Mockingjay
Copy-pasted from GoodReads, so if you've already seen it there, no need to click again!
It's a bit hard to gather my thoughts about this book. All I know is that it fell short of my expectations, probably because the first book was amazing and while the second may be less good, I still found myself unable to stop when rereading it quickly in preparation for reading this book. That's not the case with Mockingjay.
I don't know whether it's the absence of the Games that makes it less appealing or not, but then again the first half of Catching Fire still managed to get me hooked without it, so maybe not. Maybe it's the fact that we're cooped up in District 13, which turned out to be nothing like we expected, and the atmosphere is just so much more depressing. Which I find a bit strange because while lots more people have died and there's war and District 12 was obliterated, there's an underlying hope within all that compared to the first two books, which are considerably more hopeless and terrifying.
I appreciate the sense of realism the writer was trying to maintain throughout the book, but at some point it just became too much for me. I needed to see strong Katniss who seemed to be able to bounce back and take charge and survive no matter what horrible thing happened to her. I know after everything that's happened she would be understandably messed up beyond repair, but couldn't we have saved that for the epilogue? When she agreed to be the Mockingjay, I seriously thought she was heading back to her old ways, but sadly that didn't really happen either.
What disappointed me the most was the last quarter of the book. It was clear that the assassination mission was meant to be the third book's "Hunger Games", with the format of people dying right and left in various traps, only they're all working together instead of against each other. But it failed completely because the only thing that's been carrying me to the end of the book was the alluded promise that in the end, Katniss will be the one that brings President Snow down; that she would get into that mansion and accomplish her mission as intended. But instead, when she got close enough, the story took a drastic turn in the wrong direction. Prim died, Katniss understandably lost herself, and had no hope of taking part in winning the rebellion at all.
I was devastated when Finnick died but I was ready to forgive Collins for it when I still had the promise that he died for something, for a noble cause. But since Katniss and her team achieved absolutely NOTHING by infiltrating the Capitol, his death became pointless, and this infuriated me because he's one of the characters that actually deserved to live, especially after he finally got married. And then Prim died? Really? The whole base of this book was Katniss trying to keep Prim alive, thus setting this whole thing in motion, and now Collins took that away, essentially giving Katniss nothing else to live or fight for? How could she even think about this decision? It defeated the whole purpose of the plot. That was pretty much the last straw for me.
And the ending. I don't understand why everyone left Katniss alone in the end. Her own mother, leaving the only family she has left. Gale, giving up on her because he thought she'd never forgive him. I think that was a cop out to solve the so-called triangle. Yeah, sure, an explanation was provided about how Katniss and Peeta actually complemented each other because they're different, as opposed to Gale and Katniss who are similar, but why couldn't that be enough then? Why couldn't Gale have stayed too and Katniss chose Peeta for this reason? Is it because even the writer actually secretly felt that the reason wasn't enough to justify the choice either, and so that's why she took Gale out of the equation? Because that's how it felt for me.
The end of war is supposed to be depressing, but the ending felt a bit TOO contrived for me. As if Collins tried her hardest to make Katniss's situation as bleak as possible just because there's supposed to be no happy ending after a war. Shouldn't there have been hope? Wouldn't the ending be better if her family was at least back together with her, giving her hope of a better life in the future, guaranteeing her sister's safety forever? Wasn't that what she'd been fighting for all along?
The truth is; Katniss settled when she allegedly chose Peeta. Anyone could see that.
And maybe the fact that it took her fifteen years to agree to have kids was supposed to make things believable, but it was still messed up if you think about it. Because after everything that happened and after the way they were both portrayed in the aftermath I'm not so sure they're fit to be parents. There's too much damage there. (Although, I've always been bothered by how "perfect" Peeta is. How GOOD he is, how noble. Does he even have a flaw? Isn't he actually a Gary Stu?) I'm just glad that at least the romance isn't so prominent. (Although why did Katniss have to go around kissing both guys for the last two books, anyway? She's really taking advantage of them, if you ask me.)
I don't know. The plot was bad. But the writing was good and I still admire Suzanne Collins for the whole universe that she came up with and the intricate details of her ideas. I gave it the extra star for that.
Also, if TinyPic starts deleting my old links, I'm gonna be very, very angry.
It's a bit hard to gather my thoughts about this book. All I know is that it fell short of my expectations, probably because the first book was amazing and while the second may be less good, I still found myself unable to stop when rereading it quickly in preparation for reading this book. That's not the case with Mockingjay.
I don't know whether it's the absence of the Games that makes it less appealing or not, but then again the first half of Catching Fire still managed to get me hooked without it, so maybe not. Maybe it's the fact that we're cooped up in District 13, which turned out to be nothing like we expected, and the atmosphere is just so much more depressing. Which I find a bit strange because while lots more people have died and there's war and District 12 was obliterated, there's an underlying hope within all that compared to the first two books, which are considerably more hopeless and terrifying.
I appreciate the sense of realism the writer was trying to maintain throughout the book, but at some point it just became too much for me. I needed to see strong Katniss who seemed to be able to bounce back and take charge and survive no matter what horrible thing happened to her. I know after everything that's happened she would be understandably messed up beyond repair, but couldn't we have saved that for the epilogue? When she agreed to be the Mockingjay, I seriously thought she was heading back to her old ways, but sadly that didn't really happen either.
What disappointed me the most was the last quarter of the book. It was clear that the assassination mission was meant to be the third book's "Hunger Games", with the format of people dying right and left in various traps, only they're all working together instead of against each other. But it failed completely because the only thing that's been carrying me to the end of the book was the alluded promise that in the end, Katniss will be the one that brings President Snow down; that she would get into that mansion and accomplish her mission as intended. But instead, when she got close enough, the story took a drastic turn in the wrong direction. Prim died, Katniss understandably lost herself, and had no hope of taking part in winning the rebellion at all.
I was devastated when Finnick died but I was ready to forgive Collins for it when I still had the promise that he died for something, for a noble cause. But since Katniss and her team achieved absolutely NOTHING by infiltrating the Capitol, his death became pointless, and this infuriated me because he's one of the characters that actually deserved to live, especially after he finally got married. And then Prim died? Really? The whole base of this book was Katniss trying to keep Prim alive, thus setting this whole thing in motion, and now Collins took that away, essentially giving Katniss nothing else to live or fight for? How could she even think about this decision? It defeated the whole purpose of the plot. That was pretty much the last straw for me.
And the ending. I don't understand why everyone left Katniss alone in the end. Her own mother, leaving the only family she has left. Gale, giving up on her because he thought she'd never forgive him. I think that was a cop out to solve the so-called triangle. Yeah, sure, an explanation was provided about how Katniss and Peeta actually complemented each other because they're different, as opposed to Gale and Katniss who are similar, but why couldn't that be enough then? Why couldn't Gale have stayed too and Katniss chose Peeta for this reason? Is it because even the writer actually secretly felt that the reason wasn't enough to justify the choice either, and so that's why she took Gale out of the equation? Because that's how it felt for me.
The end of war is supposed to be depressing, but the ending felt a bit TOO contrived for me. As if Collins tried her hardest to make Katniss's situation as bleak as possible just because there's supposed to be no happy ending after a war. Shouldn't there have been hope? Wouldn't the ending be better if her family was at least back together with her, giving her hope of a better life in the future, guaranteeing her sister's safety forever? Wasn't that what she'd been fighting for all along?
The truth is; Katniss settled when she allegedly chose Peeta. Anyone could see that.
And maybe the fact that it took her fifteen years to agree to have kids was supposed to make things believable, but it was still messed up if you think about it. Because after everything that happened and after the way they were both portrayed in the aftermath I'm not so sure they're fit to be parents. There's too much damage there. (Although, I've always been bothered by how "perfect" Peeta is. How GOOD he is, how noble. Does he even have a flaw? Isn't he actually a Gary Stu?) I'm just glad that at least the romance isn't so prominent. (Although why did Katniss have to go around kissing both guys for the last two books, anyway? She's really taking advantage of them, if you ask me.)
I don't know. The plot was bad. But the writing was good and I still admire Suzanne Collins for the whole universe that she came up with and the intricate details of her ideas. I gave it the extra star for that.
Also, if TinyPic starts deleting my old links, I'm gonna be very, very angry.