Hello everyone!
I'm back with part two of the Hunger Games saga this week to check on Katniss Everdeen and what's been going on in her life.
Because you know it'll be insane, simply because if can be.
See when you live in such a dystopian world that children get picked from a crowd and their parents don't really have the moxy to stop it from happening, you know it's a different level of messed up, and by different I mean completely different.
So you thought you'd seen it all in book one? Well I have news for you my friends.
The crazy is only just beginning.
Katniss is back, and while I can't say she's better than ever, at the very least she's here and hasn't succumbed to drink or anything like that.
Catching Fire takes us one step closer to the grand finale, so here we go!
As always links to previous reviews from the franchise will be found at the bottom of the page.
We all know what happened: Katniss volunteered as tribute to save her sister Prim from going into the Hunger Games, and then she and Peeta beat all the odds by both surviving, though that has thrown the Capitol government (or more specifically President Snow) into a snit.
So while Katniss and her family now live in the Victor Village at home, have enough money that she doesn't need to scramble anymore, and generally try to help out other less fortunate individuals in District 12, things are so not as rosy as they seem.
See Gale is still miffed and pissed about what happened, and kisses her one day outside the fence, because hey! Now she's desirable and someone else wants her too, but they can't have her because Gale got her first.
Or that at least is the logic I see behind the obvious power move, since at no point in the past did Gale show any remotely romantic connection to Katniss before.
But as I said, even though things have now supposedly changed for the better, it's not REALLY like that.
Katniss figures it out when she gets a visit from President Snow right before her and Peeta's victory tour (which is basically them going through all the districts and being shown around like prized cattle). During this visit, Snow tells Katniss her rebellion in the games sparked rebellion across the districts as well, and she needs to help stop it or all the people she loves are as good as dead.
How will she do that, you ask? Well, by acting so in love with Peeta of course, and continuing the charade of their relationship.
Things aren't smooth-sailing, however, no matter how much they try: District 11, right off the bat, shows them that they're much, much worse than they seem when they try to thank them for what they'd done for the tributes during the Games, and an old man gets shot after they're herded off the stage just because he reminded everyone of Rue and Katniss's kindness to her during the battles.
Even following the script doesn't help them; Peeta proposes to Katniss in the Capitol, pushing everyone to a frenzy (except himself, because Katniss still DOES NOT GET IT, even when Haymitch spells it out to her: Peeta actually wanted to propose for real, FOR REAL, not for the benefit of staying alive) with the promise of a beautiful wedding in the capital city, but even the photoshoots and the dresses and all the prep doesn't stop the inevitable.
Just as Katniss is hatching a plan to run away with everyone she loves, new Peacekeepers arrive to District 12 and a more militant regime is established, starting with Gale's public whipping which only stops after Katniss intervenes, but things go from bad to worse as the Capitol does everything it can to subjugate what they see as a massive problem.
This includes but is not limited to bombing the location of the black market and keeping electricity going at all times in the fence surrounding the district (if you recall, this was usually on sporadically so hunters could pass back and forth), but even so Katniss manages to sneak out once.
And she meets a pair of stragglers from District 8 who are running to District 13, supposedly still in existence.
They also tell Katniss that the tapes they're all shown of 13 are on a loop and fabricated, as no one of the Capitol has been there since it "fell" and so no one ACTUALLY knows what's there to begin with, but it was the district of nuclear power production, so.
Katniss sees proof that it's a loop, but it's too late by then, as the president announces a Quarter Quell, which is a special kind of nightmare of games: for this one, the 75th, tributes will be chosen from old victors and sent BACK into the arena.
It's hard to think this had all been chosen when the Games were first concocted, as it feels like it's a direct hit against Katniss, though all the tributes sort of put on a quiet rebellion of their own in their stand of unity against the Capitol, in which the people are hella confused: usually, they LOVE watching these games, but they also love their victors, and especially Katniss, who shows up to her last interview in her wedding dress to remind everyone what probably won't happen now.
Sadly this ends bad for Cinna who has the dress transform from wedding to funeral, creating a living mockingjay out of Katniss at the expense of his own life.
As this happens right before Katniss is ejected into the arena, it fuels her anger and her hate so she goes straight for the weapons this time around, and the other difference is also that she and Peeta work with an alliance as well: Finnick Odair, from District 4, was chosen for them by Haymitch, and so they all trudge off into the jungle around the lake where everything started.
Only to find it's their own personal nightmare.
See, the arena is set up as a clock this year (something Katniss is warned about earlier but doesn't connect until it's too late), and the tributes from 3 confirm it: the jungle is sectioned off into 12 slots and each one has its own nightmarish things to deal with, like blood rain, deadly mist, a killer wave, monkeys that want to eat you, jabberjays that pretend they're your loved ones, etc.
The games themselves, while entertaining, as they also give us Johanna, who's probably one of my favourite victors and who rolls her eyes at everything, are mostly backdrop for the real deal: Katniss recognizes everyone wants to keep Peeta alive when the old woman from 4 walks into the mist instead of slowing them down.
What gives?
As they concoct a plan to kill the remaining tributes from the other alliance, it becomes even clearer something is afoot Katniss knows nothing about, as she's ambushed by Johanna, her tracker is cut from her arm, and she's left to pretend she's "dead".
But as her sole goal is and has been to get Peeta out of the arena alive, she goes back to find him - only to discover that the trap for the tributes was actually something else entirely.
See during the final training, Katniss noticed that a force field had been put up in front of the gamekeepers so she couldn't shoot at them again, but it leaves tell-tale signs if you know what to look for, and the tributes from 3 were staging a plan to escape the ARENA not the tributes themselves. So she takes her shot with lightning circulating down the wire attached to her arrow, and blows pretty much three quarters of the arena sky-high.
When she wakes up again she discovers that things are even weirder than she thought, as Finnick and Haymitch tell her they've all escaped and are on their way to 13, but that since she can't lie or pretend to save her life, she had to be kept in the dark otherwise Snow would have gotten a whiff of it before-hand and stopped it.
As to why all the tributes in the alliance wanted Peeta alive, well, they wanted KATNISS, specifically, but since she wouldn't leave without Peeta, and they all knew it, they figured keeping him going was the next best thing.
Only, they didn't get him.
Johanna and he get caught by the Capitol in the aftermath, much to Katniss's dismay and anger, but that's not all: reunited with Gale, she's at first elated to hear her family is out of 12 ... but then shocked into stunned, sobbing quiet as he tells her that the Capitol bombed 12 and there's nothing left there, at all.
So really, their only hope now is to get to 13, finish this rebellion they started, and get things into a somewhat normal place again!
For that we'll have to get into book three first but, man oh man was this a good book, although Katniss did irritate me at the end. She threw such a hissy fit and was so mad that she didn't get to know about the plan, right after acknowledging it was the best case scenario because she would have given it all away.
Which part of that are you now going to support, ya ding-dong?!?
Other than her turning into a completely obnoxious twit on moments, I really liked the quiet anger churning in everyone at this point, especially the victors who take it on themselves to make a point for the Capitol, like Peeta painting Rue at her grave, and even Katniss hanging a dummy with the name of the former gamemaker on it; this does earn them both a 12 point score, the highest in history, but it reminds everyone that they know more's going on than they want to admit.
And now the stage is set, with all the pieces moving towards the final showdown. If you'd like to see just what happens - and whether or not Katniss manages to get Peeta out of the Capitol, because you know she'll be going for him first - tune in next week for book three, Mockingjay!
xx
*image not mine
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