality to this story. There’s a huge amount of violence in the book, as there was in the first (way more than one would want any kid under a certain age to read, and I’m surprised Scholastic publishes this), but there is no sex at all. None. Katniss is seventeen and when she gets kissed at one point towards the end of the book, it’s like she’s having her first orgasm. She’s allowed by the author to go around killing people, but clearly must remain a virgin. Yeah, that had me rolling my eyes. Also amusing; there’s no Bad Language in the book.
I’m sure fans of the first book will be wetting their knickers with the chance to read this one. I’m sure if they liked that, they’ll like this, since large parts of it are pretty much the same. Anyone else, probably not.
Rating: 3 / 5
I know it’s getting a lot of great reviews but I thought it was just like Hunger Games but with a love triangle put on the back burner for the next book. I think the writing is great and the world the author has created is creative but IT’S MISSING SOMETHING FOR ME ! I loved the first one because that’s when your first introduced to the world. I’ll have to reread the book again and maybe I’ll change my mind but I was expecting more and maybe that’s were I went wrong.
Rating: 2 / 5
repetitive, no character development, no climatic point, flat with a lack of substance therefore making the cliff hanger intolerable, a filler novel, did i say repetitive?
i know suzanne can do better, at least her editors should.
Rating: 2 / 5
Suzanne Collins spins a good story, and Catching Fire is, like the Hunger Games, a fun, quick read. It stars the same characters, in the same setting, facing the same challenges. But this is also its weakness. While is it normal, even expected, for epic heroes to return to the sites of their early challenges, in this case the return is too quick and too similar, and suggests a paucity of imagination.
This is particularly disappointing because the world of the Hunger Games had an intriguing history, and the first story in the trilogy developed the politics and economics of this world in addition to its “Battle Royale”. This would seem to create the opportunity for a wide range of adventures en route to the inevitable revolution. Could we have had a book set in the Capital, or touring the Districts, or from the point of view of Haymitch? Perhaps, but instead we return to the arena for another big fight.
Rating: 2 / 5
mmmm… yes. The Second Hunger Games book. After enjoying the first one immensely, I had high hopes for the second one. Soon it was quite obvious that Catching Fire was not going to give the action and excitment the first had much of. Indeed, Catching Fire never really picked up for me, usually a book might start out slow in the beginning and by the end I am absorbed into it, but Catching Fire lacked that pull. Why?
First off the writing is starting to get very annoying, there isnt a single paragraph without the main character breaking off into space and thinking out loud every thought, feeling, and emotion. There was quite alot of that in the first book, but the plot and the action helped take my mind off it, meanwhile in the second book there is no such distraction. Soon its seemed very like reading a girl’s diary, Suzanne Collins diary.
Second, is that Catching Fire is so similar to the first one that it has more deja vu then the movie deja vu, the one with Denzel Washington. I can’t write the closest similarity on my review because that would be too much of a spolier. The book has nothing that can really distinguish itself from the first one. The two books are so similar the only difference is how bad the second one is. If the first book was Dr.Evil, Catching Fire would be Mini-Me.
Third, the love triangle between Gale, Petra and Katniss is very flat and unrealistic. I have a hard time calling it a love triangle since it seems like no one really likes each other. Its almost like the three characters are acting, pretending that their in love. Pretending like Katniss did for the citizens of the Capitol when she was in the Hunger Games. Gale,Petra and Katniss seem to be faking their love so that we, the people who pay for Suzanne Collin’s bread, will be buying her books.
At best it can be said of being a bridge to support the series to the last and final book, A very shaky bridge. I can imagine that many people will fall off this bridge and never make it to the Third book. Indeed Im thinking weither or not the third book is worth reading after this literature disaster.
Rating: 1 / 5