The second book in Suzanne Collins the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire, has you constantly thinking. This story was so difficult to predict. Once you thought you knew what was happening and what was going to happen next it would take a completely different path. Every plan set out by the main character, Katniss, is continuously undermined by some event that forces her to change tactics. By far, the biggest shock and kink in any plan or strategy she can come up with is the announcement for the third Quarter Quell of the Hunger Games. The twist is that the tributes that will enter the arena will not be the usual poll of teens at random but the victors from each District who, once they won the Hunger Game that they had been previously in were given the stipulation that they would be immune to all future Hunger Games.



The Capitol claims that this is a way to “remind the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol.” Once all of the players are in the arena you are struggling the entire time to judge each players intentions and motives. Wondering if the friendships among the victors will win out over the fact that they have now become enemies. You are kept on your toes because it is impossible to determine whether the help from one tribute to another is out of the goodness of their heat or if it is really just a ploy to gain their trust so that they can just turn around and kill the other in the end. As hard as you try to evaluate the situation and predict what the outcome will be, or even just the next move for that matter, you are sure to be shocked.



The very last line in the book Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins does nothing to come to a close but only leaves your mind full of questions you are eager to have answered. This is a great tactic that she used to basically force you into reading the next and final book in the trilogy which is Mockingjay. (edited for plot spoilers).