Catching Fire

Catching Fire is pretty much a mixed bag for me. In some ways I liked it better than The Hunger Games but in others it didn't measure up. I appreciated that the characters were better drawn, had more depth. And not just those we've known for awhile (Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, etc), but also the previous victors, Gale's family, etc. I could see where the emotional stakes were high. And the last 10 pages were great action-wise HA. I knew 13 still existed. Now if I could just figure out where 13 is supposedly located, because the details we know DO NOT work together

The thing is, there was this over all been there, done that, bought the t-shirt feeling that hung over three quarters of the book. Basically from the party at the end of the victory tour on. Oh look. Another round of the games.Cinna creating another set of brilliant costumes. The prep team fawning all over Katniss. Katniss whining. Peeta being the gallant, stage present hero (so, so, so annoyed with the whole baby thing). Haymitch snarking. Ok, this wasn't a bad thing - I like Haymitch's drunken snark but anyway.... Katniss sniffling. And sniffling some more. Seriously at one point I wanted someone to kill Peeta just so she'd find some tree to go sob in and we could get a new narrator. And I realize that Katniss is a somewhat “innocent” 17 year old but boy is she dense. I knew the moment Plutarch thumbed the watch face showing the mockingjay that he was working against the Capitol.

So while I liked parts of this installment, the sum of the whole didn't quite measure up.