Catching Fire Book 2/50

So. Okay...these are fast reads.

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Warning:
Contains spoilers for The Hunger Games

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There's really no getting around that. To talk about this book is to give away key plot points from the previous one, so if you haven't read The Hunger Games yet...stop reading this and get on with it already. Sheesh.

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So...Catching Fire. Or The Hunger Games: All-Star Arena, as I prefer to call it. Once again we meet up with everyone's favorite teen-lit love triangle that doesn't involve vampires or werewolves. But while I was clearly on Team Jacob with the Twilight series, I am torn having to choose between Gale and Peeta. They're essentially the same character...just with a different number of legs.

But you want to know about the plot, right? While The Hunger Games left me in tears a few times, this book failed to make the necessary emotional connection for me to respond in kind. With the first book, I truly felt as if I were lost in Katniss' thoughts. Her fears, her relationships, her emotions...they became mine. Hence my comparison to Bastian and The NeverEnding Story in my previous review. Somehow between putting down The Hunger Games and procuring Catching Fire, I managed to detach myself from Collins' protagonist. That...or the author was phoning in this one, so to speak.

With this journey, Katniss reminds me of Harry Potter in the fifth HP installment. The Games have broken her character, leaving a depressed and unfortunately less-likable hero for us to follow. Granted, I'd be a shell of a person having barely survived the experiences Katniss had, but she had been such a strong female lead! I am hoping that the third book will regain my interest in her survival; but honestly, it's my concern for the other characters that now propels me from page to page in the series. Even when the plot becomes formulaic and predictable.

Regardless of the author's tendency to take the obvious course with her story, these books are addictive. The temptation to flip to the last page is strangely compelling, but I'm too afraid by what I might read there to do so. Particularly after facing the low-note the previous book had ended on. The need to know what will happen next is inexplicable at times, especially as there are several instances where eye rolls are unavoidable. I feel very much the same way I did eleven years ago when I finally broke down and read the first three Harry Potter books within a matter of days. Fortunately for me with this series, the trilogy is done and published. No agony of waiting for a fourth to arrive on store shelves.

That being said, the Mockingjay is over on my kitchen counter. If I start now, I may be able to get half-way through it before bedtime...