Catching Fire

Although I'm sure that most of you will have already read this whole series by now...

I finally finished this book today and actually had to search my blog for my The Hunger Games review to see just how long it's been since I read the first book in this series.  Turns out I posted that review on May 10 of last year, exactly fourteen months ago.  So much for my intention to read the last two books as soon as they were both available last August right.  I did start reading Catching Fire several months ago but what finally got me to get serious and finish it was accidentally reading a headline about how so and so is going to play what's his name in the upcoming movie(s).  I hate it when that happens, especially when I haven't finished the book yet because then I always picture the actor in my head when the character appears in the book from then on.  Extra loathing when said actor is nothing like the character I had already been picturing in my head.

Of course Catching Fire starts right where The Hunger Games left off and is very much a continuation of the original story as opposed to a whole new adventure that happens to feature the same core characters.

I did enjoy Catching Fire, very much in fact, just not quite as much as the first book.  The writing was the same and the story compelling but I think it does suffer just a little from middle child, I mean middle book syndrome.  First books are easy to love because they are fresh and new and have the advantage of introducing a brand new story.  I think this is especially true in The Hunger Games case.  Third, or last books have the advantage of containing the big payoffs of final resolution, redemption, retribution, revenge, retaliation, reward and of course the climax even though climax doesn't start with r.

Maybe it was because it is the middle book or maybe it's because this time I read it more in many short stints as opposed to my usual longer but fewer sittings but I just didn't get the same feelings from this book as I did from the first one.  I'm sure the writing was just as good, it seemed exactly the same, but for one, the shock value was mostly gone.  The premise of a future dystopia with its hunger games and kids being forced to kill each other had already been spent in the first book so its effect was greatly lessened this time around.  Although there were new aspects introduced to the story many of the situations which were repeated and that were written in great detail in the first book seemed to have been given significantly less attention this time so they left a much smaller impression. Of course this is probably inevitable but the combination of familiar situations being written in less detail and having less impact and the new aspects of the story also not being nearly as impactful even though they're brand new added up to a grand total unmistakably lesser than the first book for me.

That said, I do realize that the job of the middle book is to make some more money for the publisher and author while advacing the plot just enough to set up the whiz bang grande finale in the last book. Oh yeah, by the way, as was the rumor Catching Fire ends in a severe cliff hanger so I was so glad to have the last book handy and have actually already read the first chapter of Mocking Jay.

Maybe it was the short stints that didn't allow me to get right into the book like last time, maybe my heart is just a little harder than it was last year (I think I can actually feel it slowly turning to stone)  or maybe there just weren't as many or even any real heart rending moments in Catching Fire like there were in The Hunger Games.  I'm hoping I'll find them again in Mocking Jay. I'm betting I will.