Jean-Paul’s Rating: 1/5 stars

“Mockingjay” is book three of the grossly overhyped “Hunger Games” trilogy.  One last time, we join Katniss Everdeen and her thoughts as they both wander mostly aimlessly through the world of Panem as a revolution is fought around them.

“Mockingjay” is a testament to the severe limitations of a first-person present tense narrative.  You are stuck in the head of one person who, for much of the book, just has things happen to her and around her instead of her actions leading the narrative.  Throughout the book, Katniss devolves into something almost less than human as she deals with the PTSD from the Games and heaps blame on herself for the deaths of the thousands who are losing their lives in the revolution against the Capitol.  The book is, just like Katniss Everdeen’s sanity, purely superficial.  It is not exciting.  It is not insightful.  It does not delve deep into any of hundreds of interesting topics or moral questions brought up in its pages.

Looking back, I recognize that even the first book had these limitations.  Why the much better review for that one than the next two?  Simply because there was a world building aspect to it that the second book almost stopped doing and the third book completely stopped doing.  Without the thoughts and ideas of a brand new world, there’s not much there.

What’s most galling about the third book and what earns it the one star in my estimation is the absolutely ludicrous series of decisions that are made by people who should know basic rules of combat and the downright silly series of traps that make up the defenses of the Capitol.  The latter is by far the worst offender.  If you had your choice between a series of certainly deadly but much less deadly than the deadliest trap or the deadliest trap which can really only be avoided by pure luck, which would you spread around the city for your defenses?  If you didn’t choose the latter, you are either a moron or developing a video game.

Even the big twist surprise at the end of the book is a snore.  Without spoiling anything, Katniss does something pretty stupid and shocking.  She then sits in a room alone for months.  Exciting.  Although, you really shouldn’t be surprised at the letdown by that point.  Variations on that theme happen a few times to Katniss.

Quite disappointing to say the least.  My suggestion is to pretend that Katniss and Peeta eat the berries at the end of the first book.  That way you can skip the next two books.  Dammit, I’m still going to see the final “Mockingjay Part 2” movie.

Oh, and a special message to Katniss Everdeen and fans of Cinna everywhere.  You do realize that he was as much of an evil person as everyone else who Katniss is pissed at for manipulating her.  In fact, Cinna is the worst of the bunch.  He was obviously in on the plot to make Katniss a rallying point.  He is solely responsible for sculpting Katniss’ image into the girl the world wanted instead of the girl she actually was.  He also designed her battle armor.  But Cinna’s the one looking out for Katniss while Haymitch, Plutarch, and Coin deserve nothing but scorn?  Please.

Jean-Paul’s Rating: 2/5 stars

“Catching Fire” contains absolutely zero character development and produces very little in the way of furthering any meaningful plot.  This was surprising to me as I really enjoyed its movie equivalent.  I can report that all the stuff that I thought would be explained better in the book than in the movie was not.

The plot for “Catching Fire” can best be described so: The Capitol is watching you, Katniss, you made us look silly.  I’ll be good.  Oh, look, rebellion!  Oh, look, another Hunger Games and the twist is Katniss and Peeta are back in it!  I will save you!  No, I will save you!  No, I will save you!  No, I will save you!  No, we all will save you!  Game over!  There’s a rebellion?  The end.

The…whatever it is between Peeta and Katniss…is especially vomit inducing.  It’s like a romance between two kindergarteners.  Peeta has always loved Katniss even though you could count on one hand the number of words the two had exchanged before the first Hunger Games.  Katniss at least has conflicted feelings for how/why/if she loves Peeta, but she keeps up the whole “does he love me or is he playing a game” thing no matter how many times he chastely sleeps beside her.  Why in the world would she want to risk all to save him?  Because he’s a good person.  Ignore all the doubts Katniss expresses throughout, there’s a book to write.

The Quarter Quell, what each 25th year of the Hunger Games is called, is a complete waste of time.  It’s used solely as a mechanism for producing intrigue when any thinking person would have made damn sure there is no intrigue to be had this late in the game.  The design of the Arena is pretty cool at least with its hourly horror shows.  Even that is spoiled, though, by the absolutely preposterous plan thought up by a supposed genius to kill the final two remaining Career Tributes.

The book ends with one of those “oh, so that was the plan all along” moments followed quickly by “boy, was that stupid”.  And with that it reminds me why it’s classified as young adult fiction.  But this is young adult fiction that thinks young adults are shallow.  If I weren’t a completist, I’d probably skip reading the third book, but alas, I will power through the third.  There is a war coming after all.

Jean-Paul’s Rating: 4/5 stars

Yes, I’m reading the “Hunger Games” trilogy.  No, so far I don’t regret it.  I actually found the first book quite enjoyable.  It has a very good pace and is quite exciting.  It is also a very easy read and the 400 or so pages just fly by.  I’m not sure if Collins wrote the book with a movie in mind or if my judgement is clouded by actually seeing the movie, but the book reads like it was made to be a movie.

There are basically three acts to the book.  You have the build up to the Hunger Games, the Hunger Games themselves, and the aftermath of the Hunger Games.  The build up establishes the world of Panem and especially the coal mining District 12.  It establishes the major characters and their relationships.  It’s a pretty solid introduction.  Act 2 introduces a bunch of secondary characters who are really superfluous except for Haymitch who is the only one that it actually feels like there is a human connection to the main characters.  More on that later.  The post-Hunger Games stuff is kind of meh.  There are lots of “oh, you’re in even more danger than you were when you were fighting for your live” and little in actual explanation.  It was a poor way to end a book, but i assume this will be rectified in the next book because I have seen the movies.

Collins’ main flaw is in character interaction.  Katniss and Peeta…ugh.  Peeta’s motivations and actions make some sense, but Collins writes Katniss as completely out of character deliberately dense towards Peeta just to make the story more “interesting”.  And I still don’t get how Peeta’s alliances in the Games makes sense.  Then there’s Katniss’ relationship with Cinna.  Katniss and Cinna become fast friends because, well, it can probably just be boiled down to “he dresses me pretty”.  It is not unbelievable that Katniss would strike up a friendship with Cinna, but that possibility is not at all conveyed by the written word.  And here’s where I get in trouble.  Even Rue…  Poor little Rue who reminds Katniss so much of her sister Prim.  At least that establishes some sort of emotional tie with Rue, but it’s really with Prim.  The entire time spent with Rue is probably two days max.  But you, the reader, do get to know Rue in that time so the bait is set and the hook is drawn and Rue becomes a favorite character for all of eternity.  For me, the best thing about the Rue story (and the whole book) was when the people of District 11(?) sent the gift of bread to Katniss.  Now THAT was sad and touching.  It’s not all bad, though.  District 12 is alive with interesting characters that Katniss interacts with on a daily basis.  Collins is very comfortable writing about that.

The world of Panem is pretty interesting, if a little vague. You can actually imagine a country being built around Panem’s ideals.  Keep the plebeians segregated and poor but producing while the oligarchs live it up in outrageous luxury in the Capitol.  It’s easy to imagine because those countries exist already to varying lesser degrees.  And while there are no Hunger Games, there is certainly privileged disdain for the poor and downtrodden to the point of not really caring if they live or die.  I look forward to the fleshing out of the world of Panem in the future novels.

“The Hunger Games” is a solid young adult book.  Sure, it has its glaring flaws, but they are easily overlooked by just how readable the book is.  The plot is good, if a bit derivative, and just vague enough where you get to throw your own ideals into the holes to make the book about whatever you want it to be about.  This is a great beach reading book.