This is the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins and BOW HOWDY, it is good.  Sure, the pacing is slow in some places and whirlwind fast at others, but Catching Fire does not suffer from middle book syndrome.  That is, Catching Fire is not all filler while the first book was action and exposition and the action in the final book.  Whereas the first book, Hunger Games, is predictable in that you know the ultimate outcome, but not the journey of how Katniss Everdeen gets there, this book has no certain outcome.  And certainly, the pacing of the story leaves you guessing where Collins will leave you at the end.  

Collins masters the cliffhanger to cruel effect (I was up until late’o’clock reading this last night because I couldn’t stop reading) and the end of this book might be one of the most wicked cliffhangers EVER.  EVER.  I am grateful that I waited to begin reading this series until now because the final book of the series, Mockingjay, will be in my hot little hands in less than two hours.  Anyone who has waited more than a week with Catching Fire’s cliffhanger deserves a gold star.

Fun fact: Suzanne Collins was a writer on Clarissa Explains It All.  The Hunger Games is about as far from Clarissa as could be, but Collins’ background in t.v. writing shines in this series.

Okay: Catching Fire is not as gruesome (but still gruesome enough) as the Hunger Games, but it is solid.