That Just Happened!

Collins, Suzanne.  Catching Fire.  Scholastic Press (2009).

I don’t want to provide a summary of this book because it does give away what is in book one and I hate spoilers, so below is the synposis of the first book The Hunger Games.

Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Scholastic.com

MPW’s friend Heather was kind enough to send him the books (with nice note…I love personal touches)  so that I could read them.  After expressing my interest in the series, but on an un-ending wait with the library (due to them losing my place in line) I had yet to get my hands on a copy.  Thank you, Heather, for sending them over because… 

Oh. My. Goodness.  I was supposed to go out to a movie with MPW, but I could not  put this book down.  Gone are the days where teens could choose between Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club  (although those are both great series).  Young Adult fiction is absolutely awesome.  The first book  The Hunger Games  was good, but Catching Fire  was friggin’ good.  I was literally on the edge of my seat as I read the second installment in the series.  Part of me was eager to see what was going to happen next and the other part of me was talking out loud to the character in the book as if she could hear me. 

This book is well-written and thought-provoking.  How much government interference in our lives is necessary?  How much do we need to sacrifice for the good of humanity and to achieve peace?  The Hunger Games  raises all these questions and it forces the Reader to think about what should be given up to ensure there is enough to go around.  The world exists in a state of haves of the Capital or the have-nots of the Districts, with heavy policing ensuring all the cogs run smoothly.  It is in the second installment we begin to see the consequences of the outcome of the Hunger Game of the first book.

I cannot wait for the third, and final, book Mockingjay to be released in August 2010.  Seriously.  Waiting is such torture. 

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes gripping books that are well-written and just plain awesome.

This is a MUST READ!