Catching Fire, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

These are the final two books in the Hunger Games trilogy. They have attracted quite an audience of youth readers, and sucked me in right away as well. These are violent books. Okay, exclamation point! A cautionary tale of power in the wrong hands, and the bloody revolution that follows. It centers around Katniss Everdeen, a teenager forced to grow up before her time by a dysfunctional and twisted government. She is the tide that brings the wave of revolution to her country, and believe me, it is a pretty horrible life. So, why do I like the book? Triumph of good over evil? Hope? Optimism that it will come out okay in the end? Hunger to know what happens next in the string of horrible happenings? I don't know. Somehow I got plucked up and couldn't stop reading once I'd started. Most of the kids who had seen me reading the trilogy said the same thing; "I didn't like the last book as well as the first two." After reading the last one cover to cover in about a day, I'm not sure why. I thought it brilliant. After questioning one such young one (daughter #2) I think it may be that book 3 is more about the revolution as the whole, and the more central relationship and romance between Katniss and Peeta is pretty tanked (what with Peeta being tortured into lunacy and Katniss being the poster girl for the rebel forces). Still, this trilogy is a pretty exciting roller coaster ride....