Book Review of Catching Fire (The Hunger Games Book Two)

A friend, engrossed in Film Studies at university, once explained to me the winning sequence in a trilogy. 

The first is all about action.  It gets the blood pumping and makes us care about the characters. Constantly seeing them in so much peril will do that.  

The second has some action, but it's more about setting a scene.  This is where we fill in the context and the background color.  Our narrow vision pulls back and we see not just a world, but a universe. 

The third is the grand finale, playing out the action on a much bigger stage.

She used the example of the Star Wars trilogy of films (this was back in the days before the three prequels).  A New Hope was swash-buckling fun.  Everyone loved it before it was the first.  It was original, simple and made us love Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Empire Strikes Back was the one which no-one seemed to like at first.  But it's the one that everyone quoted and harked back to later.  It took years for people to realize that it was the most important of the three.  It had Yoda in it for a start.

Then Return of the Jedi painted its adventure over a much bigger platform, with plots and sub-plots, and a much bigger special effects budget. The older people whined about Ewoks, but mostly viewers thought it a stunning ending.

Suzanne Collins seems to have followed this same strategy with her The Hunger Games trilogy. I've not heard much love for Catching Fire, but I loved it.  I hungered for more details - how this had happened, what led to these moments, what were the lives of the victors like throughout the past of the games. 

In short, I wanted the history and I got it.  One day, I think those criticizing this book will look at it like Star Wars fans view Empire.  It's the deepest, most startling of the three.

One prize for winning the Hunger Games is that the victor does not have to enter the Reaping again.

With that in mind, it seemed unlikely that either Katniss nor Peeta could enter that arena again. I suspected Primrose Everdeen would be next in line, and that the story would continue along similar lines. I was wrong.

The early part of Catching Fire follows our protagonists, as they attempt to adjust to reality through their trauma. By following them through their ordinary lives and onto their Victory Tour, we understand very well the mental and emotional cost of having taken part.

This is merely contextualizing detail. It sets us up for what becomes the bulk of the narrative; and that story is deeper, more lined with psychological mores than anything produced before. It makes The Hunger Games appear positively light-weight.

Through the events in Catching Fire, we learn a lot more about Panem and the history of the games.  We see how different people coped with living through what Katniss and Peeta are just discovering.

We see why Haymitch, and other mentors which fade now into view, have become like they are.  Damaged, troubled, angry, intoxicated/drugged, or all of the above. 

The Hunger Games are never over in Panem, particularly not for those who took part in them. As Katniss and Peeta are about to find out the hard way.

As with The Hunger Games, we experience the events of Catching Fire through the eyes of Katniss Everdeen. 

Just like her, we don't always know what's going on, nor whom we can trust.  We learn them as she does, and we're just as startled by some of the disclosures.

However, there are many more people at the forefront of this story.  Geeks are going to love Beetee; the psychologically battered are going to home in on Annie Cresta; eighty-year-old Mags proves that it's not just the youngsters, who can take center stage here.

My favorite new characters were Finnick and Johanna.  I liked that they had so many layers to their personalities, with a lot of personal history underscoring their quirks.  For all of their faults (and as previous victors in the games, we must add brutality and murder to the charge sheet), they both emerged as fascinating people.

Perhaps that says more about me, than it does about them.