Let me start out by saying that I both love and hate this book. It was an emotional roller-coaster but at the same time I don't know if it really tugged at my heartstrings enough.
This final installment covers the revolution and over-throwing of the Capital. You find out that District 13 has been hiding underground for 75 years to build up the strength to finally free the land of the Capital's mistreatment of its' people. Katniss awakes to find that she is wanted to be the face of the rebellion and she finally accepts after much deliberation with herself. Everything that she knew about herself and those around her is lost throughout the war, and in the end she is faced with a future that she could have never expected when she took Prim's spot in the Hunger Games.
I found myself as confused as Katniss about who to trust and whether or not she was making the right choices. This book is the first time we really get to know Gale as a person and the more we learned about him the more I disliked him and the more I hoped to be wrong about her ending up with him. He reminds me of the "bad boy" that girls go for. For Katniss he was always just a friend until she started kissing Peeta, then her mind wondered about whether or not she loved Gale. In this book we learn that it was six months prior to the Hunger Games that he decided he cared about her as more than a hunting partner. This realization only came when someone else flirted with her. He has no trouble telling her of the many girls he kissed, and his arrogance doesn't stop there. Katniss loves the boy she knew in the woods, but it is apparent to the reader that she only saw him for his good points, never realizing his hatred consumed him and his ability with snares would mean the death of so many, including one she loved above all others. We also see a different side of Peeta. His charm and love is destroyed by the Capital while they hold him captive and he comes back to Katniss a different person. It becomes easy to hate Peeta for how he treats Katniss, to think he is the biggest jerk and to want Katniss to run into Gale's arms. Gale tells Peeta that Katniss will end up choosing the one that she can't survive without. It seems weird that both boys agree that her only choice would be one or the other, it shows their immaturity and idealism. These characteristics of the two boys kept me conflicted throughout as to who I wanted her with. Peeta has lost all the traits that made me fall for him, and while Gale isn't my cup of tea, he is still by Katniss' side, trying to keep her safe and loving her no matter how she acts.
Through Peeta's memory problems, we are shown a side of Katniss that isn't flattering. She seems so weak and unforgiving. This though, makes sense when you remember she is only a 17-year-old girl who was turned into a murderer because everyone around her keeps wanting to kill her. Her mental break downs make sense, as does her coldness, but both are beyond frustrating as a reader. Everything she goes through leads her to holding the bow and arrow and killing the leader of Panem who wants the Hunger Games to live on. She is able to see that everyone has an agenda, and that people who seem to have good ideals can be as evil as people who have ideals different to your own. Katniss causing the last death of the war seems to be a symbolic irony, as she is trying to end a world where children have to be murderers while she is still a child herself.
The writing style in this novel was in many way more sophisticated that the other two. The first book was grotesque but about the power of love to conquer. The second book reminded me of Murphy's Law- whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and at the most inopportune times. The third instillation was about the evils of humanity. It was about falling into drugs, it was about learning who people really were, it was about how people can be mislead into fighting wars they don't know they are fighting. In the end though, it is also once again a story about true love, that when everything seems lost, a person whom you truly love and loves you will eventually make things as right as they can ever be.
While reading the book there was something bothering me about it, that I couldn't place my finger on. I think what it is, is that this is supposed to be a story for young adults. For that awkward time in a person's life where fairy tales are passe but the mind is still impressionable and material should be carefully presented. This book seems to ignore those ideas and goes straight into the worst qualities of humanity. As the young teen sees her hope of mankind be shattered time and time again, the reader is opened up to a world of pessimism. Stories don't have to be happy, and if they are only happy they are usually no good, but this story leaves nothing but despair in my heart. I wonder if children experience it the same way, or if they cling to the good points and ignore what an older reader is troubled by. I suspect that to some extent this is the truth, which would make this book one of the best written because it would mean that as a person grows they will see the book differently. Books like Twilight and Harry Potter have a similar following, but while they are both good in their own ways, I do no see them comparable in their reach into the depths of relationships and motives. Professor Snape in Harry Potter is a character who touches on similar ideas of trust and motives, but not to the extent that Katniss faces with everyone she knows. Furthermore, in both these noteworthy books, though there are sad moments, the endings are both happy, promising a bright future. The end of the Hunger Games series shows readers that although things have changed, Katniss will never have her guard down, she will never really be free from the scars of the arena, and no matter how happy she is, her life will always be haunted and therefore bleak.
To end this review, I have to once again say that I love and hate the book. In a few months I will probably pick up the series again, go back through and see what I missed in my rush to know what happens. Maybe then my thoughts will be less jumbled, but for now I think if I don't stop myself I will end up rambling on and on. I hope not too much was given away to enjoy the book for those who have not read it, but for those who have please feel free to leave comments here with your opinion. This is a book that warrants much discussion, I only hope that this review can be the catalyst for your own ideas on what Suzanne Collins was trying to say.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Book Review- Suzanne Collins' "Catching Fire"
I read this book between getting home Monday night from work and 10pm the next night. It was too good to put down and being half-awake at work was completely worth it. I very much considered calling out of work so that I could stay up all night and finish it. Unfortunately, I'm far too responsible and far too broke to have the luxury to do so. This book would have been worth it.
The story starts following Katniss and Peeta jointly wining the Hunger Games. They are brought back to life and made to once again show off to the world. Katniss soon learns though that her acting as a crazy-in-love teen has set the path for the rest of her life because in outsmarting the game she has started a revolution and pissed off the wrong people. During the first half of the book she struggles with trying to keep her life together. Peeta gets hurt when he learns that she acted up most of her feelings for the camera, and Gale gets hurt because he loves her. She doesn't really want either but wants them both and spends most of the book very confused. She thinks about running away, she thinks about staying, she thinks about just going along with what the Capital wants in order to save everyone around her. Then, the unspeakable happens, she finds out she has to go back to the Hunger Games. The rest of the book is her deciding to give up everything and save Peeta as he tried to save her in the first game. She has no idea that she is just a pawn in yet a larger game.
The writing was again superb, but I found one major flaw with the story. While the entire book was interesting and definitely needed to be there, the end seemed too rushed to me. I wanted a little more action from the new Hunger Games arena, I wanted to know more about the characters in the alliances she made and the struggle to survive. I understand the idea of keeping it short, but to me something just felt like it was missing. I laughed, I gasped, I felt sad, but I didn't feel as connected to the characters in this story as I did the last. Mag's suicide didn't leave me hysterical, nothing did. I did not expect the twist at the end, but I did see parts of it coming because her foreshadowing seemed so blatant the minute it happened, it actually annoyed me that Katniss didn't wonder more about certain situations. I also really don't like that she decides to choose Gale over Peeta, girls are just so dumb. That being said, I still do think this story was great, and I am itching to get my hands on a copy of the next so I can devour it, I just hope it leaves me with something a little more satisfying.
Katniss' evolution of a character is great to see. From the first book to the end of the second, we watch her go from a girl who feels the need to take care of her family to one who acknowledges that her mother should be the head of the house. She goes from a girl who is selfish in ways to one who looks out for the lives other others (ie puts Peta before herself). She starts to see good in people who she would normally have judged and lets people into her heart as friends when before she preferred to be alone. The lessons that she is learning seem to be setting her up for the final book, in which I'm sure she will shine even brighter.
The story starts following Katniss and Peeta jointly wining the Hunger Games. They are brought back to life and made to once again show off to the world. Katniss soon learns though that her acting as a crazy-in-love teen has set the path for the rest of her life because in outsmarting the game she has started a revolution and pissed off the wrong people. During the first half of the book she struggles with trying to keep her life together. Peeta gets hurt when he learns that she acted up most of her feelings for the camera, and Gale gets hurt because he loves her. She doesn't really want either but wants them both and spends most of the book very confused. She thinks about running away, she thinks about staying, she thinks about just going along with what the Capital wants in order to save everyone around her. Then, the unspeakable happens, she finds out she has to go back to the Hunger Games. The rest of the book is her deciding to give up everything and save Peeta as he tried to save her in the first game. She has no idea that she is just a pawn in yet a larger game.
The writing was again superb, but I found one major flaw with the story. While the entire book was interesting and definitely needed to be there, the end seemed too rushed to me. I wanted a little more action from the new Hunger Games arena, I wanted to know more about the characters in the alliances she made and the struggle to survive. I understand the idea of keeping it short, but to me something just felt like it was missing. I laughed, I gasped, I felt sad, but I didn't feel as connected to the characters in this story as I did the last. Mag's suicide didn't leave me hysterical, nothing did. I did not expect the twist at the end, but I did see parts of it coming because her foreshadowing seemed so blatant the minute it happened, it actually annoyed me that Katniss didn't wonder more about certain situations. I also really don't like that she decides to choose Gale over Peeta, girls are just so dumb. That being said, I still do think this story was great, and I am itching to get my hands on a copy of the next so I can devour it, I just hope it leaves me with something a little more satisfying.
Katniss' evolution of a character is great to see. From the first book to the end of the second, we watch her go from a girl who feels the need to take care of her family to one who acknowledges that her mother should be the head of the house. She goes from a girl who is selfish in ways to one who looks out for the lives other others (ie puts Peta before herself). She starts to see good in people who she would normally have judged and lets people into her heart as friends when before she preferred to be alone. The lessons that she is learning seem to be setting her up for the final book, in which I'm sure she will shine even brighter.
Book Review- Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games"
My youngest sister told me to read this book a year or more ago. I've always been too preoccupied to give it a shot. I now see what a mistake this has been because the book was incredible!
The story follows Katniss as she is thrown into a cruel game of survival, where children fight each other to the death as punishment for their forefathers rebellions against a cruel government. Katniss tells herself that she will survive for the sake of her younger sister (and mother). The idea of the glory that the Capital shines on the victors of the Hunger Games is not something that she cares for, it's not something she wants to be proud of, it's not something she thinks anyone should be proud of. The Capital turns the children into a circus like act. Many coming from the deepest poverty and starvation to be pampered before turned loose to slaughter one another. The lives of the children being bet on like they meant nothing. Katniss is bitter the entire book because of what life has dealt her, but she is impossible not to love.
Ms. Collins' writing shocked me. It is very hard to pull off a present tense story. I myself would be much too afraid to do so, but she makes it seem flawless. I never felt like it would have been better in past tense, I never felt like it would have been better in anything but first person. The simple structure of her writing technique makes her amazing, but her story content takes her to the realm of the extraordinary. She found a way to piece together a story about coming-of-age, romance, war, death, loss, poverty, indulgence, and so on, and do it in a way that speaks to a wide range of audience. The vocabulary was never pretentious, and every word felt as it should. There is nothing worse than a writer who tried to "smart up" their piece, which in the end usually takes away something far greater. One of her greatest talents in the story is how real it all feels, she mixes elements of our world with her "future" land of Panem so brilliantly that I almost expect to see a mockingjay out in the woods at some point in my life.
Taking a step back I have tried to piece together her influences. I felt a Romeo-and-Juliet theme going with the romance between Katniss and Peeta. He, from a merchant family, her from the Seams. From his first sight of her he knows that she will be the only one for him, and as a young boy even puts her well-being before his own. He is every mother's dream for her daughter. Unfortunately, Katniss can't decide if she wants to be his Juliet, and she always has her friend Gale in the back of her mind making her wonder if she doesn't want that instead. This torn-between-two-amazing-guys theme is very reminiscent to the popular Twilight series to me. Peeta would be Jacob, and Gale would be Edward. Following this logic, I can only assume that she will break Peeta's pure heart for a man who, while also good, just can't compare. The theme of people hunting each other reminds me of "The Most Dangerous Game" taken to an even more grotesque level.
All in all this is an excellent book, one that everyone should check out.
The story follows Katniss as she is thrown into a cruel game of survival, where children fight each other to the death as punishment for their forefathers rebellions against a cruel government. Katniss tells herself that she will survive for the sake of her younger sister (and mother). The idea of the glory that the Capital shines on the victors of the Hunger Games is not something that she cares for, it's not something she wants to be proud of, it's not something she thinks anyone should be proud of. The Capital turns the children into a circus like act. Many coming from the deepest poverty and starvation to be pampered before turned loose to slaughter one another. The lives of the children being bet on like they meant nothing. Katniss is bitter the entire book because of what life has dealt her, but she is impossible not to love.
Ms. Collins' writing shocked me. It is very hard to pull off a present tense story. I myself would be much too afraid to do so, but she makes it seem flawless. I never felt like it would have been better in past tense, I never felt like it would have been better in anything but first person. The simple structure of her writing technique makes her amazing, but her story content takes her to the realm of the extraordinary. She found a way to piece together a story about coming-of-age, romance, war, death, loss, poverty, indulgence, and so on, and do it in a way that speaks to a wide range of audience. The vocabulary was never pretentious, and every word felt as it should. There is nothing worse than a writer who tried to "smart up" their piece, which in the end usually takes away something far greater. One of her greatest talents in the story is how real it all feels, she mixes elements of our world with her "future" land of Panem so brilliantly that I almost expect to see a mockingjay out in the woods at some point in my life.
Taking a step back I have tried to piece together her influences. I felt a Romeo-and-Juliet theme going with the romance between Katniss and Peeta. He, from a merchant family, her from the Seams. From his first sight of her he knows that she will be the only one for him, and as a young boy even puts her well-being before his own. He is every mother's dream for her daughter. Unfortunately, Katniss can't decide if she wants to be his Juliet, and she always has her friend Gale in the back of her mind making her wonder if she doesn't want that instead. This torn-between-two-amazing-guys theme is very reminiscent to the popular Twilight series to me. Peeta would be Jacob, and Gale would be Edward. Following this logic, I can only assume that she will break Peeta's pure heart for a man who, while also good, just can't compare. The theme of people hunting each other reminds me of "The Most Dangerous Game" taken to an even more grotesque level.
All in all this is an excellent book, one that everyone should check out.
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