Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Series: Hunger Games #3
Publisher: Scholastic Press 2010
Genre: Science Fiction
Sub-genre: YA Dystopian Fiction
Rating: 3 1/5 pints of blood
There's one reason in particular why I love this cover: the colour. It's such a pleasing shade of blue, and I love blue. When I put all three covers beside each other, the patterns is clear - the bird as target practice, the militaristic style, the arrow - here of course, the bird has broken free and is no longer to be seen through the sights of a weapon. It sounds corny but it looks good.
Just to position myself from the outset on the Hunger Games fan scale, such as it is, I will tell you that I like the trilogy, but I'm not as gung-ho for it as some readers. The first book was great, though I had some issues then; the second book I'd say my enjoyment and my issues were on par; but with book 3 I think my issues have outweighed my enjoyment somewhat. I've enjoyed reading the trilogy, but it will never make any Top Ten lists of mine. So this isn't going to be a gushing review, but neither is it a wholly negative one. (I have to add, that it's been about two weeks or more since I read it so I've probably forgotten some salient points I wanted to include. My bad for not being on top of my reviews.)
The story, for those who haven't read the books, is set in the future on the North American continent, a century or more after a series of disasters re-shaped the surviving population into the isolated and rigidly-controlled world of Panem. Panem is made up of 12 districts, each responsible for providing something - such as fruit and vegetables, or coal, or seafood. The people of the districts are downtrodden to varying degrees, with district 12 - the coal-mining district - being one of the poorest. Most of the goods produced go to the affluent Capitol, the capital city where President Snow lives, where the people's main concern is decorating their bodies in ever more outlandish ways, people who have never known hardship or want and who enjoy being entertained.
Nearly a century ago there was a thirteenth district, where Panem's nuclear power and technology came from - until the district's population revolted, and the district was destroyed. To ensure that the people of the other districts never try to rebel against the Capitol, the Hunger Games were introduced: every year, two children - a boy and a girl aged anywhere between 12 and 18 - from each district are selected by lottery, thrown into a trap-riddled arena and made to kill each other until there is only one survivor. Watched by the entire country and beloved by the Capitol, the Hunger Games is inescapable.
The heroine of the trilogy is Katniss, from district 12, who volunteers to enter the Hunger Games when her younger and gentle-hearted sister Prim is picked. Alongside Peeta, the baker's son, and mentored by the district's one previous winner Haymitch - who uses alcoholism to escape his nightmares - Katniss tries everything she can to avoid playing President Snow's game, to avoid having to kill. But the biggest lesson she has to learn is that the Hunger Games don't end in the arena: they keep going, and as Katniss becomes a symbol of hope and resistance to the beleaguered population of the Districts, she is drawn deeper and deeper into a blood-thirsty game played by both sides.
There, that was my spoiler-free summary of the premise, that gives nothing away and tells you very little about book 3. Suffice it to say, that the layers to the game continue in each book, the stakes get exponentially higher, and the nightmares more hellish. These are gory books, nothing as bad as Koushun Takami's Battle Royale - an older book with a similar premise that I absolutely loved and highly recommend - but still quite murderous and bloody. One of the reasons why the books are a bit disappointing for me relates to this: I didn't get sucked in enough to really feel it or to even care as much as I would like to, or feel I should.
Part of this is Katniss' fault. Maybe all. Katniss narrates the story, and in present tense. I complained in my reviews of the previous books that this tense doesn't work as it should, perhaps because Collins doesn't have as firm a grip on the tense as she needs to really make it work. Present tense is designed to give a story a sense of immediacy, of tension, of unpredictability - which would make it the perfect tense for this story. However, I never get a sense of immediacy or tension or unpredictability. It feels more like a story being related a long time later, a "Let me tell you the story of the time I was in the Hunger Games..." story. The lack of tension directly effected the atmosphere, rendering it mute at times, muffled, dull even.
The other side of the Katniss problem is that she isn't the most likeable of heroines. She's believable, yes, but the wall she puts up between herself and everyone she knows is one that she also puts up between herself and us, the readers. She's a tough cookie for sure, but not necessarily a good role model, a good friend, or even a good ally. I love a flawed character, but you can't separate the success of a flawed character from the writing. What I mean is, if a flawed character, an unlikeable character, alienates you and makes you want to slap them, that doesn't mean the character was successfully drawn. Katniss might work with some readers; with others, not. I find her hard to tolerate at times. I feel mean saying so, because she certainly has plenty of reasons for being a mess. She's a fully-formed character, consistently written and portrayed, but she really does wallow at times. Katniss seemed tired - understandably so - and in shock - also understandable. But she didn't grow and develop and mature as I had hoped she would - she seems stuck in a perpetual state of conflicted-sixteen-year-old. She can get pretty self-indulgent, selfish, even petulant. Makes it hard to cheer her on. Makes you wonder what Gale and Peeta see in her.
Speaking of which, I have a hard time buying the romance triangle - we become so submerged in Katniss' narrow view of the world, her companions and herself that we're given no reasons to understand what's loveable about her. Honestly I don't get it. I actually liked Peeta a lot more in this book - he changes, is all I will say, and becomes infinitely more interesting a character - but I got rather tired of the idea that either of these two young men could love Katniss. I'm not saying it's not possible to love Katniss, just that I didn't feel it, was never convinced - not after the first book anyway.
It was good to finish the trilogy, but it does feel like, after coming up with a great premise, Collins didn't have any other equally great ideas for keeping the momentum going or making it exciting. And when you don't have main characters who draw you along, it becomes hard to give them your time.
The themes are interesting, but I still find that other authors of YA dystopian fiction have tackled them better. I know, I said this wasn't going to be a negative review but it's certainly slipping in that direction isn't it. I do enjoy the Games themselves, that adrenalin-pumping fight to the life/death. There have been moments in the books that have made me shed tears, moments when I feel like Katniss lets herself feel vulnerable, briefly, and therefore visible. And when beloved characters die horrible deaths - I warn you, there's plenty of that too. I was grateful the alternative to Snow and the Capitol wasn't some naive utopia with everyone smiling and holding hands - it becomes an almost unbearable nightmare in the sense that even if the rebels win against Snow, things might not actually be better. And I was so pleased at the end, at what Katniss did when she had the opportunity to kill an ailing President Snow.
As a story on the lengths humans will go to keep others oppressed, to maintain the master-slave balance that has never left us - just been reformed, renamed, the people pacified and made to believe it's their fault they earn minimum wage and have only a basic education - it's a chilling story. As an action-packed adventure that feels like a Hollywood big-budget movie, yes it can be very exciting. As a story of a teenaged girl forced to become a murderer of children and nameless, faceless enemies en masse, it's a bit pedestrian. But worth reading all the same.
Publisher: Scholastic Press 2010
Genre: Science Fiction
Sub-genre: YA Dystopian Fiction
Rating: 3 1/5 pints of blood
There's one reason in particular why I love this cover: the colour. It's such a pleasing shade of blue, and I love blue. When I put all three covers beside each other, the patterns is clear - the bird as target practice, the militaristic style, the arrow - here of course, the bird has broken free and is no longer to be seen through the sights of a weapon. It sounds corny but it looks good.
Just to position myself from the outset on the Hunger Games fan scale, such as it is, I will tell you that I like the trilogy, but I'm not as gung-ho for it as some readers. The first book was great, though I had some issues then; the second book I'd say my enjoyment and my issues were on par; but with book 3 I think my issues have outweighed my enjoyment somewhat. I've enjoyed reading the trilogy, but it will never make any Top Ten lists of mine. So this isn't going to be a gushing review, but neither is it a wholly negative one. (I have to add, that it's been about two weeks or more since I read it so I've probably forgotten some salient points I wanted to include. My bad for not being on top of my reviews.)
The story, for those who haven't read the books, is set in the future on the North American continent, a century or more after a series of disasters re-shaped the surviving population into the isolated and rigidly-controlled world of Panem. Panem is made up of 12 districts, each responsible for providing something - such as fruit and vegetables, or coal, or seafood. The people of the districts are downtrodden to varying degrees, with district 12 - the coal-mining district - being one of the poorest. Most of the goods produced go to the affluent Capitol, the capital city where President Snow lives, where the people's main concern is decorating their bodies in ever more outlandish ways, people who have never known hardship or want and who enjoy being entertained.
Nearly a century ago there was a thirteenth district, where Panem's nuclear power and technology came from - until the district's population revolted, and the district was destroyed. To ensure that the people of the other districts never try to rebel against the Capitol, the Hunger Games were introduced: every year, two children - a boy and a girl aged anywhere between 12 and 18 - from each district are selected by lottery, thrown into a trap-riddled arena and made to kill each other until there is only one survivor. Watched by the entire country and beloved by the Capitol, the Hunger Games is inescapable.
The heroine of the trilogy is Katniss, from district 12, who volunteers to enter the Hunger Games when her younger and gentle-hearted sister Prim is picked. Alongside Peeta, the baker's son, and mentored by the district's one previous winner Haymitch - who uses alcoholism to escape his nightmares - Katniss tries everything she can to avoid playing President Snow's game, to avoid having to kill. But the biggest lesson she has to learn is that the Hunger Games don't end in the arena: they keep going, and as Katniss becomes a symbol of hope and resistance to the beleaguered population of the Districts, she is drawn deeper and deeper into a blood-thirsty game played by both sides.
There, that was my spoiler-free summary of the premise, that gives nothing away and tells you very little about book 3. Suffice it to say, that the layers to the game continue in each book, the stakes get exponentially higher, and the nightmares more hellish. These are gory books, nothing as bad as Koushun Takami's Battle Royale - an older book with a similar premise that I absolutely loved and highly recommend - but still quite murderous and bloody. One of the reasons why the books are a bit disappointing for me relates to this: I didn't get sucked in enough to really feel it or to even care as much as I would like to, or feel I should.
Part of this is Katniss' fault. Maybe all. Katniss narrates the story, and in present tense. I complained in my reviews of the previous books that this tense doesn't work as it should, perhaps because Collins doesn't have as firm a grip on the tense as she needs to really make it work. Present tense is designed to give a story a sense of immediacy, of tension, of unpredictability - which would make it the perfect tense for this story. However, I never get a sense of immediacy or tension or unpredictability. It feels more like a story being related a long time later, a "Let me tell you the story of the time I was in the Hunger Games..." story. The lack of tension directly effected the atmosphere, rendering it mute at times, muffled, dull even.
The other side of the Katniss problem is that she isn't the most likeable of heroines. She's believable, yes, but the wall she puts up between herself and everyone she knows is one that she also puts up between herself and us, the readers. She's a tough cookie for sure, but not necessarily a good role model, a good friend, or even a good ally. I love a flawed character, but you can't separate the success of a flawed character from the writing. What I mean is, if a flawed character, an unlikeable character, alienates you and makes you want to slap them, that doesn't mean the character was successfully drawn. Katniss might work with some readers; with others, not. I find her hard to tolerate at times. I feel mean saying so, because she certainly has plenty of reasons for being a mess. She's a fully-formed character, consistently written and portrayed, but she really does wallow at times. Katniss seemed tired - understandably so - and in shock - also understandable. But she didn't grow and develop and mature as I had hoped she would - she seems stuck in a perpetual state of conflicted-sixteen-year-old. She can get pretty self-indulgent, selfish, even petulant. Makes it hard to cheer her on. Makes you wonder what Gale and Peeta see in her.
Speaking of which, I have a hard time buying the romance triangle - we become so submerged in Katniss' narrow view of the world, her companions and herself that we're given no reasons to understand what's loveable about her. Honestly I don't get it. I actually liked Peeta a lot more in this book - he changes, is all I will say, and becomes infinitely more interesting a character - but I got rather tired of the idea that either of these two young men could love Katniss. I'm not saying it's not possible to love Katniss, just that I didn't feel it, was never convinced - not after the first book anyway.
It was good to finish the trilogy, but it does feel like, after coming up with a great premise, Collins didn't have any other equally great ideas for keeping the momentum going or making it exciting. And when you don't have main characters who draw you along, it becomes hard to give them your time.
The themes are interesting, but I still find that other authors of YA dystopian fiction have tackled them better. I know, I said this wasn't going to be a negative review but it's certainly slipping in that direction isn't it. I do enjoy the Games themselves, that adrenalin-pumping fight to the life/death. There have been moments in the books that have made me shed tears, moments when I feel like Katniss lets herself feel vulnerable, briefly, and therefore visible. And when beloved characters die horrible deaths - I warn you, there's plenty of that too. I was grateful the alternative to Snow and the Capitol wasn't some naive utopia with everyone smiling and holding hands - it becomes an almost unbearable nightmare in the sense that even if the rebels win against Snow, things might not actually be better. And I was so pleased at the end, at what Katniss did when she had the opportunity to kill an ailing President Snow.
As a story on the lengths humans will go to keep others oppressed, to maintain the master-slave balance that has never left us - just been reformed, renamed, the people pacified and made to believe it's their fault they earn minimum wage and have only a basic education - it's a chilling story. As an action-packed adventure that feels like a Hollywood big-budget movie, yes it can be very exciting. As a story of a teenaged girl forced to become a murderer of children and nameless, faceless enemies en masse, it's a bit pedestrian. But worth reading all the same.