Catching Fire was a pleasant surprise — Katniss Everdeen was in form as a badass, we get to see a deeper glimpse of the world that is Panem, there were wonderful new characters whose ambiguous motivation will keep you guessing, and that games arena — wow. The ending left us in a cliffhanger which begs a sequel to resolve. If you’re expecting a massive bang at the end of the series, you’d get it. It’s there. If you’re asking for a deeper character development for the main characters of the series, you might get that, you might be let down. If you want to know what happens in District 13, there’s no shortage of that.
Hunger Games, but not quite as you’d expect
In fact, the majority of the book happens in the subterranean claustrophobia of District 13. Then there is the mission to get Snow, where things really ramp up. In Mockingjay, Katniss is not in her best form. You can say that she’s all over the place — with District 12 gone, she’s still a thorn in the side of Coin, the president of District 13, who wanted to use her as a messiah figure while driving her own agenda. After striking a bargain for Peeta and the participants of the 75th Hunger Games, still under the sadistic supervision of President Snow, she consented.
All this while, all the districts are rebelling against the Capitol with various success. Katniss presents the glue that holds them, the symbol of the rebellion and a vague sense of hope. But she is vulnerable, and she still needs to balance between obsessing over Peeta or hunking over Gale, who’s just right there, and still hot, but Peeta MAN PEETA. Yeah, I’ll be honest, I never liked them both. Come to think of it, I’m pretty meh about Katniss as well.
The resolution, but not quite as you’d expect
Mockingjay provides the resolution required to the buildup of the series, that much we get. What we don’t get is the feeling of satisfaction for it. Katniss is a whining bitch in this novel, reminiscent to other teenage-girl hero of the genre. She’s not as useless as what’s her name in the City of Boners, and kicks plenty of ass. But put lipstick on a pig, she’s still a whiny bitch. Gale and Peeta didn’t help either. Sure we’re dealing with broken characters here who had lost their home and the people they love, but the interactions between them just feel a bit much at times. It’s as though Collins is trying to remind you the whole time: “Look at how broken they are! Friggin Look!” Ima just shake me head the whole time.
There are epic battle scenes throughout the book which might rip your heart out. Tragedies abound, so get ready for it. There is more emphasis in the action in Mockingjay then there is for the plot. In some ways, I feel that a fair few portion of the book feels rushed, which makes the events shortly after a bit HUH. Like how the fuck did Peeta go from a psychotic murderous brainwashed bastard to player of the series? One day we’re fighting in district 8, which is losing so much ground and the next day there’s only district 2 left and you’re off to the Capitol. I don’t think the book is properly paced. Dare I say it could be longer? Nah, not really, I’m just glad that I was done after reading it.
In terms of the series, I liked the first, enjoyed the second and facepalmed the third. Credit where credit’s due — Collins wrote the best YA series that I’ve read so far. But I’m not a YA reader, and this is probably the first and last of this kind of series that I finished, so I guess my opinion doesn’t count for much.
