Catching Fire the second in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, with no need to explain the mechanics of the world, allows itself to play out as a mystery novel. I dove straight into this book, thanks in part to Collins masterful use of the cliff-hanger ending. So good is she at this, that it is very difficult to stop reading at the end of a chapter, and I usually found myself stopping mid-chapter when reading time finally ran out. The mystery running through this book, is what are Snow’s plans for Katniss Everdeen, and what, if anything, she can do about it. This gradually shifts into what are the rebellion’s plans for her, and again what, if anything, can she do. We realise that for all her fame and seeming importance, the only freedom and independence she has, is inside the tournament arena. Just as before the reaping, the only freedom and independence she had from her responsibilities, was outside the wire, hunting with Gale. 

The mystery element is largely composed of the resistance, if it exists, and to what degree it is organised if it does. Snow clearly believes it is a threat, and Katniss could be a decisive element in threatening Panem. Given this, it is perhaps strange that he doesn’t just quietly arrange for an accident, and instead opts for controlling this dangerous element in an attempt to spin positive outcomes for the Capitol. The Quarter Quell (the third 25th anniversary Hunger Games) is to be reaped from the living victors in each district, so Katniss and her on-screen love interest Peeta are centre stage again. This again seems like a huge strategic error from Snow, and is my main quibble with the book.

One note on structure- so far each book is made up of three parts, each of nine chapters. Nine chapters to a part, nine parts to the trilogy. Collins has already completed two prequels. I do wonder if she has already contemplated a total of nine books of three trilogies…

Perhaps because the visceral cruelty of the games in the first book inured me, but I didn’t find the games in this one as shocking. Or at least only as shocking as the banality of evil of life in the districts. The romantic interest, other than as a tool for generating angst in our protagonist, also left me rather cold, but this may be due to authorial intention. Katniss, appears to see Peeta and Gale’s romantic attention as a distraction most of the time. Thanks, however, to masterful pacing and another cliff-hanger, I race on to Mockingjay!

At the ripe old age of 54 I have just completed my first (non J. K. Rowling) modern Young Adult fiction book. Being outside of the fandom, I have read, seen, and discussed nothing about this series prior to turning the first page. My expectations were quite high, based largely on the knowledge that John Granger thinks very highly of them, and he has never yet steered me wrong on a reading recommendation.

The Hunger Games is based in Panem, a dystopian and socially hierarchical society in North America. The fabulously wealthy Capitol district is kept in luxury by the exploitation of their poorer neighbours through force, starvation, tariffs and poverty. Think Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World just a few generations before they really crack that genetic engineering. The twelve subject districts that serve the Capitol have to provide a tribute each year of one boy-child and one girl-child to be sacrificed each year in the Hunger Games. These twenty four child victims are expected to fight each other to the death for the viewing pleasure of those in the Capitol, and as an exercise in learned helplessness for each of the subject districts. The parallel with Theseus and the fourteen Athenians to be sacrificed to the Minotaur are obvious.

Enter our protagonist Katniss Everdeen who is sixteen and is the primary breadwinner for her family of an emotionally damaged mother, and her sweet if somewhat otherworldly twelve year old sister Prim. The world is plainly dystopian, with starvation an ever present threat, but within the constant struggle Katniss is clearly in control. She is talented at what she does, hunting for food outside the district fence, and trading for what she needs for her family on the black market. She has a friend Gale, she hunts with, and relationships within the town that supports her and her families survival. There are shades this lifestyle being almost idyllic when the Reaping brings this crashing down. Katniss volunteers when Prim is chosen by lottery to be this year’s tribute.

The almost unbearably decadent Capitol is even more distressing, as she and Peeta (the male tribute from her district) are primped, polished and primed for the sacrifice. They both have secret weapons that will help with their survival, she can survive in the wild and is expert with a bow, and he is in love with Katniss, which plays well with the viewers and could lead to support in the games.

The games themselves are brutal. I thought more than once of The Iliad, both in terms of the vivid depiction of the intersection of weapon and victim, and the repetition of violence. The death of Cato at the hands of the muttations exceeds even this, and if there was one part of the book that I would shield a child from, it would be this. Vital as this chapter is to the book as a whole, I think all but the most mature (not to say jaded) children would benefit from a conversation with an understanding adult after the suffering of Cato. I have my understanding wife.

As I wrote to Kelly Loomis (another Hunger Games latecomer) today, the real test of a series like this is the want and need to continue. I have ploughed straight in to Catching Fire, and although I am already at part two, it may be a few days until I can write a review. Tomorrow, back to J. K. Rowling!