May the odds be ever in your favor
I know I'm a little late on the uptake, but I decided to read the Hunger Games trilogy over break. (God knows I got nothing else done.) Now that I'm finished, I'm going to rant a little bit. (And I'll put it under a cut just in case there's someone who hasn't read it yet and I spoil it.)
Disclaimer: It should be said that in spite of everything I might say here, I really did enjoy the books.
I picked up the first book when I was hanging out with my mom in Barnes and Noble and I read through it in a day. I LOVED it, was thoroughly shocked by it and couldn't shut up about it. I fell totally in love with Peeta and Haymitch. I felt like I was in the arena with Katniss. The part with Rue's death broke my heart.
I went back to Barnes and Noble and bought Catching Fire. I was kind of meh about it at first to be honest, and then they announced the Quarter Quell and I fell back in love with it again. I felt like the writing of the Quarter Quell was fantastic. The arena was so interesting and meeting all the new characters was wonerful. Finnick. <3
As soon as I finished the second book, I went and bought Mockingjay and then.... Just.... Where do I start with this book? Well, here are my major complaints:
1. Katniss was SO WHINY. I get that she was traumatized but she went the entire book being whiny and changing her mind every split second.
2. There was such amazing build to Katniss storming Snow's mansion and then the stupid parachutes fell and burned her half to death. That felt like a major cop out so that the author didn't actually have to write an intense battle scene. It especially annoyed me that all those awesome characters were killed off (Finnick, why Finnick???!!!) and then Katniss didn't even play a part in the final triumph.
3. Why the fuck did Prim die? I really, honestly saw no point in killing off Prim, especially since the entire war hadn't taken place as it had if it weren't for her being alive. (At least in my head, because Katniss went into the games because she didn't want her sister to go and then Katniss became the face of the rebellion after the whole shindig with the berries.)
4. Then after Prim died, Katniss went back to being crazy. She did EXACTLY what her mother had done after their father died. How hypocritical.
5. Why did they even talk about having a Hunger Games with people of the Capitol? It was never mentioned in the book after that. That whole conversation was so dumb. And then Katniss voted yes! WTF, Katniss? I was so pissed off when she did that that I literally threw my book own in disgust. "Yes, for Prim." WTF? WTF??!
6. Then Katniss killed Coin. Why? I still don't know. I honest to goodness don't understand. Maybe I missed something. Don't get me wrong, I like Coin as well as the next person (which is, not at all), but I don't get the point in Katniss killing her.
7. And then Katniss is imprisoned and goes crazy AGAIN. I seriously can't deal with her mental instability. Grow a pair of balls, in the name of all that is good in the world.
8. Backtracking a little bit, I'm still confuse as to why it was necessary to make Peeta hate Katniss. It's not like anything really came out of it. He didn't kill her. She didn't have to kill him. I guess maybe it could be symbolic of how everyone and everything was change forever after the war, but personally, I don't think Peeta would have been the same anyway, with or without the hijacking.
9. And then, of course, Peeta and Katniss end up together. Of course, I always wanted them to be together, since the very beginning. (Didn't everyone?) But there's no build up to their relationship after the war. He's just there. She doesn't have to choose between him and Gale because Gale just ceases to be around.
All in all, I just really feel disappointed. Like I was gypped out of something that could have been absolutely astounding, something that I would have remembered for the rest of my life. I'm really sad, to be honest. I wanted it to be some much better than it was. But maybe my standards are just too high.
That being said, if anyone knows of any good Hunger Games fanfiction, I'd love to get my hands on it.