Review - Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)

Synopsis

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create. 

 Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying      

 - Goodreads.com

My Review 

A couple of months ago, while I was working. I had a patient; a girl about 10 years old come in for a dressing change. As I went about my task of cleaning and dressing the wound, I asked her how she had cut her hand. Her mother who was standing next to her, rolled her eyes sighing, clearly unimpressed...” Go on Hailey” she said, “Tell the nurse how you did it”. Hailey looked up at me and grinned, clearly oblivious to her mother’s disapproval. “I cut it while playing the hunger games” she said with enthusiasm “Me and my cousin were in the bush behind the house. We were tired and hungry, after fighting other tributes, and we had finally found a good place to camp for the night. So I pulled out my pocket knife, and started cutting some onions for soup. But then we heard a sound behind us... we were being ambushed...we didn’t know what to do, stand and fight or run for our lives...and that’s when I accidentally cut my hand” she finished beaming with pride.

THIS is what I love most about this series. It’s that it inspires young minds to be adventurous, creative and play with imagination. Too many kids today sit inside playing play-station and computer and not enough run around outside playing Hunger Games, and Harry Potter, and Transformers (or whatever stuff kids watch these days). While reading this book I was drawn back into my own childhood, of playing in the bush behind my friend’s houses, hiding as stowaways on ships destined for exotic continents, fighting enemy foes with our make shift bow and arrows, and pretending to live off the land. * sigh* I miss those days...

Now onto the actual review...I absolutely LOVED this book, even more than the first. There were so many twists and turns, and there were a lot of things I didn’t see coming. The story is fast paced, if slightly rushed at times, which I didn’t mind considering quite a few things ie. Preparation for the games, opening ceremony, interviews had already been fully explained in the first book.  If you like being kept on your toes, this is definitely the book for you. When I wasn’t reading this book, I was thinking about it, which is not common ground for me. I found myself waking up in the night, and instead of rolling over to go back to sleep, stealthily (or not so stealthily according to my partner) turning on my lamp to devour the words on the pages... a new meaning to midnight munchies.   

The ending was great, and left with a cliff-hanger, which I don’t mind too much considering I don’t have to wait a whole year for the next installment. Overall, it’s one of those series which should be on your read before I die list, because trust me you don’t want to miss out on this series and regret it for the rest of your (after) life.

My rating: 4.75/5