Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2)
By: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 391
Published: September 1, 2009
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Dates Read: May 26, 2025 - June 5, 2025
Format: Hardcover

Katniss, against all odds, won the 74th Hunger Games, alongside fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta Mellark. Being alive should bring her relief, but it’s done pretty much the opposite. Her close friend, Gale, keeps her at a distance, Peeta doesn’t interact with her outside of the press, and there are whispers of a rebellion – a rebellion the Capital says Katniss and Peeta helped start.

With the victory tour, Katniss sees the small spark of revolution throughout the districts, and she doesn’t know if it’s something she wants to stop… When the 75th Hunger Games grows closer, the Quarter Quell, the Capital, is allowed different terms for the special occasion. Can Katniss defeat the odds again?

And continuing my reread of the original Hunger Game trilogy with one of my bestie coworkers and we have now finished the second book.

Boy, did I make a lot of comments on this book during our buddy read – the connections that Suzanne Collins has sprinkled in this that she masterfully reconnects YEARS later is phenomenal! I would absolutely love to see her technique to keep all of this straight… is it a wall of color coded post-its? A binder filled with character background and lore?! Even the smallest detail is not forgotten under her pen.

This book surprisingly doesn’t have as much about the games as the previous one, but to be fair, the game I think, only ends up lasting less than a week? I feel like the movies definitely focused more on the games.

As with the first book’s reread, I came at this sixteen-years-later and not only read it as an adult, but also as someone who has read everything else in the series, and I still feel shook after reading it.