WeHa Book Club

*Spoiler Free Review*

Well, it was only a matter of time, but we’re finally here. My first official *spoiler free* review of a sequel. I knew this was going to happen at some point, but I still haven’t decided exactly how to handle it. I mean how do you talk about the second book of a series while avoiding spoilers from everything that came before? It’s a tough question.

And it’s an important question, as well. If I even mildly spoil the plot of a book that you haven’t read, you’re probably going to stop reading all of my reviews for books you haven’t read. I can’t betray your trust without losing a part of my audience. I know that I would react the same way if I found out a book reviewer occasionally revealed plot points from the books they were reviewing.

So you have my word that I will never do that.

But therein lies the problem. I’ve done ‘sequels’ before, but they were also the first reviews of that particular series. So I was able to talk about the series as a whole, as if it was a review of the first book. Check out The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook and Wreck, for example. Completely spoiler free!

But I’ve already reviewed the first Hunger Games book, so that strategy is out the window. And what I’m doing right now – filibustering about my approach to sequels while already on my 5th paragraph of this post – is only going to work for this one review. In other words, I need a plan.

If I talk about plot at all, it will only be in the most general terms. For example, Catching Fire took the story from The Hunger Games and made it much more expansive. Think of it like a zoomed-out version of the first book. As we see everything through one character’s eyes, it makes sense that our understanding of the Hunger Games world would become more comprehensive as the story develops.

And by the same logic, I think it’s safe to comment on the effectiveness of my earlier general feedback. For example, Catching Fire did a very good job expanding the world of The Hunger Games without losing the thread of what this story is really about. I’ve seen many sequels, that will remain unnamed, that have failed miserably at this.

It becomes a problem when a follow-up novel goes for too much all at once, and it loses the identity that had caused readers to fall in love with the story in the first place. Catching Fire handled this masterfully. Satisfying reveals, believable character development, a cliff-hanger ending as we head into the third book that makes it hard to write this review because I’m so damn excited for Mockingjay? Check, check and check.

I already know the next ‘sequel review’ is going to be harder because approximately 90% of this review was me trying to figure out what to write, but I think we’re good for now. The bottom line is that The Hunger Games series is worth the hype so far and Catching Fire was an excellent follow-up to a massive cultural phenomenon. That’s a lot harder than it looks.

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Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins