Dear readers, the end has arrived. That is, the end of this series of reviews has arrived. I dove back into the Hunger Games trilogy at the beginning of this calendar year, and I shared that journey with you all in my reviews of The Hunger Games and of Catching Fire. Moving at a speed matched only by my devouring Bumped and every Harry Potter book, I tackled Mockingjay and emerged, well, a little disappointed.
I said it before the last review, but I’ll say it again: this review will contain spoilers for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.
HERE BE SPOILERS.
Mockingjay picks up shortly after Catching Fire ended. It turns out that Bonnie and Twill were right: District 13 does still exist, and the citizens have been preparing to overthrow the Capitol. They’ve prepared so carefully, in fact, that Katniss didn’t even realize she’d been a key part of their rebellion. As Katniss adjusts to life in District 13—a life underground, a life of rules she continues to subvert, a life with mere shreds of the one she had before surviving the arena twice—she continues to see the world with maturing eyes. Her trust is gained and lost. The power of propaganda reigns. And when the rebellion begins in force, we are left wondering what will remain of the Girl Who Was on Fire when the ashes settle.
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The themes in Mockingjay continue the earlier path of being less about YA and more about author Suzanne Collins’s goal of depicting coming-of-age against war and violence. Katniss shares conversations with many comrades about what is fair and unfair in times of war. As a Catholic reader, I couldn’t help but think of just war doctrine and the full extent of being pro-life. Katniss’s relationship drama remains, though, and she finally has to choose between Gale and Peeta. I can’t say I’m fully satisfied with her choice, but I’m not fully satisfied with Katniss in general.
In this installment, Collins’s storytelling takes a sharp detour. The fast pace that made pages of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire race by is subdued. I know Katniss has been through the unthinkable—twice!—by the time she becomes the Mockingjay, but that’s no excuse for her uncharacteristic catatonic drifting through much of the book. I wanted her fire back. Her spunk surfaces at times, but I guess I wanted her to recover like Harry Potter after his moodiness in Order of the Phoenix. I read this book the slowest, and when I picked it up to finish it, I distinctly remember thinking, “Let’s just get this over with.” To an extent, I felt a similar resignation coming from Collins. A certain moment with a certain handsome fisherman actually made me cry, but I am left feeling so-so about the book as a whole. The first two remain among the most thrilling books I’ve ever read, but the series definitely suffers from a weak final installment.
So, as I declared earlier, The Hunger Games will not replace Harry Potter: ever and just for me. They will hold a special place, though, for making me reset my standards for “action-packed.” Now we just need to see whether this will be the best or worst book-to-movie translation ever. Aside from the dead kid body count, that is.
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Up next: a return to distinctly Catholic books with Frank Sheed’s Theology for Beginners
Part I: Review of The Hunger Games
Part II: Review of Catching Fire
Lindsay,Thank you for your review although I have to disagree that these books are appropriate for young adults. A lot of kids we know are reading these books and are 5th – 10th graders. I’d have to say that the violence is disturbing. Killed by rabid dogs, venomous snakes and not to mention spears, arrows and rocks. I think the more kids read these types of books, see movies like this or play video games that are violent, the more they become desensitzed to violence in the world. What about the commandment ‘Thou Shall Not Kill”? There are so many things in this series – nihilism, bodily mutilation, human trafficking and genetically modified organisms – that I feel unless you are discussing this chapter by chapter with your children under 18 (and most people are not) – how are your kids going to be able to understand these topics with regard to their faith. I’d have to say that this is just the work of the devil prodding at the minds of beautiful young children!Mom – Literature for the Soul
I agree that there’s a lot in this series that could scare or damage young children. However, there is plenty of the same content in two other places: the world and the Bible. I don’t think anyone would recommend keeping your kids completely sheltered from the world or pretending like the less-pleasant parts of the Bible don’t exist. I’m an optimist, but I’m a pragmatist, too.
I completely support the rights of parents to determine what their own children read or watch, and I commend you for taking such an active role in your children’s media consumption. Other parents have made other decisions (or decided not to make them). If you’ve read the books, you can make your own recommendations to other parents. If not, then I suggest you read them for yourself and decide from there.
You might have missed a few points of my review. First, “young adult” means one thing in the Church and another in the publishing world. Second, I did not recommend the series to any specific age group. Third, Katniss is under 18 until the series epilogue, and Suzanne Collins’s stated goal was to portray the effect of war and violence on growing up. Perhaps this series is an opportunity for us to reconsider what kind of world we really have built and are building for future generations.