Collins, Suzanne: Mockingjay
Mockingjay (2010)
Written by: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA/Science Fiction
Pages: 390 (Hardcover)
Series: Book Three of Three
You know, I want to say I pre-ordered this before ever even reading The Hunger Games because Amazon had it so cheap. How sad is that?
Having this book arrive the day I came home from the hospital is what gave me the kick in the pants to go ahead and finish this trilogy. While at the hospital, I was checking email on my phone and noticed that three of my book blogger buddies already had reviews up, and I wanted to go ahead and get caught up with the book so I could discuss the story with them. There's no pressure like peer pressure, let me tell you!
The premise: ganked from BN.com: Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
Review style: once again, this was read early in the painkiller stage, and to be honest, I kind of wish I hadn't read Catching Fire and Mockingjay back-to-back. I'll talk about why, talk about why Collins simply can't convince me that she's given me a real love triangle, as well as how romance works in general for this series. I'll talk about how this book differs from its predecessors and why that's a good thing, and touch on the epilogue that has so many readers up in arms. Also, there's either an intentional nod to Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse in this book or I'll eat my hat. Spoilers? Yes, so skip to "My Rating" if you want to remain pure for your own reading. Everyone else, onward! Oh, but one warning--in the course of talking about love triangles, I'm going to spoil the hell out of Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn.
First of all, I want to stress one thing that really, really impressed me:
Katniss's mental health.
I've seen the complaint in urban fantasy circles that, all too often, the heroine is going through REALLY HARROWING things without it ever seeming to affect her mental health. Carrie Vaughn once joked that all these kick-ass heroines needed to start a therapy group, and while it was a funny joke, she's right. I'm not knocking the kind of fiction that's popular today, but it's odd how we expect our characters to go through hell and still be hard as a rock on the other side instead of a gibbering mess. And in truth, being able to STAY hard as a rock isn't necessary a sign on a "strong" character so much as it's a sign, to me, of an unyielding one, a person who will never change, which suddenly makes the series I'm reading, let alone the character, a lot less interesting.
Because as they say, there's beauty in the breakdown.
And breakdown Katniss does.
Don't get me wrong, at times I wanted Katniss to pull herself up by her bootstraps and get with the program, but when you sit back and think of everything she's experienced and lost in the first two books thanks to the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell, are we really expecting a mentally stable, healthy young woman to emerge from all of this? I should hope not. And that suddenly puts Katniss in a realistic light. She's always been a normal girl who's had to deal with media spin to make her more than she is, and now we really get to see the bare bones of that normalcy, because she's fighting for sanity.
And as a whole, I like that.
I didn't like the whole reality television element to this novel, though in truth, I don't think you could've dropped it. This trilogy has always been about the glorification of gladiator violence coupled with the addiction of reality television, and you can cut the one, but to cut both would be to undermine the message. And that message is that in the world of Panem, people don't listen to each other, but rather what their televisions tell them. Which, obviously, is much like it is today.
So no, you can't take that message out of the book, but you can make it less ridiculous. I think I finally rolled by eyes when Katniss's squad was held in reserve in the Capitol rather than doing the real fighting in the streets. Really? Really? Ridiculous. That's taking the whole reality television/promo thing too far.
But I have to say as a whole, I really was surprised by how Collins ramped up this dystopia. She's by no means a subtle writer (as evidenced when Katniss breaks down the meaning of every single stanza for "The Hanging Man" song--sheesh), and Collins message comes through loud and clear in this book: questioning whether or not the adage, "All's fair in love and war" is really true (it isn't) and questioning what it means when you use your enemies own tactics against them when you have the higher moral ground. Are you still, then, better than your enemy? Or does your motivation even matter in the face of your actions?
Characters have different viewpoints on this, and these differing viewpoints are one of the many things that eats Katniss up and tears her apart. One of the other things that eats her up and tears her apart are the deaths of her friends & family (Finnick! Prim!), which are so sudden you're not even sure you're reading the passage correctly (at least, it feels that way if you're on pain pills) and leaves you stewing about the unfairness of it all because you were just getting to know and like them. But, that's life. Collins, if nothing else, paints a rather accurate picture of what war does to people. It kills those who don't deserve it. It shatters relationships between family members. It can unite or destroy a nation or do both at the same time.
Then there's Katniss's actions, notably the assassination of Coin, which surprised me so much I had to re-read that passage a few times. I really, really wish Collins had gotten into Katniss's head a little more, if not before the fatal shot, then at least after when the trial's over and she knows her fate. I'm glad it happened, but I wish Collins had developed it more. Because I really didn't care for Coin, despite liking that the fabled District 13 was no utopia.
But Buttercup survived. Long live Buttercup!
One of the most painful moments of the book came, though, when Peeta returned brainwashed. I don't say that as a Team Peeta! supporter in terms of the love triangle, but rather as a fan of Peeta the character. He's always been too good to be true, the beta heroine who'd do anything to protect the heroine and deserves more than he gets in terms of love, and to see what the Capitol changed him into was heart-breaking. Conversely, it was good to have Peeta see Katniss for who she is: a girl who isn't special, a girl who'll do what it takes for her own self-gain, a girl who can and will manipulate when necessary. But that's the extreme unfair perception of her, because over the series, Katniss has proven she's willing to put others above herself time and time again, starting with volunteering to take Prim's place in the Games to conspiring with Haymitch to make sure Peeta survives the Quarter Quell above anything. So she's not entirely selfish. She's just had to struggle mightily with the insane hand she's been dealt.
Now, let's talk about the controversial part of the book/trilogy: the love triangle.
Here's what we normally see with love triangles. For starters, it's usually one girl and two guys. Second, it's usually pretty obvious who the girl is going to end up with, despite some angst on her part OR despite the fact the other guy is clearly wrong with her but she doesn't realize it. In lesser hands, this stereotypical triangle just adds a lot of unnecessary melodrama to the story and is one reason why triangles are so frustrating. Girl picks the right guy, she lives happily ever after. She picks the wrong guy, she'll end up regretting it.
I was on a discussion board where we discussed this trend and came upon a fabulous insight: a love triangle really works where both choices for--let's say heroine, since that's what we're focused on--are not only RIGHT choices (which makes picking just one REALLY hard), but they're also choices that force the heroine to lose something. In short, by picking guy #1, she loses X. But if she picks guy #2, she'll lose Y. And no, what she's losing isn't the friendship/relationship of the guy she didn't pick.
In truth, Stephenie Meyer came REALLY close to having a viable love triangle. If Bella had chosen Jacob, she would've been able to live a (relatively) normal life and have a family with a man who wasn't trying not to eat her all the time (unless his werewolf went rabid, but hey). But doing so meant she'd lose Edward (duh) but she'd also lose her chance at immortality, which is a heady thing to give up. By choosing Edward, she should've lost the ability to have a family of her own (aka children) and she should've lost the mortal family she already had, due to the secrecy that must be kept among vampires.
Where Meyer went "wrong" is that when Bella chose Edward, she magically got pregnant anyway, was able to bring her dad into the supernatural circle without turning him, and basically got everything she ever wanted ever. She even keeps her friendship with Jacob in tact!
Short of all that happily-ever-after, Bella would've needed to show a wee bit more attachment/love for Jacob to keep the triangle viable. He obviously has feelings for her, but she's so adamantly against anything but friendship that you know Edward will be the obvious choice.
So let's talk about how the triangle works here in The Hunger Games and then talk about romance, period.
If Katniss picks Gale, what does she lose?
Peeta.
If Katniss picks Peeta, what does she lose?
Gale.
Anything else?
For me, and this is a personal preference after years of watching soap operas and reading plenty of books with romantic subplots, this kind of choice simply isn't enough for me. I'm not saying every love triangle should have the equivalent of Sophie's Choice in it either, but I want both men to be viable options for the heroine (they are) and I want the heroine to lose something more than simply one of the men's affections when she makes her choice.
I don't see that sacrifice here. Is it necessary? After all, Katniss loses a helluva lot in this book, so maybe the answer is no. But that brings me to the next question:
Why is the romance even necessary at this point?
In my review for The Hunger Games, I said this:
I like it in that it THOROUGHLY MOTIVATES THE PLOT OF THE GAMES. The love story admission is what invested the audience in Katniss and Peeta, is why the various "rule changes" happened for the sake of entertainment, and why Katniss could get away with the treat of suicide, because if the love story hadn't purposefully been played up, then we would NOT have gotten that ending to the Games. To people who wish Katniss and Peeta found a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAY to win the Games without resorting to romance (nay, not have Peeta in love with her at all), to you I say, tough cookies. That's not the story Collins is telling, and like any romance worth it's weight, if you take the romance plot out of the book, the story itself should collapse. And despite the great premise and exciting chapters, if you take out the romance, this story collapses. So it's essential to the plot, whether or not it's rendered well and/or you don't like it.
But the romance isn't motivating anything else beyond The Hunger Games, not really. And let's face it, Katniss isn't exactly the kind of girl who's looking for love. It's foisted on her, unwanted, by two men. First Peeta, and then Gale, and then Katniss has to struggle with what she really wants. But what she really wants, in her heart of hearts, is to keep all of her loved ones safe from the Capitol and away from her so that she can't hurt them any more than she already has. She sees herself as poison, so if she had ended up a drunk hermit by the end of the trilogy, like Haymitch, I wouldn't have been surprised.
Because with both Peeta and Gale, she has to learn to love them. There's no doubt she cares for both of these men, but actual love, with all the emotional and mental and physical baggage/requirements that come with it? That's another kettle of fish. I might love my best friends, but I sure as hell don't want to make out with them or start a family with them. That's the difference. Katniss's emotional journey in this trilogy comes from one of friendship to one of discovery of even being capable of love, which is what made Peeta's transformation in Mockingjay so terribly painful, because she'd finally fallen in love with him, to the point he was her weakness, and then all of that's blasted away by the Capitol's tinkering.
And don't get me wrong: of all the three books, Gale's got the best chance here than he ever did (well, best chance POST-Hunger Games, not PRE-Hunger Games).
But conflicting moral stances do not a happy marriage make. And it's not like we're talking about Gale being Republican and Katniss being a Democrat (those marriages appear to work fine if the spouses don't talk politics), but we're talking about the use of violence and weapons in a war that both people are fighting in, that both people are affected by. For the sake of this review, I'm not going to sit here and say who's right, who's wrong, or if they're both right or if they're both wrong. Because it doesn't matter. Not after Prim died. If Prim hadn't died, then maybe Gale and Katniss still had a chance, but not the way it stands. Yes, Gale's disappearance to District 2 after the war was over was a little abrupt, but I think between Prim and the fact that Katniss didn't kill him like she promised and he didn't kill her like he promised, these two were separated by a gulf that simply couldn't be crossed.
That said, in hindsight, I really wish Gale had been more of a contender from the start. Because Katniss, in The Hunger Games, had only just started to see him as something more, but then Peeta declared his love for her and that just confused the issue on so many levels. If she and Gale had already been together, it would've been better. And it would've been interesting too if Katniss volunteered for Prim like she did, but then Gale gets chosen and there's the prospect of BOTH of them going to the Games (him going to protect her) but then Peeta volunteers to take Gale's place because of his love for Katniss. That would've been a wonderfully angsty set-up. :)
But that's not what we have, so let's move on.
I'm happy with the ending, even the epilogue. Sometimes I feel epilogues are completely unnecessary and lack the power of the main ending (as in The Adoration of Jenna Fox), but this one worked, despite me liking the end of the final chapter. Why? Because it shows that both Peeta and Katniss never really recover from what they did in the Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell, even the war. It shows that despite finding happiness with each other, and eventually with their children, there's still that something that never goes away, that robs them of the kind of peace that people who've never experienced combat have. They're victims, and no matter how much time passes, they always will be.
And that is a good thing to show.
Of course, one can also argue that the epilogue is there to keep fan fiction writers from having stories where Katniss changes her mind and goes after Gale after Mockingjay, but fanfic writers are going to do that ANYWAY, so I doubt that was seriously a motivating factor, though it could've been.
Oh, I promised an Eclipse comparison, didn't I? There's a scene in Eclipse where Bella, Edward, and Jacob are camping out on a snow-covered mountain (don't ask), and Bella's half-asleep, half-awake, and she hears Edward and Jacob talking about her and who she'll pick. Jacob still thinks he's got a fighting chance, not knowing that Edward proposed to Bella before the trip and she accepted, but the two talk about their feelings for her and what they want for her, and we learn all kinds of things about the two characters. Edward and Jacob actually take the first step towards friendship here, despite their competition over Bella. She drowses back off to sleep and never thinks anything of it.
Kind of like the end of chapter 23 where Katniss wakes up and hears Gale and Peeta talking about her. It's a different type of conversation than in Eclipse, because both Gale and Peeta seem to know what many readers have been sensing all along: Katniss doesn't need a man to be happy, but she'll pick one of them because she can't stand to lose one of their affections.
The scene threw me, because the set up is so similar, and I know Stephenie Meyer is a fan, at least, of The Hunger Games, so I wonder if Collins was trying to do a shout-out? Whatever the case, it distracted the hell out of me, and it doesn't do much in the book but show that Peeta and Gale can be friends and to show Katniss get pissed off by their assessment of her.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: This book is utterly and entirely different from The Hunger Games and Catching Fire that it's not even funny. It's a helluva lot darker too on many levels and really ramps up the fact that this is science fiction dystopia. Bad things happen to good people, and there's a war that Collins doesn't flinch away from. There are heart-breaking moments in this book, and Katniss really takes a beating psychologically. It's a good read, but I have to say I wish I'd had some time to process Catching Fire before jumping right into this one. First because of the pain meds I was on while reading both, but second so that I could've solidified my thoughts on the second book before having them warped by the third. Still, it's a very satisfying conclusion, and while this trilogy isn't an OMG-I-LOVE-IT type thing, I'm still glad I got on board, even with the hardcovers!
Cover Commentary: Of all the covers, I like this one the least, especially at first glance. The design style kind of shatters the consistency set forth by the first two books, but I realize now that's the point. With each book, the bird has gotten bigger, transformed from a piece of jewelry (aka symbol) to a real thing, and has now shattered the circle which used to keep it in its place. The covers alone tell a wonderfully symbolic story, so while it's not my favorite cover of the three visually-speaking, I sure as hell appreciate what the designers did with each cover to make sure the symbolism told the same story as the book. Thank goodness there's not a fourth book though: I'd be terrified the poor mockingjay would be slumped over in a round puddle of blood, dead as a doornail.
Yes, I'm morbid.
Next up: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer