So I've just finished reading Mockingjay..I don't know what to think..I'll admit that I laughed out loud, cried (very noisily, with much sniffling) and stared at nothing in particular for a full minute after finishing. I'm not entirely sure whether or not I liked it but I'm sure this is one of the best written, most gripping books I've ever read.
First off, Blurb from GoodReads.com:
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
My Review:
To be honest this is more of a rant than a true review....be prepared for spoilers because, honestly this book wrecked me..I don't know what to think. I'm not sure whether or not I like it and I didn't like the epilogue..I won't be able to fully express my thoughts without making comments and references to scenes in the book. Was it engrossing? Definitely. Realistic? Probably. Satisfying? I think not.
I got the book for a full day without reading any of it because I was already reading another book (which had an amazing, light, fluffy ending) So I was sort of floating on the effects of the previous novel when I started reading Mockingjay. A couple of pages in, however, and I was jolted into the intense, on-edge world of The Hunger Games. Now, something you should know about me is that I sort of whizz through reading, I read all the words and everything, I don't skip anything but I don't focus on the wording or the point of view or anything really, its like I'm watching a movie in my head (my english teacher calls this being an inactive reader :P) so at the end of a novel I don't know exactly what a character said, I don't get any sentences that stick with me afterwards or anything like that. All I have left at the end is the overall feeling I get, it affects my mood and leaves me reliving the scenes I loved over and over again in my head...I'm still fully under the emotional effects of this book and I'm feeling slightly depressed and am feeling the need to read a nice fluffy, stress-free Julia Quinn romance novel.
Onto the actual review now.
So we start out the novel at the ruins of district 12, you can tell immediately that Katniss is in shock, she's so detached, so cold, but I thought "Well, this is only the beginning, she's bound to get better eventually." Oh, boy was I ever wrong! Throughout the entire book I'm waiting for her to get better, to get well..more Katniss-like but I'm sorely disappointed :(
A lot of district 12ers are dead, including all of Peeta's family *sniff*. The district 13 lives are very spartan, every mouthful of food is calculated, to achieve maximum health, they're OCD about everything, sparse furnishings, (reminded me of Uglies OCD-ness and reminded me of the underground lives of the rebels in The Host) I'll admit her time in the district 13 catacombs was one of my absolute favorite times of the entire novel, it was the least caustic section in the novel and had a couple of galeniss support scenes. She still has a concussion from the escape from the last games and she's disoriented and sounds a lot like Tally Youngblood from Uglies here..especially around the end, in Specials. She's turned cynical and half-demented, she has to keep reminding herself who she is, where she is and how she came to be there just to keep herself sane. It was unbearable, seeing Katniss, wonderful, brave, loveable Katniss, reduced to this shell of her former self. She starts to recuperate, very, very slowly but she seems to be returning to her old self a bit (with major scarring mind you, as would be expected) but she still manages to surprise me every so often with a long crazy monologue or a nervous breakdown.
They rescue Peeta, whose memories of Katniss have been irrevocably changed, Peeta doesn't love Katniss anymore, he isn't the same Peeta anymore. Now, even I, who is an avid Galeniss supporter love the sweet lines and revelations that come from Peeta, he's a sweet guy but I don't think Katniss deserves him. Gale seems to be her equal, they've both got issues, they're perfect for each other.
The Peeta everyone loves has died forever unfortunately..he's changed, he doesnt talk the same way, he doesnt act the same way and he just isn't the same..its as though someone else is in control of Peeta's body :(
The leader of the rebels, President Coin, isn't a very likeable person, she wants power, she seems to be a female version of President Snow, which is 100% true, as we find out in the end. It was depressing that there was no true "good guy" side but I guess it IS realistic..but to be honest I'm not a fan of the "its-good-because-its-realistic" notion...hell, the entire novel is complete and utter fiction!! Why does she feel the need to be realistic in the death and/or mental breakdown of all her characters????? Why can't they resurface relatively unscathed??? Just because its a dystopian novel doesn't rule out a reasonably happy ending (I'm not against killing off characters in general but in the end I'd like to have them in peace, living their lives, recovering from the past..a happy enough ending if you know what I mean..not perfect, just happy enough to make us feel better about all the horrors that happened) Just because its a dystopian novel doesn't mean it has to be a tragedy as well..they had the whole cruel, inflexible government, they went to war, they even WON for god's sake!!! Why can't they be happy now??
I need to list the people that died in this one..just to clear it up in my mind because, honestly all I can think is "She's gone and killed or mentally handicapped all of her characters.." half of me doesn't want to believe it..but its true, the ones she left alive were all turned into nutcases :(
So:
Cinna: *wail*..why??? whats he ever done to you Collins??!!
Peeta's family: You leave the poor boy half-insane and you have the heart to destroy his family too??
Finnick: He'd just gotten married!! *sobbing* I seriously did NOT expect this..I expected the entire team that was with Katniss to die except her, Peeta and Finnick (I thought it would be the best way to finally determine who she would be with if Gale died here since she so obviously doesn't like him that way..just put us out of our misery here won't you? plus it fits that all the victors would come out alive) Prim: well..no real objections here..she's way too wise for a little kid..the few scenes she's been in during the entire series have her giving Katniss advice and acting like a grownup..It was really deep..the way this affected Katniss..I cried during the Buttercup scene near the end..where they both sit in her house in the Victors Village and cry it out together :'(
President Coin: Woot!! Serves you right you manipulative BITCH!!!!!! I HATE YOU!!!
President Snow: Choking on his own blood...very creative to say the least..I like that we get to know a bit about him before his death..through Finnick's secrets and Snow's actual actions and dialogue..to be honest I liked that Katniss didn't kill him herself. I mean he was doing what he was raised to believe in..he wasnt the one who invented the hunger games..he was raised to be evil..President Coin, however, knew exactly what she was doing when she killed all those kids :( EVIL BITCH!!!!!!!
Also, and this one doesn't count 100% since he is technically alive at the end:
Peeta: How could you kill the boy we've all come to love?? He's unrecognizable in the end..he makes an effort and ends up with Katniss, true..but he isn't ever the same...the real or not real game freaked me out a little bit..
Moving on to the epilogue:
First I'd like to dedicate this rant to Gale, who I've been cheering on for so long only to be disappointed:
I’ve always been a Galeniss supporter..but she’s made it kind of hard NOT to hate Gale at the end of this one hasn’t she? I mean he’s gone all cold and murderous and he was never even a tribute in any of the games!! And its inexcusable how he abandons Katniss at the end there! WTF ARE YOU DOUNG IN DISTRICT 2 GALE???? THAT 10 DISTRICTS AWAY FROM THE RIGHT NUMBER!! HUH?? WHY ARENT YOU GOING TO HELP KATNISS?????????? YOU ASS!!!
(rant/)
I actually like having an epilogue in a novel, it's sort of the cherry on top, but for some reason the best authors come up with the worst epilogues! Take J.K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket and now Suzanne Collins. Thats not to say that all epilogues are bad, on the contrary, I've read loads of books with awesome epilogues that wrapped up the story quite nicely..I don't mean turn it into a happily-ever-after but the characters are healing..they're TRYING to go back to normal, whether or not it is possible for them to be totally normal ever again. Like I said before, I spent the entire novel waiting for Katniss to start acting like Katniss again..it never happened..the epilogue is set twenty years in the future where Katniss and Peeta have two kids...Katniss is still very dead sounding, cold, detached, and not..Katniss...she isn't living life, she's waiting for it to end. AND WHY ISN'T GALE THERE????? HE NEVER CAME BACK *sobbing quietly* he never came back for her..that just about broke my heart..
WHY did her own MOTHER abandon her as well?? She should be sticking to her only living relative like GLUE!! WHY is everybody ABANDONING Katniss???? And poor Annie in the end! She had a kid to deal with along with her insanity without a husband...its like Tonks and Lupin dying and leaving Teddy alone in the world.. :'(
I don't like epilogues set too far in the future, anything over a year away is too much for me...I can't see the character I've grown familiar with in the older version...I hated that she showed us that even twenty years in the future, they'll never ever recover :( way to kill my hopes and dreams! The thing I hated the most was that Katniss still seems..broken in the epilogue..irreparable..even after 20 years and two children, she was still cold and detached and mentally unstable..and she called her children "the girl" and "the boy" which seemed really cold and..unfeeling to me. The last line, where she says there are worse games to play really gave me chills!
I think in the end, I liked the novel (please note that the above rant was all about the ending, not the actual events of the novel), it wasn't perfect and the ending sucked majorly but I can live with it..I'll just re-invent the ending so that Finnick, Cinna, Peeta's Family, Prim, Rue and Katniss' Father are all alive and well, living in district 14, Katniss and Peeta get better, Gale comes back to 12 and they're friends again, they discover district 14 and live happily ever after with all of their loved ones!! Totally unrealistic of me, I know, but hey a girl can dream can't she?
and I can't resist putting this in:
May the odds be ever in your favor
The Know-it-all
