Friday, April 20, 2012

Catching Fire

Catching_fire

I went to see the Hunger Games movie with one of my book clubs recently.  After being ambivalent about the movie since I really only enjoyed the second half of the book, right about when Katniss lands herself in the games and things get really exciting, I wasn’t too sure about seeing the movie.  Boy am I glad I did!  Loved the movie, and thought it was very close to the book.  The casting was pretty dead on for a number of characters too (love, love, love Stanley Tucci (Ceasar Flickerman) in everything he does!  Then there was the ever yummy Lenny Kravitz as Cinna.  Mm-mmm good!  With Donald Sutherland doing a delightful job as the imposing President Snow and well played as the drunk mentor Haymitch was Woody Harrelson.  Excellent casting choices all!).  I enjoyed the movie so much that I came out of the theatre dying to read the next book in the trilogy, Catching Fire.  And that is exactly what I did over Easter weekend and, well, I’m back to being ambivalent again….

 

Warning, SPOILERS abound.  If you haven’t read the book but want to, you might want to skip the next couple paragraphs.

 

The book opens with Katniss and her family living in the Victor’s Village along with Peeta and Haymitch.  They have so much food and money, there’s little left for Katniss to do, though she continues hunting in the woods to help her friend Gale and his family put food on the table.  Katniss is aware she will be expected to mentor this year’s Hunger Games contestants, and though she won the Games, not much in District 12 or the rest of the districts for that matter, has changed.  But before the games are announced, Katniss and Peeta must make a victory tour of all the districts and continue their star-crossed lovers routine as decreed by the evil President Snow because the districts are starting to rebel, and the Capital cannot have dissension in the Districts.  With Gale and her family threatened, Katniss and Peeta do their best to convince everyone they’re madly in love, even going so far as getting engaged, but it is not enough.

 

With this year being the seventy-fifth Hunger Games, a new twist is added.  Apparently, it is the year of the Quarter Quell.  Every twenty-five years the Hunger Games get a little more vicious.  Twenty-five years earlier, when Haymitch won the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes were sent from each district, meaning twice as many children died.  This year, the twist is that districts must pick tributes from their pack of victors.  As District 12 only has three victors in total, Katniss and Peeta are heading back into the ring.

 

Now who didn’t see that one coming?

 

Once again, I found the first half and particularly the middle of the book to be a slow read.  Once the games began however, the action picked up and the book became a page turner for me.  Obviously the storyline had to go in the direction of taking down the Capital, and I knew Katniss would play a pivotal role (she isn’t the heroine of the books for nothing), I was disappointed in the lack of imagination in revisiting the Games.  It all felt a bit “been there, done that” and I would have liked to have seen the author explore other ways to create a district uprising.  I guess I’ll have to see what Mockingjay, the third and final book of the trilogy has to offer in improvements to the story and/or satisfying conclusions.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L Smile

 

 

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