Here it goes

Book #3


Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins



You know what I like most about Katniss Everdeen?    Her brain, or lack thereof.   It's really great identifying with a character who isn't a superbrain and clearly demonstrates that.   Not that she's stupid--she's just normal.   She reminds me a lot of Frodo Baggins.

This book surprised me as much as the first movie did, which was surprising in itself.  I was thinking that maybe Suzanne Collins just got lucky the first time--I really didn't think she could do it again.  But she did.  It's just as much of an emotional roller-coaster as the previous, but in such a different way.

Why couldn't Bashar al-Assad have read this trilogy before he started murdering his own citizens?   The harsher the repression, the more desperate the revolt.  There always comes a point when people care more about freedom than they do about their own lives.

Several of my guesses came true but some are yet to be proved/disproved.   (I can't say what they were without risking spoilers.)

All of our old friends are back, minus, of course, the dead ones.  Maybe I didn't fall in love with any of the characters as I did with Rue from the first one, but in a way, this kept the book from hurting as much.  And still,  the surprising ending suggests plenty of hurt yet to come.