Mockingay by Suzanne Collins

I would first like to apologize (again) for my recent absence. Some of you, or none of you, or all two of you may know that by day I am an accountant. And you may know that this time of year can be very busy for accountants, especially if the company you work for nearly doubled in size at the first of the year. So, now that I am no longer working 60 hour weeks, I can get back to entertaining all you book nerds. Or boring you. Whichever.

ONCE AGAIN SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS!!!!! DON'T CONTINUE READING IF YOU PLAN TO READ ANY OF THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY BOOKS!!!!

As promised however long ago my last post was, tonight I will review Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - the third and last book in her Hunger Games trilogy. (That sounds stupid since a third book in a trilogy is, by definition, the last book but I don't care.) I actually finished this book quite a while ago (see previous comment about being a busy accountant in order to afford my pricey book habit) so let's see if I can recall accurately my feelings and opinions on the book. Feel free to reread my previous posts on the first two books here and here as a kind of refresher course. As you may remember, I gave both books a perfect five bows so the final book had a lot to deliver.

We pick up Mockingjay exactly where Catching Fire left off. (And yes, I just realized that underlining book titles, rather than italicizing, is actually the grammatically correct way of writing about a book. It's never too late to improve upon ones self, I always say.) Katniss and a few of her fellow tributes have been saved by being snatched up out of the arena by a rebel hovercraft. While the 75th Hunger Games progressed, it appears a revolution in the districts was brewing. And everyone but Katniss was in on it. It also turns out that the once believed destroyed district 13 is actually thriving and spearheading the revolution from their massive underground lair. War against The Capitol has broken out and Katniss was saved from the arena for the explicit purpose of becoming the face of the revolution.

Peeta was not so lucky. The Capitol kidnapped him and began using him in televised interviews to plead with the rebels to call off the revolution. And to counteract Katniss' televised pirated rebel PSAs. Everyone was relieved to see a healthy Peeta in the interviews, however, it all appeared a sham once the rebels snuck in to The Capitol and kidnapped him back. Peeta was malnourished and had been brainwashed to kill Katniss on site - something he very nearly succeeds in doing on their first reunion.

With her one true comforting presence programmed to kill her, a nagging distrust of the district 13 leaders and the fate of the country literally on her shoulders, will Katniss Everdeen ever liberate Panem and more importantly liberate herself from her haunting memories? Read the book to find out, but I have to warn you: you may not be satisfied with the outcome. I know I wasn't.

I've said it a number of times: this book had a lot to live up to. The first two were exotic thrill rides that kept you on the edge of your seat wanting more. However, the trilogy had to come to an end and I believe Collins may have had a hard time coming up with a suitable ending and, in my humble opinion, she took the easy way out. (Read the book to see what I mean.) It's not closed out with a nice and tidy happy ending. Yet, neither does the shit hit the fan. I believe she tried to straddle the fence to please everyone rather than provide an ending that may have been richer and more true to the nature of the story and characters.

One very interesting theme Collins tackles in this book, more so than the previous two, is the nature of power and the motivations behind those with the power. Revolutions can be a tricky business. Just ask Egypt and Lybia. When you oust an oppressive governing body, there's no guarantee what you get in its place is going to be any better. Castro promised all kinds of wonderful freedoms and joys for the people of Cuba when he took power from Batista in 1959. We all know how that turned out. It's been recited a billion times: "If we don't study history, we are bound to repeat it." Collins does an excellent job of illustrating this point. And it's quite depressing, actually. There is no such thing as a completely corruption-free government. That's not really a rosy view of society or human nature in general.

I'm going to have to give Mockingjay four bows this time. It really was chugging along, exciting and engaging just like the previous two books, right up until the last chapter. And then it's like Collins just gave up and tacked an ending on. Frustrating, to say the least. But it was still a good read. And I am still uber-stoked for the movie that's in the works. It sounds like the leading contender to play Katniss is Jennifer Lawerence of Winter's Bone. I am praying this come to fruition as Ms. Lawerence seems to have been born to play Katniss. Beautiful yet feisty and athletic. (And by the way, see Winter's Bone immediately if you haven't done so already. You won't regret it.) Now let's just hope they don't cast that Twilight douche as Peeta or Gale.

In housekeeping news, I am WAAAAYYYY behind on my blogging. I have two finished books waiting in queue on which to write about and a number of tasty articles and such to talk about. So I hope to been around much more often in the coming weeks. And until then, happy reading everyone!