After reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I was inspired to reread the Hunger Games trilogy. I was amazed by how much I forgot or misremembered. Then again, my last exposure to this world was probably the movies. :)

I still love these books so much!!

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Audiobook

Library Copy

I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached into the frozen air.

- first sentence

I decided to continue my re-read with the audiobook for book two. While I enjoyed listening to the book, I was disappointed with the narrator (Carolyn McCormick). She totally missed the character, and after listening to Tatiana Maslany narrate the special edition of The Hunger Games, it was even worse. McCormick's narration was irritating and didn't fit Katniss's character at all. Her voice is breathy, whiny, overdramatic, and grating. I think she would be good in a different book, like maybe a historical drama.

I knocked off one star for the narration, but I loved the story and would have given it 5 stars.

I have to say that I got a lot accomplished in July, three books from my reading list completed and two longer term reads finished.  For the year my total is 30 books read with 21 of those from my reading list.  I've started reading The Book of Mormon and The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot on a long term basis, this basically means I read them at home a few pages at a time (Mormon) or when I have adequate time to digest the contents (Eliot) while my reading list contains all the books I read at work during my two breaks and lunch.

On a more unfortunate note, I have just discovered that my edition of The Count of Monte Carlo is an abridgment.  This is really upsetting because I would not have purchased this edition and had it set on my bookshelf for almost three years if I had known at the time I had gotten it that it was an abridgment.  Fortunately I have time to find an edition that is the complete book, *cough* Penguin Classic *cough*, either via my used book store or Amazon.

I enjoyed this entire series of books.  This one actually made my emotions come out. I got angry, happy, I even cried once or twice. Wonderful series.

The aftermath of Katniss Everdeen’s rebellious performance at the end of the 74^th Hunger Games has consequences far beyond what happens to Peeta and herself in Catching Fire.  Suzanne Collins’ middle installment of The Hunger Games trilogy is all about how a dictatorial government responds to rebellion.

The story Katniss Everdeen begins just as she’s about to begin her Victory Tour with Peeta to the other Districts and the Capitol when President Snow expectantly shows up at her new home and threatens her to perform well or else.  Katniss fails to stop the growing unrest in other Districts and the Capitol cracks down everywhere, including District 12 which makes Katniss realizes that while her life was bad before now it would have been impossible.  Then the stipulations for the 75^th Hunger Games sends both Katniss and Peeta into the arena with 22 other previous victors.  And in the arena, Katniss begins to realize that there is more than one game going on.

Unlike its predecessor, Catching Fire is more about the aftereffects of decisions than fighting to survive.  Throughout the entire book, there seems to be more going on behind the scenes than Katniss knows and the reader is able to connect things a little ahead of her at some points.  The twist and turns inside the arena might have been meant to surprise the reader, but an astute reader will realize that they are being set up for another book and the realization that the threat to Katniss and Peeta is very small clamps down on the dramatic tension gets closer to the end.

While I enjoyed Catching Fire, there was not the same quality or tension as there was in The Hunger Games though while I’m intrigued to know what is going to happen in the final book of the trilogy my enthusiasm is not at the same level it was after the first book.