Wednesday 20 October 2010

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Pages - 454

Published in 2010 by Scholastic.

My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. I was in the Hunger Games. I escaped. The Capitol hates me. Peeta was taken prisoner. He is thought to be dead. Most likely he is dead. It is probably best if he is dead......

This is the final book in the Hunger Games Trilogy.  The revolt against the Capitol has begun and Katniss has become the rebels symbol of freedom. She is the Mockingjay and she intends to watch the Capitol fall and kill President Snow in the process. Peeta has been captured and is believed to have been tortured by the Capitol,and a rescue attempt successfully takes place, only to find Katniss now facing an enemy instead of a loved one as Peeta has turned nasty. Hell bent on destroying Snow, Katniss becomes part of  a mission to enter the Capitol and kill him. Unfortunately life never turns out the way you planned.

I loved the first two books in this series and I had waited eagerly and with rather little patience for the final part of the jigsaw. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed. I know many of you have loved the final part of the trilogy, but it left me cold.  It took me forever to get into the story and I found that I no longer cared what happened in the Peeta/Katniss/Gale triangle as none of the characters had been left with any appealing characteristics. They all came across as flat and boring, no longer with any depth to their character.  Peeta had become a hateful beast after being brainwashed by the Capitol. I had found him so loving and caring in the other two books, that I could not recognise this abominable creature that had replaced him. Katniss became annoying and whingy like a spoilt child and Gale was just full of lust.  To be honest, I didn't recognise either Gale or Peeta in this book and I believe they may have both received a lobotomy  since the end of Catching Fire. Throughout this whole series you expect to see Katniss evolving as a person, but she never changes at all, even with the epilogue fifteen years later, she is still the same old Katniss.

The ending became like a killing spree and I found myself completely appalled by it. I don't like seeing the odd character killed off as it is, but to create a whole team of them and spend the last few pages trying to create different ways to kill them, that was awful. Luckily I felt nothing for them, as their were so many they were hardly recognisable.

I wish I could say nice things about this book, because Suzanne Collins is a very talented author in my eyes. The first two books were the most original I have ever read and left me breathless. This one left me speechless!

The love triangle that had kept us on the edge of our seats through the last two books was dealt with like a last minute detail, an afterthought  or a forgotten storyline shoved in at the end.

This book is darker than the last two and shows the true nature of war, it was far too realistic for my liking, even the cover was a turn off, reminding me of eerily of the swastika.  This book is more focused on the war than anything else and I find that rather disappointing. We all loved the characters from the first two books an we wanted to see them grow and develop, all we get to see is blood and guts, war and disaster.
I am totally put off by this book and find that I cannot recommend it.

I know a lot of you loved it and I would like to add your reviews to mine. Unfortunately Google Reader (grrrr!) is still giving me hell and I can't access past reviews, so please put a link in the comments and I will add them to mine. I am perfectly happy to be criticised for my views on this book and I will duck down low as you throw books at me. Please don't hate me!

14 comments:

  1. It seems that quite a lot of bloggers were disappointed by this final book in the series, sorry to read that you were one of them.

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  2. I've seen reviews all over the place for this book. My husband is reading it now and he thinks it's slow, but I really enjoyed it.

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  3. Funny - I loved it for all the reasons you didn't: it stopped focusing on the love triangle (which I hated), it focused on war and it's devastating effects on youth without sugar coating, it was far more realistic and didn't treat war or killing with any sort of glory. Instead of going out the easy way, she took the tough route and made the characters real people with real problems and not always great attributes. In my mind, that was perfect. Mockingjay more than made up for the travesty that was Catching Fire (which I hated, because the characters were flat and wishy-washy, and there was way too much focus on a love triangle that in actually shouldn't have existed).

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  4. I haven't read this series. My husband enjoyed it, though. He did say this was the weakest book in the trilogy and that the first half was very slow.

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  5. Maybe if you had the US copy with the beautiful cover you would have liked book 3 more? :OP I am still very sad you didn't like Mockingjay but I think I can at least understand why.

    I hear what you are saying about the lack of growth in the characters and the appalling behavior in the war, but then if you think realistically, maybe this was part of her point? That war can become so hateful that it almost stunts a person, not allowing them to grow or develop in a normal way.

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  6. That's all right, Viv. I won't throw anything at you. I think everyone's entitled to their opinion. I loved this book, though. My favorite is still the first book in the trilogy. Totally blew me away.

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  7. No book throwing from me. I agree with a lot of the points that you made and was disappointed by the book too.

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  8. I appreciate your honest review, Vivienne. As I have mentioned I haven't read this series, although we do have all three books at home.

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  9. Petty Witter - I think this book has definitely divided The Hunger Games fans. As you can see, some loved it and some hated it.

    Anna - I really didn't get into until the last hundred pages. It was really slow to get going and the timing of events kept speeding up and then slowing down.

    Amanda - I can see why it appeals to you and these things would have appealed to me if they had been part of the story since the first book. You can't change the way the series is written half way through and go from concentrating on one thing to move onto a completely different style of writing. For me, the romantic triangle was a big part of the story, as well as the relationship between Katniss and her family. By this last book, I didn't feel they featured at all. I understand she took the tougher pathway, but it did not fit in with the rest of the series.

    Kathy - Your husband was right, for me this was the weakest one.

    Jen - I can understand that war would have changed the way you grow as a person, but the war changed the style of these books and made them into something they were not to start with. Take the Chaos Walking trilogy, their was war and conflict from the beginning, so you knew what to expect from the last book and it didn't disappoint

    Alyce - thank you. I was feeling a little overwhelmed there. I hate to criticise any book,especially when so much work is put into it. It just didn't appeal to me.

    Suko - thankyou.

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  10. :(
    So sad it was not as good as the others, but hopefully I can make my own mind up soon

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  11. Peeta is mean now?! Oh no, I can already tell I'm not going to like this part. I like Gale but I thought Peeta was wonderful. Ugh. I hate it when bad character development happens to good characters!

    Well, I'll probably still read the book because I'm curious but I'm going in with low expectations.

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  12. I enjoyed the book but thought the ending tied up a little too neatly and I guess I was really surprised how Katniss wound up. I reviewed this and had a spoiler discussion for those of us who wanted to chat a little more about the story.

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  13. I've been wanting to read these since I keep hearing such wonderful things about the first two. Sorry to hear this third one was a letdown. Thats a shame. Thanks for the honest review!
    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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