Repetitive, uncaptivating and dull describe my reading of Catching Fire. A bestseller, sequel to the highly beloved Hunger Games, I had no idea my read-through of Catching Fire would be this lukewarm. Perhaps, the hype overblew my expectation or the Hunger Games was just too good to write a better sequel for. Whatever happened to Catching Fire left me dissatisfied after reading.

Catching Fire picks up with the aftermath of the 74th Hunger Games. The first half of the novels explores effect of the last Hunger games on Katniss, Peeta, Gale, the districts and capitol, the rebellions brewing, the capital clamping hard on the districts and the prospect of Katniss fleeing with her closed ones or joining the rebellion. Not quite engaging, but still promising and not downright dull enough to put you to sleep. Then came the anouncement of the Quater Quell, a special edition of the Hunger Games whose condition sees Katniss and Peeta return to the arena! Again!!

Thenceforth, till the end of the novel, the story plumetted into a lackluster rip-off of the arena in the first Hunger Games. The discovery that Katniss will be revisiting the arena once more ruined the last atom of my enthusiasm for the novel. Yea, and the writer's effort to spice things up by introducing more characters, allies for Katniss, environmental obstacles for the tribute just failed to draw me back in. I had to force myself through the rest of the story, to be done with it and proceed to Mockingjay. I certainly didn't care about the arena and I couldn't care less about the Characters either.

Katniss was largely useless once in the arena. Peeta felt weak and need to be babysitted by Katniss & Finnich. The other characters just didn't cut it for me. The writing is still the mediocre with vague descriptions but worse still, it lack the substance that that Hunger Games boasts of. The star-crossed lover angle had gone too stale for me. For how long can we root for Peeta if we can't we can't even fathom why he can't get over Katniss? Since the story is told exclusive in first person by Katniss, we never get to deeply explore the motives, feelings and mindset of the other characters. All we get is Katniss, it might have not mattered for Hunger Games but here, it clearly would have liven this story to narrate from Peeta, Gale in the district or even Haymitch in the capital potential of the story.

Another thing that could have worked better for the plot than returning to the arena is having Katniss flee out of the district with her loved one's trailed by the peacekeepers and the president. In the end, I give Hunger Games: Catching Fire 3 of 5 stars.