Catching Fire

No, Patrick is not a pyro. Catching Fire (Which I just finished about two minutes ago and it was so good I had to come blog about it) is the sequel to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It is about the United States after a nuclear war. Panem(which is what it is now called) consists of twelve districts (formerly 13, but 13 was destroyed in the civil war between the districts and the Capitol) and a Capitol. The Capital controls basically everything in the districts. All of the districts are poor and the capitol is rollin' in dough. The people of the capitol even, at parties, after gorging themselves, drink something to make them throw up, so they can eat more (this is like one King Louis XIII, except he gagged himself with a feather). The Capitol stages the annual Hunger Games(hence the title for the first book.) to punish the districts for revolting a long time ago(but still in the future). I would love to summarize more, and I am sorry for any confusion this causes, but I really don't want to summarize an entire darn series again(see my insanely long blog post of doom below) so I will stop there and start with Catching Fire. It starts after (sorry for the spoiler) Katniss and Peeta became joint champions of the Hunger games. On their victory tour, when they go to all the ditricts to "celebrate" they incite a rebellion in districts 11 and 4. These districts are dealt with harshly by the capitol with surprising swiftness. Their are stirrings of rebellion in district 12, Katniss and Peeta's home district, but these are (seemingly) extinguished when, for the Quarter Quell, a special Games held every 25 years, President Snow(The snakelike head honcho of Panem) decrees that the participants will be chosen from the existing pool of victors. So, Katniss and Peeta go back to the diabolical games once more. Many more exciting things happen, but I won't spoil the entire book for you. Suffice to say that if you don't like cliffhangers, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! I repeat, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! Cathing Fire contains the biggest cliffhanger that I have EVER, in my entire life, read. Other than that, I loved this book. The plot had so many twists, I thought I was on a roller coaster. For example, when Peeta touches the force-field surrounding the arena and his heart stops, another tribute from gives him CPR to save his life, even though the tributes should want to kill Peeta. I lalso ike the book because it has many interesting sub-plots that keep you enthralled, as in how Katniss feels torn between Gale, back in district 12, who she has known since she was young and who she is beginning to love; and Peeta, who she has to love because they won the Hunger games together, but she also actually is starting to love. I give Catching Fire, on a scale of 1 to 10, a 8.6 because it is has lots of action, but it is not all fighting to the death. There are some actual feelings and thoughts from the characters. I would reccomend this book to just about anyone over the age of 11 who has also read The Hunger Games. Here is a picture of Cathing Fire by Suzanne Collins.

* I commented on Blake's blog this week.