The Girl on Fire going through fire: a Mockingjay review

I'm talking about: Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins

I finished Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay the week it went out. Mockingjay is the third and final book in Collins’ Hunger Games Trilogy, which follows Katniss Everdeen in the dystopian country of Panem. The Capitol forces the twelve Districts to obedience, and one way they do this is to force each of the districts to send a boy and a girl each year to take part in the Hunger Games: a fight to the death in an arena filled with horrors (as if having 23 other people hunting you for sport isn’t horror enough).

The verdict

The book is gripping and well-written, and I found myself nodding emphatically at some phrases and events that happen in delight at just how Collins pieced together the story and brought her characters to life. However, the epic scale of the war going on, and everything that is happening all around Katniss, soon detracted from the book. I enjoyed the first part immensely; the latter half, I felt I was just barreling along to get to the next scene, and the next scene, and the next scene.

The things that I loved about Katniss changed, necessary changes for the story, but this–along with the limitations of the first person narrative–detracted from my enjoyment of the latter half of the book. So many things happened, especially in the latter part of the book, that I felt more and more distanced away from the characters. I also felt that some story threads didn’t end right: I don’t have a problem with endings that don’t go the way I would like them to be, but if it’s right, I still enjoy the ending. These didn’t feel right.

Mockingjay certainly won’t be my favorite book of the series: I think that the first book, The Hunger Games is still the best book of the series, hands down. I always finish what I started, though, and Mockingjay does deliver well.

So what exactly went on?

There were two things that harmed the latter half of the book for me: Katniss, and Gale. Yes, separate, not together: I agree it was right that Katniss should have ended with Peeta. But that’s about it in terms of what was right about the ending.

Katniss did not feel like Katniss when I needed her to be Katniss. Who is the Girl on Fire? Brave and courageous, maybe reckless; someone who did things, who made things happen, who didn’t roll over and play dead. But where was she, in the last part of the book?

She was fainting in the middle of action.
She was being prodded along the wave of the war, doing this and doing that.
She was almost completely zoned out in the end. In the end! Where we needed her!
We had to come to terms with her choosing Peeta when we only had Peeta with us for half the book, and the real Peeta for only an eighth of the book.

I mentioned earlier that the first person perspective of the book harmed the ending for me. I understand why Katniss was zoned out and unable to Get Things Done. But coupled with her numerous fainting/zoned-out moments in the rest of the book, us having zombie!Katniss during the ending just didn’t help things along for me. How do I associate wife!Katniss with Girl-on-Fire!Katniss? There is nothing to bridge the two together; they are very different people. “Reader, I married him” endings are tricky, and this just failed to end the book with the right note for me.

Second, Gale Hawthorne. Oh, Gale. It’s alright that you didn’t get the girl, ~~you can have me instead~~ because you are awesome as you are, anyway. I didn’t agree with some of the things Gale did and pushed for in the book: his take-no-prisoners attitude was certainly troubling. But it was war, and nobody is perfect–I like my heroes and heroines that way. Did it mean he was a abhorrence? Not at all.

But the way Gale’s storyline ended–could you have emasculated him even more?

Gale said that the only thing he had going for him was his ability to keep Katniss’s family alive. He doesn’t get the girl, but he doesn’t get even that? Not one shred of dignity left? If it’s to be a “lesson” against having “fire, kindled with rage and hatred”, it was ill done. Making harsh decisions during wartime does not make you a monster.

Also, he was given such a high profile throughout Mockingjay; he has a lot of page-time, and he really shines clear and bright through the pages. And then, in the end, what do we have of him? A cop-out of an ending. A brief cameo of his emasculation. And then a gossipy mention by Greasy Sae about him “in a fancy job”. There is nothing else. I could almost see the scorn dripping from the pages. He wasn’t even given death: death was too good for him, he should have a “fancy job”.

I agree that Katniss and Peeta together was the right ending. If both boys had to live, then Peeta was the right man for the job. But Gale being written off the way he was, and Peeta not being Peeta for most of the book, coupled with the less-personal feel of the latter half of the book just dragged the book down for me in the “like” factor.

(Disclaimer: I like Peeta. I think he is a dear, sweet boy. I was distraught about his hijacking, and if he had ended up not reclaiming his right mind, I would have been just as indignant about his storyline as I am about Gale’s storyline.)

What about you? Did the book end on a high note for you, or did you feel as I do?

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Half of The Hunger Games Trilogy

So I’ve been obsessing a bit over The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, both by Suzanne Collins. Alright, I held off for a long time. Jerome talked about it from time to time, until I finally caved and bought the audiobook of the first book. After all, he caved and tried one of my favorite escapist YA books (Sabriel, by Garth Nix), so I figure I should give this a try.

Well, I stayed up all night before my flight back home to the Philippines to finish The Hunger Games audiobook; and then yesterday I was finally able to buy a copy of Catching Fire from Kinokuniya and I curled up to read it at around seven. I finished it at midnight. And I even attempted to draw them. (Operative word: attempted. I haven’t drawn in ages!)

Peeta, Katniss and Gale (quick sketch)

I’ve read all the snarls about how it’s just basically Battle Royale, how it was a “ripoff”, and all that. Maybe it was; I haven’t read the former and I can’t recall any book I’ve read so far which follow basically the same plotline (of at least the first book). Maybe so, but that doesn’t detract from the sheer enjoyment of this book. From the overwhelming urge to keep listening, to keep turning the page, to find out what happens. The direct, no-nonsense writing fits well with the book; and the audiobook, read by Carolyn McCormick, is also commendable.

Who am I kidding, I just want to know what happens to Gale! :D Unlike some other heroines I can name (*cough* Makino Tsukushi *cough*) who I hated for a while because of all the shuffling, I actually understand, and aren’t annoyed with her confusion between Peeta and Gale. I like Peeta very much, he “got there first” with the bread, and I worry for him; but well, I’d take Gale any day ;)

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

I do wonder what’s going to happen to Peeta. Katniss is a figurehead, that’s true; but Katniss was right when she said that Peeta can sway people with his words. He’s emotionally strong, has commendable principles, has that charisma and wit that ignites feelings in people; he would shape up to be a fine leader after the revolution, for sure. I don’t want him to die, even though I know is death will also anger and fuel the people in Panem because of his sheer goodness. But if he doesn’t die, what happens to Katniss and Gale?

See, I think Gale is the right man for Katniss. He’s from the same background, and they know each other infinitely more than Peeta and Katniss know each other. They work very well together, and are evenly matched. It’s not to say that I think Peeta’s a “wimp” next to Gale, because he’s not; in a way, he also works well with Katniss because he complements her, he’s strong where she’s weak and vice versa. And really, there is just nothing to not like and admire in Peeta.

But this is Katniss we’re talking about. A girl who’s like Makino Tsukushi, like Alanna of Trebond. Let’s say Peeta lives, and is catapulted into leading the new world, or being groomed for it: a life in the spotlight, of placating other people, of politics, is not for Katniss. She would be powerless to go out and about, be active, hunt. That isn’t a life that’s altogether suited for her character. She would hate it.

It’s all conjecture, of course; I don’t even know if Peeta lives, and if he will be a leader if he does. If he didn’t die with the force field malfunction, President Snow would keep him alive to undermine Katniss. And Katiss would still endeavor to rescue him, which is only right. And then what? She’s right that she needs him; he’s her Hanazawa Rui. But I don’t want Peeta to endure Katniss getting married to Gale; and I don’t think Peeta’s like Jonathan of Conte who’ll fall in love with someone else.

August can not arrive soon enough.

Whimsical.nu