Where we left off from The Hunger Games, if you read the first book by Stephanie Collins, is that Katniss Everdeen has survived a game of murder with a fellow victor and plausible love interest, Peeta. This is not a good thing because in this tournament where young and women from different districts have been forced to kill each other off until one wins for ions, history has changed because there are two victors. Her blatant act of defiance causes an uprising across teh nation against the all-mighty Capitol.

Catching up on the craze of The Hunger Games series, I'd like to say I blew through Catching Fire in an easy read. Since life halts me from reading sometimes for several days, this took longer than I imagined. To be honest, thought I was engrossed in the book, I'm unsure if I liked it or not.

I can't hold this against Catching Fire but its worth mentioning that fiction always has been difficult for me ever since I was a little girl. Call me "left-brained" but I always loved non-fiction more deeply and it took me a long while to learn how to immerse into imaginative, fictional worlds. That being said, I've never successfully gotten into the groove of first person narratives. Their thoughts, examinations, and descriptions have to be detailed for the reader to get involved with their world obviously, but no matter how courageous or selfless, or layered, the character is I always feel they are greatly self-absorbed.

Bringing me to Katniss. I feel she is a good character but there are things that prevent me from thinking she is great. First, the paragraph above. No matter how much of her deliberation and fight for survival exists, obviously my limitations as a reader hinders a little of my perception of her. The next is the constant back and forth of emotiosn between Peeta and Gale.

Despite her obvious strength and assessment of environments to survive, and protecting herself physically, her life hangs in the balance of two boys. Sure they are respectable boys who are infatuated with her and could give her the world if they didn't live in a tolitarian society, but a majority of the decisions about her well-being come from them.

I ain't a hater of Peeta nor Gale, nor male characters in general, but what I always expect of Katniss is someone more independent. And, she comes off way more dependent - not just on other characters like Harry Potter who learns to lean on others for help and love - but her survival equates to love she feels from and to them...constantly.

To a point, I understand this. Peeta is her comfort because they went through the games together. Nobody else except fellow victors knows what they went through, and nobody in any of the districts can imagine the remnants of the pain they were inflicted with forever.

And, Gale is her guy because they lived in District 12 together. Peeta is a rememberance of the nightmare of the games in some ways, and Gale is a symbol of her home, familiarity, even childhood. They've faced it all before the games and they'll survive after it.

The trio of them makes the notion of young adult fiction relationships a bit more complication and obstacles than typical - he-loves-me-she-loves-me-not fare...however a lot of her decision-making - even her desire to survive in the first hunger games for Prim dies out - because of her devotion of Peeta.

Peeta definitely becomes the center of attraction in this sequel. With the uprisings start across the districts, Katniss believes Peeta can only be the one ruler when everyone believes / irefutably knows she's the one. So much of the book seems devoted to their romance, I find myself skimming as painlessly as possible to get through it. So much of the details and little puts don't seem much of a point.

Stephanie Collins says that she wrote the series with reality television in mind. While reading this book I couldn't help but feel like a pawn in her game. There were characters I wish her killed off earlier - I'm not gonna lie. There were times where I wanted Katniss to flee and not think about the others; just of her own survival. So quickly we can forget that they are characters representing people, and how we feel control over their lives like the Capitol attempted to....

The second book goes in directions I never saw coming. a revolt with unexpected allies, the seeming good-bye of one character, a pregnancy. Thinking back it's much more layered than I ever expected. Most of the positive reviews of this sequel praises the ending, and I definitely agree. Reading in the company of family, everyone was forced to mute as I reached the last ten pages so I can absorb everything.

Overall, the book is worth a read and perhaps if you're that engrossed a re-read because of the ending. Nothing quite compares to how the finale is going to be and how the third book will begin.