Catching Fire

CATCHING FIRE, by Suzanne Collins effortlessly grabs the baton from her previous novel, HUNGER GAMES and continues the story at a full sprint.

The world created in HUNGER GAMES, at least the limited world of District 12, is a poor working community used to constant hunger, death and bleak futures. The Capitol, the smothering force in everyone's lives, becomes even more controlling for the outer-lying district inhabitants. The seed of independence that Katniss inadvertently planted while struggling to win in HUNGER GAMES, has grown into crops of unrest across the country.

In CATCHING FIRE, Katniss continues her struggle for independence, her obligations to those she loves, her secret pleasure with fame and her need for privacy. She is confronted time and again with where her loyalties lie.

I enjoyed reading both HUNGER GAMES and CATCHING FIRE immensely. I describe them as a sort of HANDMAIDENS TALE for teens. The world is different from what we know it to be today, but humans, and our emotions, desires, and need for independence are synonymous.