Catching Fire

In her second book of the Hunger Games Trilogy, Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins returns us to Panem, which used to be formally known as North America.

In Hunger Games (book one), the heroine Katniss was introduced and forced to play the Game. In the end when she was told that only one would be allowed to return, Katniss and her partner, Peeta, made a suicide pact; her minor rebellion against the Capitol provided the spark for an uprising.

In Catching Fire, Katniss and Peeta hear whispers of rebellion in other Districts. Two figures from District 8 are found hiding in the woods, searching for the destroyed remains of District 13; however, Katniss is recognized and the two strangers have a wafer with a mockingjay on it. Katniss finds out that the TV reportings on District 13 keep showing the same footage and a conversation with the Head Games Master, Plutarch, has a mockingjay on his watch.

After it is announced that the 75th Hunger Games will have the tributes reaped from the victor's pool, Katniss and Peeta are forced back in to the arena. During her live interview, Katniss models the wedding dress she'll never wear and is shocked when it starts to smolder and burn away to resemble that of a mockingjay.

When she returns to the arena, Katniss has sworn to herself that she will protect Peeta and that he will be the one to make it home alive. However, protecting him is proving difficult as her allies are trying to keep them separated, even though they seem to be willing to die to protect the both of them. In the end, Katniss ends up blowing up the force field that traps them in the arena and is picked up by a hovercraft. Inside, she finds out that she is the symbol of rebellion: the mockingjay.

The first book was more straight forward: Katniss was determined to live at all costs. Having met Peeta, she tried to keep them both alive. In this book, she has resigned herself to death since the Capitol is trying to kill her anyway. She also figures that by protecting Peeta, her family will be able to live as well. So this book is more about politics and hidden agendas than the last one was. Throwing them back in the arena was a surprise for me.

I was disappointed at first since that was what happened in the first one and didn't want a replay. However, while I figured out that the Mockingjay was a rebel's symbol earlier than she did, I didn't expect her being placed back into the arena was part of the larger picture. Or that the other players were aware of it and were trying to further their cause.

Needless to say, the story was good. Katniss still hasn't deepened in character and she's still clueless about guys, but I don't think that will change much in the next book either. She still wavers between Peeta and Gale, between staying and going. It's inevitable that something will happen between her and Gale now that they're in the same place since she's affectionate with Peeta when they're in the same vicinity. However, I'm hoping she'll shed some of her cowardice and bluffing to reveal a real backbone.

Unfortunately for me, the newest book, Mockingjay, won't be available until August 24, 2010. Which sucks because the author ended after disclosing that Katniss was the figurehead for their uprising. So that means that I'm going to have to wait a few months until I can read the next part, when, clearly, I'm dying to find out right now.