Welcome to my review of the 3rd book of The Hunger Games Trilogy. If you've been keeping up with my previous thoughts on these books you already know the following...1) I like Peeta more than Katniss.
2) I think our supporting cast is who makes the novel.
3) I feel that we only get the best out of our leading lady through the actions of that supporting cast.
And what do I have to add to that list after reading THIS book....
4) I like Buttercup more than Katniss.
5) I like Katniss more than the writer.
Let me explain.
In fact, I can explain in six words...
Ms. Collins has no follow through.
What a friggin dissapointment this book is. From start to finish.
Why? Oh...let me list it!
(WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!)
1) You know all those characters you've grown to love who make you like Katniss? Yeah...Ms. Collins removes them all from the book. That's right! No Peeta for most of it and even when he returns, he's not the same. No Cinna either. Thank God for Finnick (for as long as she lets him exist, that is), as he's the only one who gives Katniss the chance to be endearing to us...and he's gone crazy! What does THAT say?
2) All those characters she's mentioned in the other two books, THOSE characters plus a whole bunch of new people you can't keep straight half the time, get thrown into the mix. This includes, Gale, Prim, Mom, and a bunch of people from District 13. The only D13 person you'll like is Boggs...and of course Ms. Collins will kill him off.
3) You spend almost the whole book in what I call, "Katniss' head of doom." It's like hanging out with Bella Swan in "New Moon" and "Eclipse." Whining, crying, hiding, complaining, etc. Where did our independent girl go? Where is all that strength that she was based on?
4) Love story...yeah, so, you're thinking oooh Gale...that must get hot and/or emotional. NOPE. Well, unless you count arguments and snit fits and so on. I mean, honestly, as a reader I should be torn between the two men (if you're going to do the love triangle that is, and that's how she's set this up) and all I could think was, "Why is Gale even an option? Yeah, he's hot...but where's this 'connection' to Katniss?" You see it every now and again...but its fleeting AND all you can think is, "God, I miss Peeta!"
5) Speaking of my Peeta. What a waste of a great character. Jeebus. I could just... *sigh* Nevermind. I'll keep my anger in tow. I will however say that without him, the story is missing an element that isn't replicated by Gale and that's very likely on purpose so that we see how Peeta is better for Katniss, but...you don't need to hit us with a sledge hammer. We're a smart audience. There could've been a little less anger between he and Katniss and a little more love/confusion/need. They fight almost all the time. If he was such a great guy...we don't get to see her think he is. She just is an angerball at him most of the time.
And here are the worst parts of it all...
6) Once Katniss is involved with the rebels, except for the scene at the hospital in District 8, and her words to the President on TV, her "active involvement" is squashed by our writer by the concept that the rebels need to keep her safe. Then, when she finally DOES get to go to war...to attack the Capital and face Snow...what we've been waiting for now for 2.5 novels...Ms. Collins drops the ball. How? Well, Katniss is on her way to the President's mansion to kill him, we're pumped, and then she watches someone important die and she herself goes up in flames. The next thing we know, we're stuck in Katniss' head of doom in the hospital and we're "told" how they won the war, caught the President, took the city, and had his trial. We don't get to experience it, we just get told. What a COP OUT!
7) So you forgive and you say, "Well, she'll give us a real ending with her killing Snow (or Coin, the leader of the rebellion, who I secretly want her to kill) and we'll be moving again." But oh no...she kills one of them and then goes back into her headspace of doom and the next thing we know...Haymitch gathers her saying, "Your trial is over...let's go." What? Wait. What trial? What happened? Why did we not get to experience it AGAIN? Quit Telling Me Shit! Every writer knows (correction, every good writer knows, Show, Don't Tell. DAMN IT! COP OUT X 2!
8) So again, you forgive the writer and you say, "Well, she'll give us a real ending with Peeta then." Will we never learn? *sigh* Oh no. That would be showing vs. telling and we just can't have that! Instead, we get BACK into her head of doom and we get a decent scene with the cat (Buttercup) and then she TELLS us the rest of the story. TELLS us she finally talked to her mom, TELLS us she spends time with Peeta and they "grow close again." TELLS TELLS TELLS. That's right...COP OUT COP OUT COP OUT!!!! Hell, I'm so sick of this book at this point I barely can get myself to read the Epilogue.
9) And yes...it's the marriage and babies epilogue. But hey, she and Peeta have two cute kids and are surviving (notice I don't say "happy") in District 12, which is rebuilding itself...blah blah blah...I so could care less by this point.
10) But...what about her best friend? You know, the one who has been there for her for all those years? Oh yeah...our author decides he's got to go. After ALL that? Yeah...we'll just send him off to another district and give that situation no real closure EXCEPT that Katniss can't forgive him for something that's not his fault. (Yes, I'm skirting a "Big Bad" in the book that I won't spoil.)
So those are my ten long comments on this book. I have more I could give, but ten is WAY more than it even deserves. I think you got a full ten cause I'm so mad at wasting my damn time on this series.
I give it 2 out of 5 stars, and that's me being nice.
The only UP side to this is that the movies, if we're lucky, will SHOW SHOW SHOW all that Ms. Collins only TELLS TELLS TELLS...and then, and only then, will we as the invested audience, get emotional closure to the three big points of the whole series. Or at least, that's my hope.
Normally I say "Happy Reading" but I warn you now...this book will NOT leave you happy. You'll be angry to have your experience stepped on and rubbed in the mud.
Maybe I like a Disney endings...and that's part of my problem. Maybe I wanted them to not ALL be as tortured and mental head cases as they were. But come the fuck on! I'm all about some angst...I'm all about some strife...but if you're going to ruin the lives of your characters you spend so much time having us care about, taking us step by step through their mental deconstruction, for the love of all that's holy, let us go step by step as its reconstructed too. That's all I'm sayin'.
Tamsin
P.S. The link for the blog title this time is NOT the Character List from Wikipedia...it's something funny I found with concern to the book. Enjoy!
In Mockingjay...
Well, I liked the book at all, except for all that stuff you said that she only TELLS and not SHOWS. But still, I liked it.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I HATED THE MOST was Finnick's death. He is my favorite character and his death was reduced to two short paragraphs. There weren't screams or cries nor decent flashbacks. He just.. died. And Annie seemed extremely normal after his death. She should have gone crazy and died too (it would be really cute), but... The fact is that Suzanne didn't care about the other characters that aren't Katniss or Peeta... she just put them there, letting us imagine and decide what happened to them.
I could just hug you right now and never let you go. I tried so hard to explain all the reasons I couldn't like this book and here it is.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that she's just a terrible writer, or it could be worst. If she could really tell us what she was thinking, it would be exactly like Twilight. All the 'head of doom' scared the shit out of me that the book'd be all about that. And after all, it was. Imagine if she could give details about what was in Katniss' head? I'd stop reading at chapter 5.
Finnick's death was so unbelievable I thought she was going to say he survived after all. And when she says Annie had kids, it was like a brainstorm of angriness in my head. That makes no sense at all.
And again, I have to agree that she only tells us about every-fucking-thing. She writes it like we've already watched the scene, like we could see it clearly and we know what and where she is talking about. Duh. Of course we can imagine all the stuff going on when she only gives details about the food of the day.
Won't talk about Peeta. She could tell us so much more about the others and leave Peeta just being the young-love guy we'd cheer for. Just like in the games. Keep him on the second book! Cuz when this stupid writer gives us something we can hold our hopes on, it's like a half stuff with Peeta (cuz all the tragedies happened to him and none was really showed!)and the meaningless shit Katniss keep doing on districts.
I was so angry and bored and tired that I said: If Katniss goes to a hospital one more time cuz they're trying to keep her safe, I'll stop reading for now. And, indeed, it took me almost one day to read the last seventy pages. I took me less than one day to read Catching Fire.
The idea was okay. She could split it in two books and work on details and deep stuff on them, and that'd be awesome. But she got everything in only one small book, such a hurry to get all happening and throwing people dead at us with no reasons. Like Finnick, Boggs, Prim and Coin (cuz I really small-2-pages talk with Snow in the end of the saga does not explain what she did). Oh, and Gale, cuz I think she just put him working on that district so Team Gale fans wouldn't be that mad at her and still watch the movies. Or wouldn't kill themselves.
Anyway, sorry for the late (and huge) comment, just found you now and had to relieve my anger. And sorry for my poor english too, I'm from Brazil, don't really know a lot of words.
PS: About the link in the title...oh, I just love you.