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A review by nataliestorozhenko
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
3.0
Now that I digested it a little bit, I feel pretty mad at this book. Sadly I watched the movies first, so I'm not surprised about the plot, but still, some things make me disappointed.
Yes, we do not expect much battle action from some teens with tragic experiences. But at the same time, they have SOME experience. I mean, downgrading Katniss to walk far from the battle or command center to bid her time with the camera crew... was a weird decision and quite dull too.
We see that she's quite distressed about not saving Peeta, but instead of being a pawn in Plutarch and Coin's game, she could be there with them plotting to outsmart Snow, as she always did in the arena with the berries, force field, etc. But what we got is "101 on filming propaganda props".
And the most painful point that leads me to conclude is that the Mockingjay movies are better plot-wise. The freaking love triangle. I was fine with the first two books displaying her confusing thoughts and trying to figure out things and choose between someone safe, familiar, almost like a family, and someone that is she forced to pretend to love for survival, but starting to feel real and consuming nonetheless. Somehow the movies portrayed that she's totally in love with Peeta by the end of the Catching Fire. Then the Mockingjay movies display how she's depressed and basically can't live or act without Peeta. She catches glimpses of him tortured and weak on TV and we are fed some stupid remarks from Gale about this... and this way we can see in which direction we're going.
But maaan, book Katniss was playing on my nerves, and I was ready to throw hands at the end. She's back and forth with her love for them to the very freaking end. There was no "Goodbye Gale" or anything. She wasn't that actually mad that he participated in creating bombs. She doesn't hug Peeta when he comes back and plants primroses - SHE JUST NODS TO HIM. And don't get me started on how she treated him when he was hijacked...
At this point, I'm just angry to be played like a fool and wish that author didn't waste our time with this love triangle and it was sorted out at the beginning of the book - so that Katniss got all girl-boss and realized she's well off on her own. "At the moment, the choice would be simple. I can survive just fine without either of them."
Nonetheless, even though it's half a page, we finally hear her realizing who she needs. But the fact that she was on and off the whole time kind of spoils that beautiful passage. You get a feeling that she chose Peeta only because he was there. That makes me mad and sad. And again the movie made it more believable.
"What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.
So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real."
The deaths of Finnick and Prim were absolutely unnecessary for the plot. It's a tragedy for the sake of tragedy. Finnick was killed off so fast, so lame, and barely acknowledged... We don't even have time to grieve about him. He's gone and we just move on. It was not to make him a tragic hero, it was not to display some grand sacrifice. Just gone. As to Prim's death - it defeats the whole purpose of the trilogy. Katniss first enters the Hunger Games and becomes a Mockingjay - all to save her sister. Suffering so much time, and not being sure about "her" men, at least she could have this happy end, but it was unnecessarily taken.
The book has a lot of other issues, but I don't really want to list all of them. Here are the moments that I like: basically any exchange with Finnick and Johanna, Finnick and Annie's relationship, Katniss thinking what would've Peeta thought about some conflicting strategies of 13, Peeta saying nice things and encouraging people on a mission while struggling himself, the whole real or not real game, Haymitch reading Katniss's mind and voting the same as her.
All things being said, I still love the whole trilogy and I will always be Team Peeta. But I'll pretend that the canon is somewhere in between this book and its movie adaptations.
Yes, we do not expect much battle action from some teens with tragic experiences. But at the same time, they have SOME experience. I mean, downgrading Katniss to walk far from the battle or command center to bid her time with the camera crew... was a weird decision and quite dull too.
We see that she's quite distressed about not saving Peeta, but instead of being a pawn in Plutarch and Coin's game, she could be there with them plotting to outsmart Snow, as she always did in the arena with the berries, force field, etc. But what we got is "101 on filming propaganda props".
And the most painful point that leads me to conclude is that the Mockingjay movies are better plot-wise. The freaking love triangle. I was fine with the first two books displaying her confusing thoughts and trying to figure out things and choose between someone safe, familiar, almost like a family, and someone that is she forced to pretend to love for survival, but starting to feel real and consuming nonetheless. Somehow the movies portrayed that she's totally in love with Peeta by the end of the Catching Fire. Then the Mockingjay movies display how she's depressed and basically can't live or act without Peeta. She catches glimpses of him tortured and weak on TV and we are fed some stupid remarks from Gale about this... and this way we can see in which direction we're going.
But maaan, book Katniss was playing on my nerves, and I was ready to throw hands at the end. She's back and forth with her love for them to the very freaking end. There was no "Goodbye Gale" or anything. She wasn't that actually mad that he participated in creating bombs. She doesn't hug Peeta when he comes back and plants primroses - SHE JUST NODS TO HIM. And don't get me started on how she treated him when he was hijacked...
At this point, I'm just angry to be played like a fool and wish that author didn't waste our time with this love triangle and it was sorted out at the beginning of the book - so that Katniss got all girl-boss and realized she's well off on her own. "At the moment, the choice would be simple. I can survive just fine without either of them."
Nonetheless, even though it's half a page, we finally hear her realizing who she needs. But the fact that she was on and off the whole time kind of spoils that beautiful passage. You get a feeling that she chose Peeta only because he was there. That makes me mad and sad. And again the movie made it more believable.
"What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.
So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real."
The deaths of Finnick and Prim were absolutely unnecessary for the plot. It's a tragedy for the sake of tragedy. Finnick was killed off so fast, so lame, and barely acknowledged... We don't even have time to grieve about him. He's gone and we just move on. It was not to make him a tragic hero, it was not to display some grand sacrifice. Just gone. As to Prim's death - it defeats the whole purpose of the trilogy. Katniss first enters the Hunger Games and becomes a Mockingjay - all to save her sister. Suffering so much time, and not being sure about "her" men, at least she could have this happy end, but it was unnecessarily taken.
The book has a lot of other issues, but I don't really want to list all of them. Here are the moments that I like: basically any exchange with Finnick and Johanna, Finnick and Annie's relationship, Katniss thinking what would've Peeta thought about some conflicting strategies of 13, Peeta saying nice things and encouraging people on a mission while struggling himself, the whole real or not real game, Haymitch reading Katniss's mind and voting the same as her.
All things being said, I still love the whole trilogy and I will always be Team Peeta. But I'll pretend that the canon is somewhere in between this book and its movie adaptations.