Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: Sci-fi/ Dystopian
ISBN: 978-0439023498

Premise: The second book in The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire resumes the story of Katniss, Peeta, and Gale. All the old characters reappear in this continuation, such as Effie, Haymitch, Prim, and Cinna. Katniss and Peeta won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol.

 Can I just say wow? The first book in this series was amazing, but knowing that sequels are almost never as good as the original, I was afraid this book wouldn't keep up with the greatness of the first, but happily, I was wrong. I might even go as far as saying this book was better than the first. All my favorite characters come back and are just as well-developed as ever. What makes this book better? The intensity. My god, my heart was literally racing through the entire novel. I finished this one in one day also because it was so captivating, I couldn't think of anything else. I didn't even want to pause to eat because I was so entrenched. I didn't think it was possible for the story to get any more piercing and engaging, but it did. Each chapter left me screaming literally out loud because I was so overcome with such a wide variety of emotions. Something else that made this story wonderful is the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale gets oh so much more interesting. And the ending! I felt that I was about to have a heart-attack when I finished the book. Talk about cliffhanger! I've never been so excited to buy the next book in the series as I was with this. I would recommend this book to anyone, lover of sci-fi or not, because it is simply just that good.