Book Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 2.5/5

From Amazon: "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."

Short of maybe two sections of the book that really sucked me in, I had a hard time completing this final book of The Hunger Games series (hence the more-than-two-month gap between this review and the last).  The premise is still great, but I feel like the author was maybe rushed to write both this and Catching Fire. The plot meandered and didn't quite make sense (everyone really things it's okay for Katness to keep going into these dangerous situations, and then she's constantly in distress?), and characters didn't feel as fleshed-out as they did in the first two books, including Katniss.

The love triangle didn't bother me in book 1, didn't bother me too much in book 2, and finally managed to bother me in book 3. Until near the very end, I really didn't care who Katniss ended up with and came very close to skimming sections devoted entirely to the Peeta/Gale conflict. And then... the explanation for whom she chooses (or rather why she didn't choose the other) was forced and really made no sense. Did Collins really have no plan whatsoever for how this would turn out? And if not, why did she spend so much time on it?

Also, the violence. Man, the violence. I obviously expect a war to be violent but the tone of the writing in this book (and the previous two) did not prepare me for the level of violence I ended up reading. Decapitations, burned-off flesh. It started to remind me of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children in that way, which wasn't good.

The world is still very interesting, and Collins' writing style is enjoyable. I just wish she'd had more time to really plan out the plot and to edit. It could've been so much better.

Book Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4/5

From Amazon: "Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge."

For the most part, this book was great and lived up to my expectations of a sequel to The Hunger Games, and I will still definitely be reading Mockingjay in the near future.

I've heard and read a lot of complaints about the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale (though unless Peeta and Gale are considering a relationship with each other, I suppose it really isn't a triangle, but anyway), and usually that sort of thing doesn't interest me; but in the context of this book, and especially in the way Katniss at least considers the third option of remaining single because she never wants to have children who might be forced to participate in the Games, it wasn't a turn off for me.  A *lot* of focus is put on this relationship drama, especially in the first half of the book, but since Katniss is not a drama queen and Collins is such a good writer, I didn't really get sick of it. 

I can suspend my disbelief, in this book and the previous one, enough to believe that each District has been subdued enough by the Capitol to allow their children to be sent to the Hunger Games each year.  What I can't believe though is the way Katniss acts when...

***MAJOR SPOILERS***

... she returns to the games and starts pretty much offing, or trying to off, people when she's been so disgusted and traumatized by the Games and the deaths and punishment of others previously. Collins tries to explain this away by Katniss thinking Peeta's the only good one of the bunch, with her and the other tributes just built to kill basically, but it doesn't jive.  Also, there did not seem to be any good reason that she and Peeta were not trusted to know what was going on with the rebellion, especially in light of the facts that Katniss thought about and tried to kill people who might've been important, and she just happened to be in the right place at the right time and to intuit what to do to pull off their escape without knowing anything that was going on.  That is way too much coincidence to ignore.

However.  Because it was so well-written otherwise, I can't give it any lower than a 4.  I really did love this book, even if the ending bugged me, and I'm still excited to read Mockingjay.

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5/5

In a future where North America is divided into the Capitol and the 12 districts that serve it, the Hunger Games serve as a reminder to the lower classes that the Capitol can do whatever it wants. It can even steal your children and pit them against each other in a fight to the death for the entertainment of the Capitol's citizenry. 

District 12, where the narrator, Katniss, hails from, is a joke to the rest of Panem.  They haven't had a victor in the Hunger Games in many years, and their last victor is now a stumbling drunk (and is to be played by Woody Harrelson in the upcoming movie, which I'm pretty well gleeful about).  But this year she promises her younger sister that she, Katniss, will be the one to survive.  But will her hunting skills be enough to protect her from the other 23 contestants?

I really enjoyed this book.  It's a quick read, mostly because Katniss (or Kat) is a practical girl, and she tells the story as it is, in present-tense as it's happening. She doesn't use a lot of flowery language, and she doesn't do a lot of time sorting through her feelings or being confused (though that's not to say that she never is), or feeling sorry for herself.  She has depth, but it's as if she doesn't realize or care that she does.  That's just the way it is, and she doesn't spend time reflecting on this.  But she has a way of describing everything to a T with as few words as possible, and she does make some very interesting observations, especially about the people of the Capitol.  And her lack of over-emotionality makes her possibly the most normal and maturing teenage girl I've ever read. 

For that reason, as well as for the social commentary (of which I hope there is more to come in the following two books), I wish every teenager would read this book.  The dystopian future and the fight for survival are interesting, but, like most YA novels, there are those stirring hormones to deal with.  It's confusing, even alarming, she doesn't know how she really feels about it, and it's normal.  There is no I'll-jump-off-a-cliff-because-you'll-come-save-me-or-if-not-I'd-rather-just-die nonsense.  Because guess what, kids; that's called obsession.  Obsession ≠ love.  Obsession => stalking (and/or losing your soul and mortality, but that's quite literally another story).

This book also would make a very good intro to books that have something to say about current, present-day society but don't flat-out say it.  I remember having to be spoon-fed most of what's in books like Farenheit 451 the first time I read them in school, and I think this book would be a lot easier for kids to "get."