The story takes place in an unidentified future time period after the destruction of North America, in a nation known as Panem. Panem consists of a rich Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol, every year one boy and one girl from each district is forced to participate in “The Hunger Games”, a televised event whereby the participants, or “tributes”, must fight to the death in an outdoor arena until only one remains. The story follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the Games in place of her younger sister, Primrose. Also participating from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a boy whom Katniss knows from school and who once gave Katniss bread when her family was starving.

Katniss and Peeta are taken to the Capitol, where they meet the other tributes and are publicly displayed to the Capitol audience. During this time, Peeta reveals on-air his long-time unrequited love for Katniss.  Katniss believes this to be a ploy to gain audience support for the Games, which can be crucial for survival, as audience members are permitted to send gifts to the tributes. The Games begin with 11 of the 24 tributes
dying in the first hour, while Katniss relies on her well-practiced hunting and outdoors skills to survive. As the Games continue, the tribute death toll increases but both Katniss and Peeta are able to evade death.

Supposedly due to Katniss and Peeta’s beloved image to the audience as “star-crossed lovers”, a rule change is announced midway through the Games, stating that two tributes from the same district can win the Hunger Games as a pair. Upon hearing this, Katniss searches for Peeta, and finds him wounded. She nurses him back to health, and acts the part of a young girl falling in love to gain more favor with the audience. The couple manages to outlast all the other tributes, and the gamemakers try to force them into a dramatic finale where one must kill the other to win. Instead, they both threaten suicide, and are subsequently both declared winners. After returning to the Capitol, Katniss must deal with the aftermath of defying the Capitol publicly, and sorting out her true feelings for Peeta, who she discovers truly does love her.

The Hunger Games was received well by critics. In Stephen King’s review for Entertainment Weekly, he said, “Reading The Hunger Games is as addictive (and as violently simple) as playing one of those shoot-it-if-it-moves videogames in the lobby of the local eightplex; you know it’s not real, but you keep plugging in quarters anyway”, but also noted that, “Balancing off the efficiency are displays of authorial laziness that kids will accept more readily than adults”, and gave the book an overall B grade. Elizabeth Bird of School Library Journal praised the novel, saying, “Collins has written a book that is exciting, poignant, thoughtful, and breathtaking by turns. It ascends to the highest forms of the science fiction genre and will create all new fans for the writer. One of the best books of the 2008 year.” Booklist wrote, “Populated by three-dimensional characters, this is a superb tale of physical adventure, political suspense, and romance.” In a review for The New York Times, John Green wrote that the novel was “brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced”, and that “the considerable strength of the novel comes in Collins’s convincingly detailed world-building and her memorably complex and fascinating heroine”; he also noted, “Collins sometimes fails to exploit the rich allegorical potential here in favor of crisp plotting, but it’s hard to fault a novel for being too engrossing.”

The Hunger Games has also received a number of awards and honors, including being a USA Today and New York Times Best Seller, and being named one of Publishers Weekly’s “Best Books of the Year” in 2008 and a New York Times “Notable Children’s Book of 2008″.

After a fantastic start with THE HUNGER GAMES, can Suzanne Collins keep the excitement going in CATCHING FIRE?  Ummm, that would be a yes!

Katniss is having a difficult time adjusting to life in Victory Village.  She misses the time when she could spend her days hunting in the woods behind her simple home in the Seam with Gale by her side.  Now, with Gale working in the coal mines, her daily routine consists of hunting by herself in order to provide food for Gale’s family and going by the Hob to spread around some of her new wealth to the merchants at the Black Market.

Katniss’ bold move at the end of THE HUNGER GAMES has put her and everyone she loves in a dangerous situation.  Witnessing Katniss and Peeta’s defiance has sparked rebellion in some of the districts and the President of Panem is not happy.  He makes it clear that it is Katniss’ responsibility to put a stop to the unrest in the districts by proving her defiance was a result of her love for Peeta and not done to overthrow the government.

Katniss must face some of her toughest challenges yet in CATCHING FIRE.  Challenges of conscience.  Challenges of love.  Challenges of survival.

CATCHING FIRE is just as addicting as THE HUNGER GAMES.  Suzanne Collins has done a fantastic job of taking us back to the complicated world of Panem.  There were definite surprises throughout the story.  I didn’t expect Katniss to have to go through the things she did.

You’ll be breathless by the time you get to the end of CATCHING FIRE and cursing that you don’t have the third and final book in this fantastic trilogy.  karinlibrarian.wordpress.com

Synopsis via Goodreads.com; tip thanks to CherryBlossomJen from the Jabberjays Forum.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’ family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’ groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

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