What is Catching Fire about?
Winning the Hunger Games was supposed to mean safety. Instead, it made Katniss Everdeen a problem the Capitol cannot leave alone. This Catching Fire summary follows Suzanne Collins's 2009 sequel, published by Scholastic Press on September 1 after retailers asked to move the date up for back-to-school. It is the second novel in The Hunger Games trilogy, and it has sold more than ten million copies as of March 2012. The New York Times called it a sequel that improves upon the first book.
What genre is Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins?
Catching Fire is young adult dystopian science fiction, with a second Games plot that is also an adventure and a reluctant romance. Readers who have not yet read The Hunger Games should start there: this book assumes the berries, the mockingjay pin, and the 74th Games are already known. For another teenager forced into a televised fight by a ruling class, Divergent covers related ground; for a child commander who only later learns the war games were real, Ender's Game pairs well with it.
What is the Quarter Quell in Catching Fire?
Catching Fire summary
This Catching Fire summary opens six months after the 74th Games, when President Snow visits Katniss in District 12 and makes the stakes plain: her berry stunt has stirred unrest, and she must convince Panem it was done for love, or Gale and her family will die. On the Victory Tour, an old man in District 11 salutes her during a tribute to Rue and is executed for it. Peeta proposes on live television; Katniss accepts; Snow is not convinced. Back home, new Peacekeepers whip Gale in the square, and Katniss meets District 8 refugees heading toward a District 13 that may still exist.
After the Quell is announced, Cinna turns Katniss's interview dress into a mockingjay gown, and Peeta claims on camera that she is pregnant, trying to make the Games look illegitimate. The arena itself is a jungle island laid out like a twelve-hour clock around a saltwater lake, with a new engineered horror in each wedge: lightning, blood rain, poisonous fog, monkey mutts, jabberjays that mimic loved ones' screams, a tidal wave. Katniss and Peeta ally with Finnick Odair and elderly Mags, then with Johanna Mason, Beetee, and Wiress, who is the one who decodes the clock. Mags walks into the fog so Finnick can carry a weakened Peeta. Wiress is killed. Beetee tries to channel the noon lightning strike through a coil of wire to electrocute the remaining Careers at the beach.
How does Catching Fire end?
Who are the Catching Fire characters?
Katniss Everdeen: The 17-year-old archer from District 12, now the Capitol's most dangerous symbol whether she wants the role or not.
Peeta Mellark: Her fellow victor and public fiancé, who volunteers for the Quell and is captured by the Capitol at the end.
Haymitch Abernathy: District 12's mentor, secretly coordinating with the rebellion.
President Snow: Panem's ruler, who threatens Katniss's family to force a love story the districts will believe.
Finnick Odair: The District 4 victor who allies with Katniss and Peeta and is extracted with her.
Johanna Mason: The District 7 victor, captured alongside Peeta when the arena falls.
Plutarch Heavensbee: The Head Gamemaker, revealed as a rebel who engineered Katniss's rescue.
Cinna: Katniss's stylist, beaten and dragged away by Peacekeepers before the Games begin; this book does not resolve his fate.
Best quotes from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The most quoted lines from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, checked against the Goodreads work-quotes page for this title:
"A spark could be enough to set them ablaze."
"I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever."
"The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the Mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion."
"I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me."
"You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know."
Frequently asked questions
Do you need to read The Hunger Games before Catching Fire?
Yes. Catching Fire is a direct continuation and assumes you already know the 74th Games, the berries, and who Haymitch, Gale, and Cinna are. Several reviews even noted that its early chapters spend time recapping book one for anyone who skipped it.
What is the Quarter Quell in Catching Fire?
It is a specially modified twenty-fifth-anniversary Hunger Games. In this book, the 75th Games requires every tribute to be reaped from past victors rather than from ordinary sixteen-to-eighteen-year-olds.
How does Catching Fire end?
Katniss destroys the arena's force field. She is taken to District 13 with Finnick, Beetee, and Haymitch, while Peeta and Johanna are captured by the Capitol. District 12 is firebombed, and the rebellion against Snow is openly underway.
Is the Catching Fire movie different from the book?
The 2013 film, directed by Francis Lawrence, follows the novel closely enough that the Quarter Quell, the clock arena, and the District 13 reveal all survive. It is rated PG-13 and starred Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Sam Claflin as Finnick, and Jena Malone as Johanna.
What age is Catching Fire appropriate for?
Scholastic recommends ages twelve to seventeen. Common Sense Media rates the book twelve and up, noting plentiful but not especially gory violence, and the film fourteen and up.
How is Catching Fire different from the first Hunger Games book?
The first half is slower, built around the Victory Tour and Snow's threats rather than a single arena. The second half returns to the Games, but the opponents are adult victors, the arena is a clock, and the real plot is a rebellion that book one only hinted at. The New York Times called it an improvement on the first novel; Entertainment Weekly preferred the original.
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