Book Review: "Catching Fire"

"Catching Fire"
by Suzanne Collins

After winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games, Katniss goes on to live a seemingly happy life in the victor's village of District 12. But all is not as it seems. We know from the end of "The Hunger Games" that President Snow and the Capitol are not happy with her berry trick at the end, which allowed her and Peeta to live. So, shortly before their traditional victory tour of the districts, he pays her a visit, and says that despite his belief in her good and honest intentions, her actions have almost lit a spark of rebellion in Panem. What's Katniss to do? Pretend she's still madly in love with Peeta, and prove it to everyone on the tour. Which isn't easy, because she's barely been talking to Peeta since the games.

On tour, things don't quite go as planned. In District 11, a man is assassinated in front of everyone for whistling Rue's four-note mockingjay tune. And even though Katinss accept's Peeta's marriage proposal during the interview with Caesar Flickman, it's too little too late. She thinks about escaping with Gale, Peeta, Haymitch, and their families. But then Gale's caught with wild game and whipped publicly, and favorite peacekeeper Darius becomes an avox when he tries to intervene.

And then, the twist for the 75th Annual Hunger Games, dubbed a Quarter Quell, is announced. Only victors would enter the arena, and being the only girl victor from her district, Katniss is back up. Haymitch is chosen, but Peeta volunteers in his place. They quickly go to the district, without saying their farewells, and go through the usual training, parade, and interviews. At her interview, Katniss reveals Cinna's newest dress. It looks like a President Snow-approved wedding dress on the outside, but once she spins, she turns into a mockingjay. A symbol of the rebellion, which she realized when she encountered two District 8 runaways in the woods even before the Quarter Quell was announced. Peeta then announced, in his interview, that Katniss is pregnancy, continuing the tradition of surprising her beyond expectation. And then, all the victors join hands in solidarity at the end; after the interviews in which most tributes showed displeasure at the Capitol, and then that end, hand-in-hand, they started making these games likely very unpopular.

It’s quickly off to the arena, after we meet a majority of the tributes during training. Haymitch’s last remarks to Katniss are for her to know who the enemy is. During the solo session, Peeta pains Rue on her deathbed, and Katniss hangs a dummy from a noose, with the words “Seneca Crane” pained on the dummy, referring to the late head gamemaker from last year’s games.

And then, we’re in the new arena, with lots of water, a beach, and lots of jungles. Katniss soon finds forced allies in Finnick, the trident-weaving warrior from District 4, Johanna Mason, and two tech wizards, older and from I believe District 3; and, of course, Peeta. Some live and some die, and eventually Beetee from District 3 has a plan to set some special wire from a lightning bolt hitting a tree to the beach, to kill most people. During this whole time, the other tributes risk their lives to save Peeta, which Katniss thought may be because Peeta has the best chance at speaking eloquently against the rebellion. Near the end, about when lighting’s going to strike, she can’t find Peeta, and she’s tackled by Mason who cuts her arm. She then realizes that, outside of the force field surrounding the arena is the outside world, and Beetee’s real plan was to break the force field through an inherent weakness. With Beetee knocked out, she takes an arrow attached to the wire, shoots it through the weakness, and the arena explodes.

She finds herself with Plutarch Heavensbee, the head gamemaker, and feels she’s captured and it’s the end. But after being rehabilitated, she learns the truth from Haymitch. Heavensbee was part of a rebellion, and she was rescued by him using a hovercraft from the very-much-in-existence District 13. Most of the tributes were in on the plan, and saved Peeta to assure Katniss remains in an alliance with them so they could get her out. She’s the mockingjay, the living image of the rebellion, and they felt they needed her alive. Multiple districts have started outright rebellions. She learns that Gale is on the hovercraft, and that her mother and Prim are alive, but Peeta has been captured by the Capitol, along with Johanna Mason. And then, at the very end, we learn that District 12 is no longer around; it’s been destroyed by the Capitol.

This book was fantastic. It took the tension of the hunger games, the sheer struggle for survival, and made it into so much more. A young girl caused a country to rebel. The whole hunger games this year was just a ploy by the rebellion, and it served as the wire that continued the fire sparked by the berries last year. And the end, such a fantastic cliffhanger. Rebellion is happening, Peeta is captured, and we have yet to see District 13, long believed to be destroyed. I liked how the games went fast; we didn’t need to spend time focusing on the details of the training room, scores, etc. because we knew the protocol. I liked that the victors all had to fight, and even moreso that they were united under a common goal; most of them, at least. This took an already enticing story, and made it so much more, so much broader, and so much darker. Yet, even at the end, there’s a flicker of hope. Peeta may be kept alive so they can use him as bait to draw Katniss in. And we don’t know how powerful District 13 is, but given that they were involved with nuclear production, my guess it they’re quite powerful. It’s time for open rebellion, and I really can’t wait to see where this leads. I just love how this book took the story in such a different direction, and right until the end, due to the first-person narrative, we’re just in the dark to the overall plan as Katniss is. Such a twist of an end. And I expect “Mockinjay” to be a lot darker, but hopefully with some light at the end.