Review: Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games #3

SYNOPSIS: My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans–except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay–no matter what the personal cost. – via Goodreads

I am so over Katniss being this tortured soul, though I understand certain aspects of it, this is war. Also, this thing with her, Peeta and Gale is madness. Gale understands that she will only ever pay any attention to him when he is in pain, and it seems the same holds true when it comes to Peeta. It is almost like she then feels obligated to satisfy and love one of them. Again, I agree with Haymitch’s assessment that she would never deserve Peeta, no matter what. I really wish we had a better understanding of what Gale did later on in life when the book ends. It was a typical and classic Suzanne Collins ending, quick and rushed. However, this is the one time I don’t feel that she could get away with it seeing as there is not another book to pick up the pieces and bind them all fairly again. I honestly feel that some more explanation was required for us all to be one hundred percent satisfied, not only partly. Katniss also seemed to slot into killing people rather quickly, though she fights tooth and nail with Gale about it all the time. Had me wondering a bit there. I understand the circumstances that surrounded that, but really, if you get complicated about it, Gale is thinking of that feeling all the time he is making plans, not just when it is actually happening. Suzanne Collins may not be my favourite writer in terms of style, etc. but I have to give her credit for a great story, one of the better ones we have seen in years. I loved this trilogy.

SPOILER: I find it unfair of readers to hate on Gale because of the unfortunate bombs in the Capitol that killed Prim. This is war, and there are casualties. It does not make it right, but he was not even aware of the use of his concept weapon. Also, it really got my goose how Katniss made it seem like she was sacrificing so much and doing Peeta a favour by being with him and having his children right at the end. Even then it was almost like she was not entirely happy.

Review: Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games #2

SYNOPSIS: Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol – a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before…and surprising readers at every turn. – via Goodreads

The book was pretty well written, although I again felt Katniss was sometimes overly selfish. The Peeta-Gale-Katniss love triangle is starting to work on my nerves. Who is she to play them off against one another like that? I understand she is lost and confused, and that the situation sometimes impresses such things on her, but she cannot push them both away then pull them back then throw one another up in each others faces all the time. It is one or the other, sweetheart, and I agree wholeheartedly with Haymitch when he tells her that she will never deserve Peeta. I must say, the book took us through the motions of rebellion, fear, fight and flight emotions, blackmail, and escape very well. The story was solid, and the second part of the book, the arena, happened pretty fast, but not overly so. Finnick Odair is by far my favourite character of the series. He is strong, sweet and out there. I think I need to add something here: I do not dislike Katniss, I just feel that she can be so weak at times,  all the while proclaiming to be so strong and well put together. I get that she is too afraid to lose Gale or Peeta, but what she is doing would realistically drive them both away from her. Again, the conclusion of the book is typical Suzanne Collins, so very fast and in a blur. However, it worked very well this time, solidly putting through the perception and feeling of a haze and rush and reality slipping in and out of focus all the time.

Review: The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games #1

SYNOPSIS: Winning will make you famous.
Losing means certain death.

The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment, and as a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 through a lottery system to participate in the games. The ‘tributes’ are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.

When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature. – via Goodreads

I understand the concept of it being a book for young adults, but it was pretty decent. I know there are people that are comparing this to Battle Royale, but I never read that, so for me this was new and on it’s own. I did not like the way the love component was written in, it seemed a bit childish and flaky, but at the same time I need to remember that this was a book aimed at a younger generation. I liked it in a sense, but became very frustrated at other times. I was rooting for Peeta and Gale both at the same time, but you can see that Katniss is confused about them, and thinks purely about herself first, she is rather selfish in that sense. Both are good men, but who does she feel for? The story was refreshing, something new, and the books really were very easy to get into and get hooked on. The only thing I had to get used to was the fact that the book was written in the first person and present tense, which for me is very different from my usual stuff, and every now and then it throws you. I did not suffer from that reading it the second time around, because I knew how the writing  style worked. I must say, you can see that it is a book written by a woman and about a woman, there is a lot of fashion and beauty stuff that goes down that the average man is not overly familiar with, but it is bearable and you can overlook it the moment Katniss enters the arena. Suzanne Collins wrote it well that every now and then the full force of the injustice of murdering children for sport and punishment smacks you squarely, and again I was reminded about how terrible people can be to one another. A pretty decent read, I must admit.

SPOILER: I wish that Katniss would have been honest with Peeta on the train on the way home and told him how she felt, the last few paragraphs on the train that Collins wrote about. I really think that that would have changed the dynamic between them completely, made things more bearable. Again, her selfishness wins out, however, and Peeta is left to flounder about what happened with them in the arena. If he knew where he stood with her, everything would have been so different.