Catching Fire

My library got me the third book of the Hunger Games yesterday! Yay! Because I had been anxiously waiting for it.

I haven't yet begun reading it. (I have other stuff to do too, and I'm trying to pace myself.) But it did remind me that I never got round to making a post about the second book of the series, Catching Fire.

The reason most probably was because unlike the first book, Catching Fire isn't a stand-alone book that tells a complete story. It's most emphatically part of a series. It leaves you with the most horrid cliff-hanger!

SPOILERS!!!
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So. Catching Fire.

I confess that I went into it fairly prejudged. The description wasn't very inspiring, and I was pretty sure it was going to be just filler until the last book - where I had been promised Interesting Things would happen.

And it started off rather dull and uninspiring. Katniss's day to day life. Katniss whining. Katniss being horrid to poor Peeta. Katniss not knowing what she wanted and being an annoying tease. Actually I felt like Katniss was turning into a Bella.

Thank god things started happening soon enough! Yay for revolutions! (Even though I thought I would miss all the interesting stuff because we were stuck with dull Katniss's pov.) So Gale is even more awesome than he seemed in the first book. And so is Peeta - but no surprise there.

The new Hunger Games were interesting. I liked the twist and seeing some of the older winners. I really liked the reaction of the people of the Capitol to losing their winners. Very real.

But you know what? Just like I hated all the senseless killing in the arena of the first book, I possibly hated it even more the second time round. This time the people were older, they had lived through far more than one game, they knew each other and were friends. So few of them decided to organise and try and beat the games? Really? So few of them were interested in a revolution? Really?

Anyway. Katniss got far better by the end of the book, but I still don't like her much. On the other hand I love Peeta, and Cenna, and Haymitch, and Finnick (please don't let him die!), and Beetee and even Joanna. What is it with me and not liking the heroes of this types of books?

I always thought Frodo was a drag. Harry Potter is a bit annoying and self-righteous. Luke and Anakin Skywalker were dull dull dull (until the second went bad at least). Half the kids in the Narnia books were rather meh in my opinion. Ged from the Earthsea books didn't get actually likeable until Tehanu. As for Paul Atreides from Dune, I have mixed feelings about him. Etc Etc. I always seem to like the secondary characters far better than the heroes. They are so much more human and interesting. And that is especially the case in the cinema. (Particularly Hollywood cinema - where the heroes are just so plastic and uninspiring.)

So that was my little rant. Time to read book three.

What did you lot think of Catching Fire? (Please don't spoil me for Mockingjay!)