Catching Fire & Mockingjay

{We can pretty much assume that I will not be able to get three posts up each day until October 31, so we will assume that I won't be finishing Blogtober. This is why I fail at things like NaNoWriMon.}

In the past week I completed the Hunger Games trilogy. I had read the first book before the movie had been released, but had not picked up the second book until this past week. Then I borrowed the third book from a friend after reading Catching Fire and finished it last night. It. Was. Terrible.

Be prepared for a spoiler-ly rant ahead. I don't promise that the first half will be about Catching Fire and the second half about Mockingjay either. When I rant, I am all over the place. Don't say I didn't warn you.

First off, the writing is horrendous. The first person present-tense narrative is my least favorite narrative, but just about every single book published today will be written in it. I dislike it because you can't help becoming attached, or 'one', with the protagonist, even if you really hate them *cough*Katniss*cough*. I think the only characters I really cared for in the end (mostly because Suzanne Collins rarely used them/killed them off before she could screw them up with the rest of them) were Finnick, Annie, and their baby.

And when Finnick was killed.... My heart stopped and I had to close the book for about five minutes. (I knew it would happen, since it had been spoiled for me before, but still.... It was terrible.)

Catching Fire wasn't as horrible as Mockingjay, but Hunger Games is the best of the three. I almost think Suzanne Collins shouldn't have even written the last two books, because it seemed like over the course of the two books she was quickly deteriorating over her desire to write the books well. Katniss had no character development until the last chapter of Mockingjay. She was insane throughout the two books. It was just...just...terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.

And the way she concluded the series was sloppy at best. And it wasn't at best, so it was a complete disaster. Especially the epilogue. You really get a sense of just how cold hearted Katniss is, how 'damaged' she is, how mentally unstable. (I can't exactly blame her for being that way, but it's almost pitiful.) She didn't mention her children's names, just that the boy and girl will learn, or have learned, what had happened. She never wanted children, and she said she only had those two after fifteen years of Peeta begging because he wanted them so bad. I feel so sorry for those kids. The ending was cold, and did nothing to redeem the series.

All in all, I hate the books. The only characters I still liked by the end were Finnick, Annie, their son, and Paylor, probably because Suzanne didn't screw them up like she did everyone else. And Peeta. Still like Peeta. But other than those five, I am either on the line or hating the rest of them.

Snow was brilliant. And I will standby my earlier belief that I hate Coin more than Snow, because I do. The relationship between Snow and Katniss was one of the better parts of the story, and even by the time he died Snow was still had that 'bad guy' about him that was all 'I am the bad guy, and I'm not afraid to mess with you up until the very second I die'. And I don't like Coin because she was a career politician and her only goal with the entire rebellion was to get Snow's seat. I was a little surprised when Katniss killed her, because I thought that Katniss was siding with Coin at that time, but I think that could have been done a lot better still.

So, yes, I hate these books. At best they were okay. Really if you just have someone tell you want happens, you will be fine, because they aren't worth the read unless you really want to go through that mental trauma of hatred at the end.




   One of the goals for this blog is to provide information for parents and readers alike to find 'clean' reads suitable for their children or themselves. In all my reviews I will mention general themes from the book, language, sexual/romantic interaction, and violence.

     Themes:
  dystopian, rebellion, war, survival

        Language:
   Very little to none if I am remembering correctly.

        Sexual/Romantic Interaction
   A love triangle  between  Peeta, Gale, and Katniss. Kissing, some references to sex. 'Survival of the population' via repopulation is talked about a lot in book three.

        Violence
  Very heavy, especially in book three.

       I would give Catching Fire & Mockingjay both a rating of mild-heavey PG-13

      On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = horrible, 2 = OK, 3 = I liked it, 4 = I really liked it, 5 = I loved it), I would give Catching Fire &Mockingjay both a 2