My friend decided to read the books on a trip he took, and lent them to me afterwards. Burned through all three in a day and a half.
Maybe I'll change my opinion later, but I was not impressed with the way the story concluded. THG itself was extremely well done, the conspiracy plot in CF was drawn out a bit but I generally liked it, and I thought Mockingjay was passable up until the end, but from the moment where the parachutes drop on the children and Primrose gets blown away in the trap, the whole thing just puts a sour taste in my mouth. Not just the fact that that happens, but all the subsequent bits. Katniss is understandably unhinged for months, and after her chat with Snow, I doubt anyone was surprised that she kills Coin, but that seems like the only minorly bright spot in the last 30 pages unless you count the return of Buttercup.
I suppose for such a tragic character, and one that took such a pivotal role in the rebellion, there wasn't really any other place for Katniss in that world afterwards anyway, so her quiet life in the ruins of 12 and the subsequent rebuilding around her is at least a sort of happily ever after. But she's tormented her entire life by nightmares, her eventual husband is occasionally unstable from his reprogramming as well, and I'm not sure it's really much of a future even if it's not entirely far off from what likely would have been her and Gale's future if Prim's name had never been pulled at the reaping.
Still, my biggest peeve I suppose is with the fact that with all the hardships, all the torment, all the horrors that Katniss endures, the ONE thing that she cared about, the ONE thing she tried to do, is robbed from her at the end. Killing Prim seemed so needless and wasteful, and while there's something to be said for literary devices, I suppose, I thought I was reading for entertainment, not for literary enrichment. I like to say that I hate how every movie, every book, etc. always turns out happily ever after, and I get after a fashion I get what I want here, but I would have much rather seen our heroine die in the end and be rewarded for it than for it turn out the way it did. Maybe I'll change my mind after I've had a chance to let it stew in my head for a few months or even years, but my initial reaction is that I feel betrayed. I think Collins tried a little too hard to introduce too much twist at the end of the third book for her own good. The first book twists worked well, the second were meh but obviously setting up a sequel, but the finale was just not what I was looking forward to.
I probably wouldn't care so much, and certainly not to write about it, but I really did like the series up until that point. I'm not a very accomplished reader, but the only other time I've had a feeling that somewhat resembled this was when I finished Goodkind's Sword of Truth (or more accurately when I tried to read his fanfic follow-up.) This was just total nosedive for me, so I'm more intensely disappointed than I am angry or bitter.
I strongly disliked the ending, but for the opposite reason as you -- I thought it was far too optimistic.
The biggest issue I had was the implication that Coin is the only "bad" person among the rebel leadership, so that killing Coin solves everything. Until Coin's death, the book has been urging the point that the rebels are little better than the Capitol they are fighting: they entomb the workers of District 2, they kill Capitol children, they want to initiate a new Hunger Games. But then Kat kills Coin, and (after a brief interlude) all of that is swept under the rug. Suddenly Kat gets to go home and live out her life peacefully with Peeta. District 12 is being rebuilt. Poverty and starvation are apparently gone.
It feels to me as if the author couldn't decide whether she wanted a powerful ending (Kat escaped being a pawn in the schemes of one empire only to wind up the pawn of another) or a happy one (Kat x Peeta otp!), so she tried to go for both, and the result is a mess.
-- You put your RESOLVE HAT back on, which conveniently is the same hat as your NORMAL HAT. {Drakeryn}
I was just sad that the last one didn't end with Peeta giving into the programming and killing her at the very end of the book. That would have made me happy.
-- C _ _ H _ _ E _ _ S _ _ T _ _ E _ _ R _ _ _ http://img.imgcake.com/chestaga1gifun.gif \ http://BennFried.com
We have spoilers tags now, might as well use them.
drak, that's a fair point. I hadn't had a great deal of time to think about the rebels' actions all that much. However, other than the scene where they bombed the children, what have the rebels really done that was so awful? They don't "entomb" the district 2 workers -- they leave them a path out. The last and final Hunger Games was clearly the brainchild of Coin and Plutarch, (and I'm surprised we get no comment about those games from Katniss later or any guilt from her in voting for them,) so I don't know that it even ever actually happens. I'm not convinced poverty and starvation are gone, considering we don't really hear much about what happens outside of 12 at the end. The only thing that strikes me as odd is that Gale never (knowledgeably) comes to visit Katniss once.
The first 300 pages of Mockingjay are alright. Not great, but they fit the tone of the series. We get a few likeable characters like Boggs and some decent moments. But the ending, yeesh. It was like Collins was given an edict to keep it under 400 pages, and went "well, I just killed Prim and we're 350 pages in. Guess I better wrap this up all quick like."
My biggest problem with Mockingjay isn't Prims's death (although the manner it was handled was really awful), but it's that Katniss herself does absolutely nothing the entire book. Until the last act, her purpose is to sit around and occasionally throw out a speech about friendship and freedom or whatever while the people around her do things that are far more interesting but are never elaborated upon.
Then when you do get to the final act where she actually starts to DO something, whoops, turns out it was all a pointless distraction so that more characters could get killed off and she could see Prims die.
Katniss as a character became spectacularly bad after THG as well.
I hadn't had a great deal of time to think about the rebels' actions all that much. However, other than the scene where they bombed the children, what have the rebels really done that was so awful? They don't "entomb" the district 2 workers -- they leave them a path out. The last and final Hunger Games was clearly the brainchild of Coin and Plutarch, (and I'm surprised we get no comment about those games from Katniss later or any guilt from her in voting for them,) so I don't know that it even ever actually happens.
Bombing the children is the biggest thing, yeah. Also IIRC they only leave the district 2 workers a path out because Kat pushes strongly for it.
Re: Kat voting for the Hunger Games: I thought it was a piece of showmanship on her part. People hear Coin announce new Hunger Games. People see Kat shooting Coin. Since the actual vote is kept secret, they assume that she voted in opposition and, when she was outvoted, shot Coin instead in protest. Basically her way of driving the message home in a more powerful way than simply voting no.
I dunno. Maybe I'm giving her too much credit.
The only thing that strikes me as odd is that Gale never (knowledgeably) comes to visit Katniss once.
Yeah, Gale's exit is another thing that strikes me as "too easy" in the ending. It's very convenient that he may or may not have indirectly contributed to Prim's death and then gracefully exits the stage so that Kat/Peeta is the only possibility left.
-- You put your RESOLVE HAT back on, which conveniently is the same hat as your NORMAL HAT. {Drakeryn}
HDT, maybe Katniss doesn't do a great deal in Mockingjay, but what is she supposed to do? She's too important as a person to send in and let her go Rambo on the opposition. Considering everything she does do in Mockingjay results in her being hurt in some way, that helps to reinforce the notion that she is not superhuman. She's not much use as "the Mockingjay" if she gets killed fighting Peacekeepers in district 8.
I agree K isn't as good after THG, but I think that's also partially an illusion. THG is 2/3 action and 1/3 build-up exposition. By contrast, Catching Fire is only 1/3 action, and Mockingjay is too all over the place to be broken down neatly. I certainly don't like the way the Quarter Quell went in CF, and I thought her attempts at being the people's voice and an actual soldier were significantly below what she had been built up to, but I think saying she sucked after THG is a little harsh.
Drak, only Gale was in favor of blocking all the passages. That was his instincts as a tactics-first person. Nobody supported him on that notion, and even Katniss who inwardly agreed countered him because it seemed too much like a mining accident. The leader there decided to call it in to Command to let them decide, and they chose to leave the tunnel unblo9cked. The only thing that this incident proved to me is that Gale is willing to do Whatever It Takes, while the rest of the rebellion still wants to preserve some level of humanity.
Gale had also given up on Katniss before that point. There's a scene before the party splits up where he says to Peeta something about "that's the only thing I had going for me." I don't remember what that was in reference to, but it was something that no longer applied. Plus, he expected her to shoot him when he was in the process of being captured, which she failed to do. So at that point, it's not surprising that it's Peeta she ends up with, but I still don't think he would have disappeared forever.
Or maybe he doesn't. That's part of the problem of the ending. We don't actually know what happens for the mostpart. We don't know if the Capitol Hunger Games actually take place. We don't know if the rebellion government under not-Coin leadership is oppressive and diabolical or not. We don't know what happens to the few remaining characters besides the D12 victors, and Gale in particular is cast aside with one throwaway line.
My friend who lent me the books figured out what it was I hated most about Mockingjay: not a single character (good, bad or gray) ends up in anything resembling the situation they were hoping for. Most of the characters we are meant to like or regard as decent are dead. The ones that aren't are irrevocably altered and broken -- their loved ones are gone, their motivations are shattered. The only thing that led Katniss to the first Hunger Games was taken away in a completely random and senseless act. Peetah's love for Katniss was obliterated by his reprogramming. Hell if I know what Haymitch ever wanted, but he never comes out of his drunken stupor again. K's mom runs away to a new life apart from the ones and the things she loved; so does Gale. Annie has lost Finnick, the one person that brought her back to reality a bit.
TBQH, I'm really not sure what Collins was trying to accomplish with the ending. It's just so horribly, horribly blundered that while it's obvious there's an underlying message that she wants us to despise something, the only thing I end up actually despising is the work itself. That's really rather a shame, because I did like the first 2.8 books.
Drak, only Gale was in favor of blocking all the passages. That was his instincts as a tactics-first person. Nobody supported him on that notion, and even Katniss who inwardly agreed countered him because it seemed too much like a mining accident. The leader there decided to call it in to Command to let them decide, and they chose to leave the tunnel unblo9cked. The only thing that this incident proved to me is that Gale is willing to do Whatever It Takes, while the rest of the rebellion still wants to preserve some level of humanity.
Fair enough on that incident, then.
Gale had also given up on Katniss before that point. There's a scene before the party splits up where he says to Peeta something about "that's the only thing I had going for me." I don't remember what that was in reference to, but it was something that no longer applied.
Pretty sure that scene occurs after Prim's death, when Kat is suspecting Gale of helping produce the bombs that killed her. Gale's full statement is something like "I protected your family. That's the only thing I had going for me."
-- You put your RESOLVE HAT back on, which conveniently is the same hat as your NORMAL HAT. {Drakeryn}
I liked her a lot in book 1. She was resolute, capable, highly resourceful, had a clear focus and purpose. Her paranoia about Peeta before the start of the Games was cute. The love scenes with Peeta were (intentionally) painful and awkward, but I didn't mind them too much because I knew she knew it was all a farce for the cameras.
But when the Games end, when she doesn't have a clear goal set out for her, she descends into dithering --the love triangle stuff being the worst of it, but not all of it. Book 2 is what ruined her IMO. At least in book 3 she gets to shoot Coin, which was a great scene and easily the highlight of the book.
-- You put your RESOLVE HAT back on, which conveniently is the same hat as your NORMAL HAT. {Drakeryn}
These books aren't well written I can tell that from the reading the first one.
Collins is an overrated hack who ripped off her plot from Battle Royale and The Running Man. She uses Twilight quality metaphors like "My tears tasted salty, like the soup". Idiotic villains, one character monologues about killing Rue before she is about to shiv Katniss. Why?!? How did she even know Katniss and Rue were working together?!? Why did Thresh kill her and then spare Katniss because of this?! He didn't care about Rue, if he did he would have been teaming up with her, not that it matters since it was Katniss's fault she died! What a horrendous and poorly written scene. That ending is horrible too. Why did the capital try to revoke the rule change in order to get a more exciting finish? They knew the two were in love, wtf did they think was gonna happen, of course they were going to try to kill each other if they couldn't be together, have they never read Romeo and Juliet? Why did they even care so much that they attempted suicide anyway, I'm not making the connection between that and stirring a rebellion. This book is extraordinarily frustratingly idiotic...
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"Different tempo ha ha ha, dearly beloved we are all gathered here now..." - Mike Love
HDT, maybe Katniss doesn't do a great deal in Mockingjay, but what is she supposed to do? She's too important as a person to send in and let her go Rambo on the opposition. Considering everything she does do in Mockingjay results in her being hurt in some way, that helps to reinforce the notion that she is not superhuman. She's not much use as "the Mockingjay" if she gets killed fighting Peacekeepers in district 8.
Of course she is. By the end the entire plan is to get her killed because she's more use to the rebellion dead than alive. They needed her to do some propaganda videos, sure, but there's no excuse for, say, the Peeta rescue mission, which was summed up in a few paragraphs basically as "The rebels planned a mission to get Peeta back, and then they did, and he was back."
But my main issue with it isn't whether or not it makes sense that Katniss isn't doing anything for most of the plot, it's that a story in which the main character does so does not make for an interesting book. <_<
I only read the books because I make it a habit of reading the books in tandem with seeing the movie, and my wife had read them and was making me see the movie. Blew through all 3 in a week myself.
The first book was decent, not great, but decent... I had a lot of similar complaints as 20three really. Actions and resolutions that just didn't make sense.
My biggest problem with the overall ending of the series was that it ruins the premise of the story as a whole. We wouldn't have the story if Kat didn't volunteer to take Prim's spot. We wouldn't be constantly reminded over the 3 books how Prim is the only thing she loves and fights for. Then in the last bit, Prim is killed in one of the worst possible anti-climatic ways, ruining all the the work of the 3 books in total. It doesn't help that Book 3 felt like it was just going through motions to fill pages to get to the ending either. There was really no reason for her give you these feelings or attachments in one of the first two (or beginning of the third) books only to destroy the characters in the second half of the last book... every one of them, including how you should be despising Snow, and instead she tries to make you like him in the end.
Why make you hate Snow through all 3 books, then try to force you to like him at the end? Why make you feel paranoid about other tributes in the Quarter Quell, then show how nice they are, then kill them? Why make a love triangle between three characters, then make them so openly distant to each other at the end? Maybe a couple of these are fine, but it feels like Collins tried to take every relationship Kat had and twist it in an opposite direction in the last book.
Why make you hate Snow through all 3 books, then try to force you to like him at the end? Why make you feel paranoid about other tributes in the Quarter Quell, then show how nice they are, then kill them? Why make a love triangle between three characters, then make them so openly distant to each other at the end?
Nah, all of these happening, along with Prims dying, would have been fine in concept. Not everything has to have a happy ending.
It's just that all of it did happen, and none of it was pulled off well, AND she tried to pass the ending off as a happy ending. <_<
Why make you hate Snow through all 3 books, then try to force you to like him at the end?
I didn't feel the book was trying to force the reader to like Snow. At least, not in the way you're suggesting. He was still 100% evil manipulative bastard to the end. Granted, he was my favorite character in book 3, but that's just because I like evil manipulative bastards. >_>
-- You put your RESOLVE HAT back on, which conveniently is the same hat as your NORMAL HAT. {Drakeryn}
I liked snow solely since he was responsible for the only good parts of the books happening - the games themselves. I know he didn't start them but he kept them going and for the dedication I am officially naming him my third favorite character in the series. Right behind the random district 2 soldier who shoots kat.
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boring and mundane signature Now with more bold!Less Italics due to bold
I actually did like that in the end, it was kind of ambiguous as to how much Snow was lying or telling the truth before he died. You'll never know, and he died laughing about it. What a dick
But yeah, it seemed that the real moral of the story is that Kat was everyone's pawn, probably the only one who realized it was Haymitch, and there are no winners. The bigger **** you was that it *should* have ended with Kat gobbling the suicide pill after she killed Coin, but Peeta has to be there to be a big fat shipping deus ex machina
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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable