Mockingjay

I was looking through my blog the other day and noticed that I never wrote about the third book in The Hunger Games series.  I don't know if any of you out there even care, but I just couldn't leave the third book hangin'!

I was beyond excited to read this book when it came out in August.  I pre-ordered a copy from Borders and picked it up a couple of days after it came out.  For the next two or three days I pretty much did nothing but work, eat, sleep and read.  I was dieing to know how it ended so I just read and read.  When I got to the end, I was not that impressed.  Want to know why?  I'll tell you, but if you haven't read it and plan on it, don't read any further!

After all of the preparation for invading the Capitol I was hoping for this great climax and then resolution of everything.  Sometimes I like predictable, but apparently that's not what Suzanne Collins was going for.  Now I didn't hate the ending, I was just hoping for more.  Before I even get to the ending though, I want to talk about Katniss.  In books one and two I liked her a lot.  She was this symbol of hope for everyone.  She was strong.  I didn't see that in her in book three.  She was boring and weak.  After all that she had been through I don't blame her, but people were looking to her for guidance.  She would just mope around and do whatever she wanted to.  While everyone in District 13 was preparing themselves for attack, she would skip out on everything.  She wasn't above that.  She needed the lessons just as much as everyone else did, especially since she wanted to fight.  She also wouldn't listen to anyone.  In the end, it turns out President Snow was a punk, but there were good people on her side that she just wouldn't listen to.  Bottom line is Katniss bothered me a little bit in this book.  I did feel bad for her when they got Peeta back and all he wanted to do was kill her.  That would be awful.

Moving on, I was really into the book until Katniss and her crew were on their "secret" mission to the Capitol.  Everything was fine until Finnick got eaten alive by those skeleton monster things, or whatever they were.  I really liked Finnick and didn't want him to die.  It made me really sad.  I know this book is about war, so I couldn't expect everyone to live, but I wish it wouldn't have been him.  What made it even worse is that in the end you find out this his wife Annie is pregnant!!  So sad.  After I got over that I was getting anxious for them to get to the Capitol.  As they approached the gates, they were bombed, and everything went down hilll from there for me.  First of all, I was so confused about what happened.  Katniss said she saw a girl with a long braid helping some of the children, and then the second bombs went off.  Boom.  Chapter over.  Next chapter started and I didn't really understand what was going on.  I thought it was a dream or something, and then all of a sudden Prim was dead, and apparently I was supposed to know that by the description of the girl with the braid.  It didn't register to me.

Then the whole thing with Gale really got to me too.  All that happened was they talked, she pretty much said she couldn't forgive him because he created the bombs that killed her sister, and then he left.  That's it!!  He didn't fight for her at all.  After all that they had been through he just gave up.  I was hoping for more from him.  Then in the end it just said that he moved to a different distract.  Done.  In my mind I was telling myself that they talk on the phone every once in awhile.  I still wanted them to be friends even though they couldn't be together.

Wow, this is getting long.  I'll get to the point.  The whole thing with President Snow was confusing to me.  She hates the guy, then goes and talks to him in his garden, then she believes his whole thing about President Coin and in the end kills President Coin instead of President Snow.  Wasn't that was pretty much the whole point of the book; her getting to kill President Snow?  In the end he dies by being trampled over, but that's anti-climatic.  Also, I was a little angry that when President Snow asked the previous gamers(or whatever they're called; I can't remember) if they wanted to make the kids from the Capitol compete in their own Hunger Games, Katniss and Haymitch said yes!!  Isn't that what they were fighting for?  To not have to have children and families go through what they went through?  They didn't go into any further detail about it since Snow died.  I just couldn't believe she said yes.

Three more quick things.  1.)  I was a little sad about how the relationship was between Katniss and her mom in the end.  They never had a great relationship, but in the end her mom moved to district 8, I think, while Katniss went back home.  After everything they went through, and all of the losses, you'd think they'd want to stick together.  2.)  I was always rooting for Peeta, so I was happy that they ended up together, but it felt like they ended up together because Gale left and it just happened.  There wasn't any romantic anything that led to them being together.  It just happened.  Once again, I was just hoping for more.  Oh, but there was the cute thing about him planting primroses outside.  That was sweet.  3.)  What happened to Haymitch?  Collins left us hanging with him.  I'm sure he turned back into the same old drunk, but it would have been nice to hear about it.

So there you go, you now know how I felt about the book.  From all of my comments it may seem like I hated the book.  I didn't.  It was a good book, but my least favorite of the three.  Number one was indeed my favorite.  I can't believe I had that much to write.  Anyone else out there have any opinions they'd like to share?  If so, leave me a comment!

Oh, and one last thing.  I like how in the end Prim's cat was alive and at their house.  She hated the cat but now they're friends since Prim is gone.  Now I'm really done, promise.