Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Catching Fire was, for the most part, an exciting book for me to read. It took me only a few days, and it went very quickly.

But I also found it far more contrived than the first book in the series. Some plot twists made me think, “Yeah, right,” especially at the very end.

Also, at some point in the book, I realized that only about half of the narrative records what actually happens. The other half of it is Katniss’s constant analysis of her feelings about everything. Although I’m sure this connects with Collins’s target audience of teenage girls, it got old for me.

Far more problematic for me is the book’s graphic violence. In the first book, the violence seems to have a moral purpose. It’s thought-provoking. But in this book, the violence seems to be more for pure entertainment. I don’t enjoy reading about human beings being killed in imaginatively gruesome ways just to supposedly enhance the storyline. Some of the book’s violence does have a purpose, but a lot of it seems to be there just to entertain.

I feel the same way about the glitz/glamour elements in this book. In the first book, these elements come across as a satire of America’s love for television drama, especially reality TV. But in this book, it doesn’t come across that way.

Here are a few other links that may be helpful:
My review of the first book: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

My friend Mark’s review of the whole trilogy: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

My friend Joel’s review of the trilogy (includes spoilers): http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Doug Wilson’s review: http://www.credenda.org/index.php/Rev...

N.D. Wilson’s review: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/t...


View all my reviews