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book notes
title: Catching Fireauthor: Suzanne Collins
series: The Hunger Games #2
published: 5.28.2010
publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: bought
genre(s): dystopian
pages: 346
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:
| series rating: the blurb
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen 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 her 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.
In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before... and surprising readers at every turn.
a few notes
❗trigger warnings: ❗violence, death, grief
POV: 1st person
setting: Panem (district 112, Capitol)
keywords/phrases: family, fear, oppression, rebellion
tropes: totalitarian government, strict social castes, struggle to survive
spice: 0/5
language: 0/5
my review
Sequels can be good, they can be terrible, but rarely are they on the same level as the first, especially one as incredible as The Hunger Games. But Catching Fire is at least as good.
The book is deeply intense… in emotion, in the characters, in the plot, in every aspect. The stakes are higher, and so is the anticipation. It felt like Katniss especially changed at a fundamental level in this one. Once the Games were over, the mature but still young teenager she once was was long gone. The announcement of the next Games finished the transition, turning into a warrior. I loved her self-awareness, that it leads her to make choices she once wouldn’t have. It was admirable, especially when set within a world that is often little more than dog-eat-dog.
I typically don’t love a love triangle, often wondering just what it is that the two see in the person in the middle. But Collins does a triangle right. She’s created an imperfect character in Katniss, and one who is often very critical of herself. Because of that, the reader often doesn’t get other perspectives of her until it’s revealed in dialogue. That gives it an air of authenticity, as it’s often how it is in real life as well. Another aspect of the triangle I like is the Peeta and Gale are such good friends, not to each other but to Katniss. Even without romantic feelings, there are solid relationships.
And the mood… the level of anticipation and suspense is unparalleled. The world Collins has created is vivid, dark, and gritty. And utterly believable. I read this initially when it first came out, before I book-blogged. I’ve read it a few times since. But I feel it even more deeply today, which makes for both an incredible reading experience and a terrifying one.
About Suzanne Collins
Since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been busy writing for children’s television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She also co-wrote the critically acclaimed Rankin/Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! Most recently she was the Head Writer for Scholastic Entertainment’s Clifford’s Puppy Days.
While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children’s author James Proimos, who talked her into giving children’s books a try.
Thinking one day about Alice in Wonderland, she was struck by how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who, like her own, lived in urban surroundings. In New York City, you’re much more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole and, if you do, you’re not going to find a tea party. What you might find…? Well, that’s the story of Gregor the Overlander, the first book in her five-part series, The Underland Chronicles. Suzanne also has a rhyming picture book illustrated by Mike Lester entitled When Charlie McButton Lost Power.
She currently lives in Connecticut with her family and a pair of feral kittens they adopted from their backyard.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2026 52 Books Reading Challenge
- 2026 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge
- 2026 Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge
- 2026 Linz the Bookworm & Logophile Reading Challenge
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