Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins.

It takes a lot to make me really like a sequel. Obviously, first of all I had to have enjoyed the first book enough that I want to pick up the second book and revisit that world. Second, the author needs to deepen her world, without betraying it. This is harder than some people might think. Third, I have to learn more about the characters, see how the characters continue to grow and change, without feeling like the author is retconning the story to make her new vision work.

I rarely like sequels, in books or in movies. The ones I like, I tend to love.

That is immediately the truth with Catching Fire; the sequel to Hunger Games, which I read and talked about a couple of weeks ago. It’s not possible to talk about Catching Fire without giving away the end of Hunger Games so if you don’t want to be spoiled, you should probably look away.

You have been warned.

Catching Fire picks up just before Katniss and Peeta begin their “victor’s tour” of the twelve Districts and the Capital. Katniss’ situation is dramatically different than it was at the beginning of the last book. Her family has been moved to a beautiful, spacious house in the Victor’s Village. It has running hot water, and even a phone. Luxury beyond compare. Yet Katniss still escapes to the woods every chance she gets to continue for hunt; even though her family can buy meat whenever they want it now, her friend Gale has not been so lucky. Now that he has to go down and work in the mines, she supplies his family with meat.

This book also begins to discuss the love triangle that Hunger Games only just hints at. There is a new, cool distance between Katniss and Gale, as he tries to understand her survival strategy for the games. It doesn’t help that she and Peeta must be “in love” again, as they start their journey to the Capital, especially once President Snow puts in an appearance to explain just how important it is for Katniss to make the impression he wants.

The first book seemed to be a condemnation of reality TV, and a world where we get our entertainment from watching children kill each other. This book is a story of how that society comes to revolt. How two teenagers convinced the world that they were in love, and therefore have caused the facade that allows this perversion of entertainment to begin to crumble.

Katniss is more likeable to me in this book; in the first, she was necessarily standoffish and cold at times; maybe because I know her better this time, when she is cold, I understand why. I think one of my favorite details is that she isn’t an indecisive wuss, unable to choose between Gale and Peeta, wrecking havoc with her confusion. She loves Gale, and has loved him all her life, although she never thought of it that way, but her harrowing experiences with Peeta have created a closeness with him that is undeniable.

There were a handful of scenes in this book that moved me rapidly to tears; if you give this book to your teenager, I would sneak a peek through the book when you’re not looking, and be prepared to discuss the politics, sacrifices, and demands of rebellion. Collins does an excellent job of discussing them, showing them, showing the consequences of fighting for your freedom. Brilliant work.

Mockingjay, the third book in the trilogy, doesn’t come out until August. I don’t know how I’m going to survive until then. (answer: read more books!)