40. Catching Fire

40. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (12/20/2011 - 12/21/2011)

This is by far my favorite book of the Hunger Games series.  So much happened in this book that I never, ever predicted, and I just loved the adventure of reading it.

Once again, if you are just starting with this post for some reason, Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games series, and I will definitely have spoilers in this post.  So: Spoiler Alert! If you have not read this book, don't keep reading this post. Go to your library or bookstore, get a copy of the series, and get started reading.

The book starts where The Hunger Games left off.  Katniss and Peeta have won the Games and are living their daily lives about 6 months later back in their home of District 12.  But the Games have changed everything about their lives (this is an unfortunate but totally necessary cliche, and one of few in this book) -- Katniss and Gale are not the same kind of friends they were before the games, Peeta is in love with Katniss but she doesn't really return the feeling or know how to interact with him, and they now live in relative wealth and the District is kept further from starvation thanks to the prizes and food that the winners of the Games bring to their homes.

What they don't know is that, thanks to their proposed suicide plan in the arena, some of the districts have begun to rebel against the Capitol; Katniss has become the symbol of the rebellion without even realizing it.  She is directly threatened by the President of the country that she must stop the uprising -- during a tour of the country, she and Peeta act like they are insane with love, with Peeta even proposing to her on TV, in an effort to stop the districts.  But, of course, this doesn't work.  Most of the story to this point is pretty predictable; I wasn't really surprised by much.  The next part, though, was genius: the tributes for the next Hunger Games have to come from the still-living former winners -- meaning that, guaranteed, Katniss is going back into the arena and Peeta ends up going as well.

I won't give away what happens this time around in the arena, but it is really incredible -- the second time in the arena is so different from the first time that I'm not really sure how to describe it without sharing too many details.  But the arena is incredible -- this is my favorite book in the series!