Mockingjay
Read Mockingjay in a day. Most of it at work on Friday, and then I went home and finished it. And, it seems a strange thing to like the first two books more than the third and final, but that's how I feel. It was a good conclusion to the series, but I just enjoyed the first two so much more.
So, first and foremost. Mockingjay has made me come to realize that I have very little love for Katniss. At all. Okay, an exaggeration kind of. I loved her in the first two books. She was conflicted and didn't know her own feelings, and then there was her friendship-but-more with Gale to muck things up thoroughly. And of course, with the situation she's in, fighting for her life for the foreseeable future, it's not as if she's getting much time for introspection to figure out just how strongly she feels about The Boy With the Bread. The third book continues that legacy with a fast pace of violence and conflict, but there is one thing that I cannot get over. One thing that makes Katniss nigh irredeemable. And that is the haste with which she gives up on Peeta when she sees the state he's in upon being rescued from the Capitol. This girl did not give up in the first Games, when it seemed the chance for two victors was snatched away. She did not give up in her second showing, when she decides to make sure Peeta is the one to survive. Why the hell, after getting him back, would she give up on him so quickly? It's not as if she's given up on everything, because at this point she's pretty damned intent upon killing President Snow. Peeta is a lot of the reason she even wants to kill Snow, so it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me that she wouldn't fight for him a little harder, rather than just seeking her revenge.
Idk...I guess my real problem is just that in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, it seemed as though Katniss had had quite a bit more personal growth than she displays in Mockingjay. And I suppose all the trauma she's endured might possibly justify the regression. No one really expects a seventeen-year-old girl to be as strong as she's expected to be. I mean, she's got strength of will...but I was hoping for a little more emotional maturity to go with it.
Okay, but Katniss aside, I still really did like this book. And HOLY SHIT. IDEK WHY BUT FINNICK ODAIR WAS ALL OF MY FAVOURITE MOMENTS EVER. The knot tying and the sugar cubes and the underwear OH GOD THE UNDERWEAR BRB MUST COMPOSE SELF. I didn't really buy as much into his relationship with Annie, but I thought his companionship with Katniss was sweet, the fact that they were kindred spirits. And Fuck. The moment when he outs Snow and what was done to him just because he was pretty… It was the only time I wanted to tear up. Well, besides his death, but that whole section was pretty rough. I thought it was pretty fitting that Katniss seemed to share his final moments, that for a brief second they're on the same wavelength.
This book was pretty awful for people that I liked dying. I mean. In the first one there was only Rue that I missed. In the second, I can't actually think of any. But in this one, we find out Cinna is for sure dead, and then there's Boggs, and Finnick, and that sweet Avox Pollux (he and the mockingjays made me go *_*) and Prim (who somehow grew on me in this book idek), whose life was THE WHOLE FREAKING POINT lakjd; flaksjdf lskdjf
I do wonder at the logic of Katniss agreeing to the Final Hunger Games at the end, though. I mean, even if she'd voted against it, I'm pretty sure she would have gotten her shot at President Coin. They'd still want Snow executed, after all… I mean, the way it reads, her thought process doesn't mesh with a "Yes for Prim," and the paragraph or so after implies that she wants Haymitch to go along with her not because she feels strongly about killing the children, but because she's got something planned. And the thing planned is obviously Coin's assassination. IDK…maybe Coin would have pulled out some full body armour for the execution if Katniss hadn't appeared to be on her side…
I love Peeta though. Peeta made this book worth reading (along with Finnick, as I have already established). The fact that he comes back HATING and FEARING Katniss and slowly, even somewhat inexplicably learns to love her again just plays to all my girly weaknesses. I do wonder why he stops her committing suicide after she assassinates Coin, though. We never get an explanation for it. I'm guessing it's either because he can't bear to see her die, or he thinks there's hope she won't be executed for the crime, but I would have liked to see something definite one way or the other.
And one last thing. I don't care if Gale ends up with a "fancy job" in District 2, Katniss/Peeta/Gale is my OTP for life. Because of the scene in Tigris's basement thing where Peeta and Gale have male bonding and Katniss gets to hear how cold and calculating she really is. Though I personally think that not being able to survive without someone is terribly romantic sounding, and I'm not exactly sure why Katniss has to take it so literally. But anyway, my headcanon will trade in Peeta's and Katniss' kids for sexytiems with Gale ANY DAY.
So, first and foremost. Mockingjay has made me come to realize that I have very little love for Katniss. At all. Okay, an exaggeration kind of. I loved her in the first two books. She was conflicted and didn't know her own feelings, and then there was her friendship-but-more with Gale to muck things up thoroughly. And of course, with the situation she's in, fighting for her life for the foreseeable future, it's not as if she's getting much time for introspection to figure out just how strongly she feels about The Boy With the Bread. The third book continues that legacy with a fast pace of violence and conflict, but there is one thing that I cannot get over. One thing that makes Katniss nigh irredeemable. And that is the haste with which she gives up on Peeta when she sees the state he's in upon being rescued from the Capitol. This girl did not give up in the first Games, when it seemed the chance for two victors was snatched away. She did not give up in her second showing, when she decides to make sure Peeta is the one to survive. Why the hell, after getting him back, would she give up on him so quickly? It's not as if she's given up on everything, because at this point she's pretty damned intent upon killing President Snow. Peeta is a lot of the reason she even wants to kill Snow, so it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me that she wouldn't fight for him a little harder, rather than just seeking her revenge.
Idk...I guess my real problem is just that in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, it seemed as though Katniss had had quite a bit more personal growth than she displays in Mockingjay. And I suppose all the trauma she's endured might possibly justify the regression. No one really expects a seventeen-year-old girl to be as strong as she's expected to be. I mean, she's got strength of will...but I was hoping for a little more emotional maturity to go with it.
Okay, but Katniss aside, I still really did like this book. And HOLY SHIT. IDEK WHY BUT FINNICK ODAIR WAS ALL OF MY FAVOURITE MOMENTS EVER. The knot tying and the sugar cubes and the underwear OH GOD THE UNDERWEAR BRB MUST COMPOSE SELF. I didn't really buy as much into his relationship with Annie, but I thought his companionship with Katniss was sweet, the fact that they were kindred spirits. And Fuck. The moment when he outs Snow and what was done to him just because he was pretty… It was the only time I wanted to tear up. Well, besides his death, but that whole section was pretty rough. I thought it was pretty fitting that Katniss seemed to share his final moments, that for a brief second they're on the same wavelength.
This book was pretty awful for people that I liked dying. I mean. In the first one there was only Rue that I missed. In the second, I can't actually think of any. But in this one, we find out Cinna is for sure dead, and then there's Boggs, and Finnick, and that sweet Avox Pollux (he and the mockingjays made me go *_*) and Prim (who somehow grew on me in this book idek), whose life was THE WHOLE FREAKING POINT lakjd; flaksjdf lskdjf
I do wonder at the logic of Katniss agreeing to the Final Hunger Games at the end, though. I mean, even if she'd voted against it, I'm pretty sure she would have gotten her shot at President Coin. They'd still want Snow executed, after all… I mean, the way it reads, her thought process doesn't mesh with a "Yes for Prim," and the paragraph or so after implies that she wants Haymitch to go along with her not because she feels strongly about killing the children, but because she's got something planned. And the thing planned is obviously Coin's assassination. IDK…maybe Coin would have pulled out some full body armour for the execution if Katniss hadn't appeared to be on her side…
I love Peeta though. Peeta made this book worth reading (along with Finnick, as I have already established). The fact that he comes back HATING and FEARING Katniss and slowly, even somewhat inexplicably learns to love her again just plays to all my girly weaknesses. I do wonder why he stops her committing suicide after she assassinates Coin, though. We never get an explanation for it. I'm guessing it's either because he can't bear to see her die, or he thinks there's hope she won't be executed for the crime, but I would have liked to see something definite one way or the other.
And one last thing. I don't care if Gale ends up with a "fancy job" in District 2, Katniss/Peeta/Gale is my OTP for life. Because of the scene in Tigris's basement thing where Peeta and Gale have male bonding and Katniss gets to hear how cold and calculating she really is. Though I personally think that not being able to survive without someone is terribly romantic sounding, and I'm not exactly sure why Katniss has to take it so literally. But anyway, my headcanon will trade in Peeta's and Katniss' kids for sexytiems with Gale ANY DAY.