Catching Fire: Hunger Games, Book 2

I loved this book and I will talk about content, but first I must give praise to the audio itself. I often read the books before I listen to them, so I don't expect to be so spellbound by the audio. However, with this book, the narrator (Carolyn McCormick) is great and helps to engage me even more than when I read it myself. I had listened to the first book "The Hunger Games" before reading the second, it had the same narrator, and I could hear here voice in my head as I read. I made a point of listening to both back to back and it was pure pleasure. In "Catching Fire", I found myself laughing and crying with the book. The narrator is consistent and spot on with her inflections and voicing.

Now for content, I had been anticipating this second book in the trilogy since the moment I finished the first. It continues just a short time after the first and covers all that has happened in between and then continues on with the story Suzanne Collins so expertly weaved. The book is perfectly title as it descibes exactly how the temperment of the Districts has developed. I don't want to spoil it for people with too much. The love triangle between the Katniss, Peeta and Gale is further fleshed out, but, of course, is not resolved. The author does a wonderful job of this, and I, myself, can't even decide who is the one to choose, I can't take sides.

I don't know how helpful this review will be, but I cannot praise this book enough. It left me more than eager for the final book and I am sure that I will need to read it again in the mean time.

One thing I must say between books 1 and books 2 of the Hunger Games books is how seamless they seem to flow into each other. As most would agree, the first Hunger Games was excellently put together so a continuation was very much welcomed.

The narrator grew on me, she did a very good job voicing the different characters that are introduced (which were quite a few). She did very well to show the tortured nature of the characters in this book.

Catching Fire introduces a lot of very interesting new characters I must say. The tyranny of the Capital and of Snow becomes even more evident in the title. The story progresses very quickly I find and certain aspects of the book seems a bit rushed if you ask me, however much was not lost in this title and it was very much enjoyed.

Katniss and Peeta return triumphantly to District 12. After 6 months, they embark on a tour around the other districts as dissent and tensions rise. An outraged President Snow concocts a special treat for the 75th Hunger Games.

This book is slow to start with the "couple" touring on the train and adjusting to living in their victors' houses in a separate village while the townspeople continue to exist in squalor. The love triangle grows more complicated with Gale now back in the picture. Mid-way through, the story gains speed with an interesting twist and never stops. Couldn't download the third quickly enough.

My only complaint is how old the narrator sounds. I grew accustomed to it in the first book and it doesn't detract too much from the fantastic story.

Well, she did it. The author made the 2nd as good as the first.
It is quite an emotional ride, the characters are even more engaging than they were in the first book.
There are some developments to the story that you expect after reading the first, but there are also some great surprises.
Being that it is told in first person, it was very important to keep the same narrator and I am glad they did.
- AND you should be warned.
If you are in it for this one than you are *definitely* in it for the next!
(I hate waiting for the next in a good sequel, Ms Collins, please hurry...)

The narrator is wonderful! I love Carolyn McCormick! Her reading is so clear and her voice and inflection is so deliberate and appropriate.

Mockingjay! Because its the 3rd in the series.....and Carolyn McCormick also narrates that one :) . From another author, I would have to say Delirium and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver, they are great audiobooks.

I appreciate the mood change you can feel of the story through her narrating.

Of course this book makes me cry! But I also laugh of loud because Haymitch and Katniss' interactions are priceless!

I like (not love, like Book 1) the story and character but the reader Carolyn McCormick puts too much of herself into Katniss. Her emotional renditions seem unauthentic and whiny quite often. I actually began to cringe when I felt she was ruining a given part, which increased in frequency over time. Also, I feel the story and situations become predictable in the 2nd and 3rd book of the trilogy. I found myself wondering what the story would be like if reading and avoiding the overlay of the reader (too heavy in general).

The narrator. I read the first book but my preference is to listen to my books as I'm a busy person. The voice of the narrator threw me off. I felt like she was reading the book to me as most narrators tend to bring you into the story with them. I had trouble getting into the story as her voice and the way she read the story was very distracting. She improved with the second half of the book, and I hope she is better with the third book but I'd have not chosen her in the first place. I enjoyed this book as it gets into the heart of the struggle that the people go through. I held my breathe wondering if
Katness and Peeta were going to make it to the end. All in all I felt that this book was an excellent stand alone book and not just a bridge to a third book. I look forward to getting into the last installment in this series.

If you liked the first book, "The Hunger Games," you will like the sequel. It keeps up the gut-wrenching tension despite its predictability, just like the first book. Although most of the new characters introduced are not as engaging as those we met in book one, you will grow to like some of the returning characters even more.

Katniss continues to be a bit slow to figure out things that will be immediately obvious to the reader, and the ending is easy to see coming. However, it's hardly an ending at all; the last sentence may as well have been "To be continued..."

I still think Carolyn McCormick's narration is a bit too chipper at times, and Katniss in particular sounds entirely too breathlessly girlish when she's fighting for her life.

I can't really add much to the reviews of the story that have been previously written here. It is suspenseful, interesting, and made two days of a road trip much more interesting. I look forward to the third book, except I won't be listening to it from Audible. The narration here, by Carolyn McCormick, was simply dreadful. Katniss is alternately a world-weary 50-year-old, and a whiny 10-year-old - and not as a point of character fluctuation but of wildly shifting narration. At points in the story where Katniss might be serious, she is simpering; sarcasm comes across as self-doubt. It's amazing what a voice can or cannot do for a character. Other characters also did not fare well; McCormick seemed to have not read the "stage directions," so a solemn remark sometimes came out as a shout. By the end, I was gritting my teeth in frustration and sometimes outright laughing at the terrible, erratic vocalization.

The story is quite interesting, though, and I will look for it in another form elsewhere.

I will try not to give anything away and simply say that I'm not as enthralled with this one. I cannot believe in the story, in the decisions of the characters, in the logical progression - I expected more sooner, or if not more, than an explanation of why the characters would choose the way that they did, especially the main character and the rest of the tributes.