Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Every time I read a distopian novel, I wonder why I don't read more. I always like them. But it's an odd sort of liking. Not a happy, fuzzy like, but the sense that comes from reading something powerful and provoking.
The story was fresh and strong, and definitely not repetetive and predictable, which I was concerned about. No need to have worried. The whole book kept me holding my breath and being surprised.
I think once I've read Mockingjay, Catching Fire will have been my favorite. I'm anxious to read Mockingjay, but I don't see how it could top this. Once I started, I couldn't put it down - not once. I might even read it again.
A lot of readers criticize Collins for making Katniss in book 2 so different from herself in book 1. She does and says things that the Katniss in book 1 wouldn't have thought of doing. People are chalking it up to sloppy story-telling and slapdash character development. I want to make the argument that it's intentional. It makes sense. Even Katniss feels after The Hunger Games that the fabric of who is is, what she stands for, is falling apart. Doesn't it only make sense that a person whose life and self is absolutely crumbling would act differently from the confident person she used to be when the series started?
P.S. The girl in me is agonizing over the love triangle. **rolls eyes** I guess I can't help it.
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I thought the same thing about Katniss and it's worse in Mockingjay. I eventually decided that if she has a little PTSD, it's totally understandable.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh. I left the G out of mockingjay like every time I wrote it. ugh.
ReplyDeleteI thought the trilogy was flat-out AMAZING!!! Get thee to a bookstore for Mockingjay! I agree with you that the change in Katniss is deliberate. You couldn't go through the Games and not be changed and traumatized by them. I thought her handling of the love triangle in the last book was brilliant, because when it was all said and done I couldn't imagine the story happening any other way. I'm reading her Gregor the Overlander series (meant for kids) out loud to the kids right now, and it is super cool as well.
ReplyDeleteOooh...also, if you are into dystopian lit, John Marsden's "Tomorrow When The War Began" series is awesome too. I've read it several times and it never gets old.
ReplyDeleteAlso, please forgive my use of pronouns without proper antecedents in my first comment. How tacky. Lol.