Catching Fire

How it opens

Katniss Everdeen now lives in the Victor's Village of District 12, and on the day the Victory Tour begins she dreads having to play Peeta Mellark's sweetheart again. Back home she finds a visitor waiting for her in the study, President Snow himself. He says several districts took her stunt with the poison berries as defiance, threatens Gale, and tells her the tour is her only chance to turn things around and that she must convince him, too, that she loves Peeta. As he leaves, he whispers that he knows about the kiss.

Who you meet early

• Katniss EverdeenKatniss Everdeen won the Hunger Games together with Peeta Mellark, the first time two tributes were allowed to win. She now has money to spare but still runs the snare line so Gale's family has meat.
• Peeta MellarkPeeta Mellark shared the victory with Katniss and has a house in the Victor's Village, where he does the baking for Katniss and Haymitch. Since the cameras left, the two of them have kept a cool distance.
• Haymitch AbernathyHaymitch Abernathy mentored Katniss and Peeta in the Games and lives in a filthy, neglected house in the Victor's Village. He is drunk most of the time and sleeps with a knife in his hand.
• Gale HawthorneGale Hawthorne now works twelve hours a day in the coal mines and will not take a coin of Katniss's money. The Capitol's story makes him her cousin, and once, weeks after her return, he kissed her.
• Hazelle HawthorneHazelle Hawthorne, Gale's mother, lost her husband in the same mine explosion that killed Katniss's father. She took in laundry to help feed her four children and gladly takes the game Katniss brings.
• Greasy SaeGreasy Sae still sells soup at the Hob, the black market of District 12. According to Gale, she started a collection there to sponsor Katniss and Peeta during the Games.
• DariusDarius is a red-haired Peacekeeper in District 12 who buys soup at the Hob and teases Katniss that she should look better before her train, maybe with a ribbon in her hair.