Catching Fire

Catching Fire is evil.

No, I’m not making a moral judgment of the story. I mean it’s evil to leave me hanging like this!

This is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy; the third won’t be released till next month. I didn’t think this would be a problem for me, since I merely liked the first book. As my review reminds me, I was mostly struck by how derivative it seemed. But let’s just say I’m a late convert to the mania.

If I was struck by the way The Hunger Games recapitulated familiar themes, I was struck by the originality of Suzanne Collins’ universe in Catching Fire. It can lend insight into our culture, but the narrative is so very clean and well-paced, and the plot has such immediacy and suspense, that it really leaves no time even for an overthinker like me to philosophize.

I found the fictional world of the first book to be extremely grim, and I suppose the same could be said for this one. The heroine is a true modern protagonist: a survivor, not someone with a particularly large, noble view of things. She’s very smart, and very tough. She seems older than her alleged 17 years, actually. But in this tale she begins to develop a greater sense of the world beyond herself. And that world allows room for some hope as humanity begins to challenge the status quo.

This is classed as young adult fiction, and perhaps it has a simplicity that justifies the classification. But it’s a gripping read for all ages, in my opinion. I’m looking forward to the next installment — and glad it will be only a little over a month before I find out how this dreadful cliffhanger gets resolved.