Review: CATCHING FIRE

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Book 2 of the The Hunger Games series
Narrated by Carolyn McCormick
Genre: post-apocalyptic urban fantasy, YA
Format: paperback & (unabridged) audiobook

About Catching Fire:

Sparks are igniting, flames are spreading and the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before...and surprising readers at every turn.

Source: Info in the About Catching Fire was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6148028-catching-fire on 29/03/2013.

Review:

With Book 1: The Hunger Games, I watched the movie before reading the book. I decided that this time around I would try reading the book first and then watch the movie and see which way I like better. Turns out, it's better to watch the movie first, then I don't sit thru the movie playing critique. Now I know better. What remains to be seen is if I would remember that lesson when the next book-to-movie gig comes around...

I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book because I've read a few not so sparklingly bright reviews about this book and Mockingjay that I actually stopped reading this series after Book 1: The Hunger Games. I liked Book 1: The Hunger Games and wanted that "like" feeling to last a bit longer by putting off reading the disappointment of the next books as long as possible. I shouldn't have done that because this book was not a disappointment. Sure there were a few nitcpicking points I would have liked to have been not there but I could easily forgive those for the marvellous reading pleasure that this book brought me!

Carolyn McCormick mimicked Effie Trinket in the movie so closely that it made me smile! That is how good the narration is. Or maybe I am just used to McCormick's voice by now seeing this is the second book already by her. Either way I rate her narration a 5.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = N/A (11 hrs and 14 mins audiobook)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries