On ‘Catching Fire’

Having read the first part of the ‘Hunger Games Trilogy’ by Suzanne Collins I bought the second part straight away, called ‘Catching Fire’. I am not usually very interested in children’s fiction; I obviously read huge amounts of it when I was a child, and read more when I was teaching younger teenagers, but latterly with older students, and now that I no longer teach, I don’t have much interest in it as a genre. Don’t mention Harry Potter to me, it was not my thing at all, and although I was delighted it encouraged young people to read, I thought it was a pale imitation of other similar books such as those by Alan Garner, Ursula le Guin, Philip Pullman or Eoin Colfer.

Back to Suzanne Collins… I read the first volume of the trilogy as a book club choice; other members of the book club had been disturbed by the premise of the book, children killing children in a competition, but I had not particular opinions until I picked up a copy in the local bookshop and glanced at the first page… and ten minutes later I was still standing there reading! I bought the book and yes, it was harrowing in parts – obviously it was, but it was also exciting, gripping, believable within its own world, pulled no punches, and had the sort of heroine I would have liked to be when I was a twelve or thirteen year old reader! it was beautifully written, had humour, pathos, anger, sadness, love, and a very satisfactory ending. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it.

I am now reading ‘Catching Fire’ many months after I finished the first part of the trilogy… I wasn’t particularly anxious to read it, aware that I’m sometimes disappointed by sequels, wondering how the author could sustain the standard she had set by the first one… and having other things to read for my two book clubs (some of which were really ghastly and I just couldn’t finish! Ssssh, don’t tell my friends!)

But hurrah! Suzanne has me gripped again, and I’m reading well past my bedtime, as enthralled and as excited as I was when I read ‘The Hunger Games’; I won’t tell you anything about it as I might inadvertently spoil your enjoyment of the first story if you’re still reading that. I will tell you that the standard is just as good, and I wish it had been published when I was teaching, my students would have loved it!

Here are two previous posts I wrote about the trilogy

http://loiselden.com/2012/11/21/the-hunger-games/

http://loiselden.com/2012/12/01/catching-fire/