Review: CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins *****

After winning the brutal Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen returns to her district, hoping for a peaceful future. But Katniss starts to hear rumours of a deadly rebellion against the Capitol. A rebellion that she and Peeta have helped to create.
As Katniss and Peeta are forced to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. Unless Katniss and Peeta can convince the world that they are still lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying...
The terrifying sequel to The Hunger Games.

As you may remember, I recently jumped on the hugely popular Hunger Games bandwagon after immensly enjoying the first book in the trilogy. I was really surprised by how engrossed I was in it and I couldn't wait to read more. Luckily, the second book didn't disappoint in the slightest - in fact, in a way I perhaps enjoyed it even more than the first one!

Catching Fire opens shortly after The Hunger Games ends. I'm afraid I can't review this without discussing the plot so PLEASE BE WARNED THAT THERE WILL BE MINOR SPOILERS in this review. So yes, Katniss and Peeta move to the Victors' Village and Katniss soon learns that The Capitol is very, very angry with her due to her stunt with the berries, which appears to have provided some uprisings in various districts ... Before Katniss has the time to figure out what she will have to do in order to keep her loved ones alive, it's time for the Hunger Games again ...
It's also the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games, which means it's time for the Quarter Quell aka the HG with a massive twist that occur every 25 years. Like the previous two Quarter Quells (25th and 50th anniversaries), this QQ features a cruel twist too and honestly, it couldn't have been worse! I have to say it was terribly inventive though and I have to give props to the author for coming up with such a crazy arena! The games were just SO damn twisted on so many levels and I was kept on the edge of my seat and reading to see how it will all end ... And then the ending happened! It was nothing like what I expected - suddenly everything changed and the book ended with a MASSIVE cliffhanger!!! The last line literary made me go, "SAY WHAAAT?" and I'd probably go crazy if I didn't have Mockingjay (the last installment) sitting on my shelf, heh!

Honestly, these two books have been nothing short of FANTASTIC and although I was a bit sceptical about all the neverending praise of the series at first, I can now see that it's totally deserved. This series is just so clever and so different from what I normally read, so much more brutal and raw, it's just so well written and so action packed that you just cannot put it down, regardless your reading preference!

Absolutely gripping stuff and I cannot wait to finally read the last book to see what happened to EVERYONE after the You Know What! I'm reeeeaally busy these days and don't have much time to read, but I'm taking Mockingjay to the holiday with me next week so I'll be able to read it in one sitting! I fully expect an EPIC conclusion, something rather extreme (oh yeah, there's a lot of potential for that right now!) but I'm a tad worried since I've seen rather mixed reviews of it - people seem to either love it or hate it so I wonder which side I'll be on ... Expect my review after I return from the holiday (a couple of weeks from now) and in the mean time just pick up a copy of the first book if you haven't already - you're guaranteed an amazing & brutal adventure that you won't soon forget!

overall rating:
plot: 5/5 | writing: 5/5 | characters: 5/5 | cover: 2/5