Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

by Suzanne Collins

[ladygrey]

There really wasn't much to like about this book. There was the conclusion to the this story, continuing developments with the characters and the world. But no moments that were exciting, or touching, or worth really enjoying.

For starters, I don't like Katniss at all. The prior two books highlighted her strengths. She's brave and she has some good instincts when it comes to hunting or battle and a little bit of compassion (as long as she doesn't have to extend it to anyone she actually cares about). In the first book she's even complicated and interesting but instead of working through that, of growing and understanding herself and harnessing the power within her she completely devolves as the story continues. She's shown herself throughout all three books to be an atrocious judge of character. She makes idiotic assumptions about people. She's mean. She's selfish. She's hypocritical. Peeta talks about the effect she has on people but I don't see it. Other than her few, small qualities there's nothing to like and even less so when she spends most of this book wallowing in despair. It's not interesting.

And I don't understand anything [a:Suzanne Collins|153394|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1285984570p2/153394.jpg] did with Gale in this book. I mean, I do because she was working to isolate Kat from him so she'd make sense with Peeta at the end. But there are a dozen other ways to go about that in ways that wouldn't betray his character. Almost everything he did in this book felt inauthentic to him. Kat's alone and hurt and despairing and all I could think is, 'Where's Gale?' When she's in the hospital again and again, where is he? When she's depressed and reclusive, why isn't he looking for her? It didn't make any sense at all that a guy who loves her; who knows her better than anyone else in the world; who understands how she works; who was such a huge part of her returning to normality after the death of her father wouldn't be there by her bedside; wouldn't be seeking her out to comfort her or tell her to get off her ass and do something about it; wouldn't be the one fighting for them to go hunting, to get her out in the open air to help her find herself again.
Instead of all those things that would have made sense, Kat is absolutely and unfairly unforgiving toward him even though she manages to reconcile with every single other person in her life (including, in a twisted way, Snow), no matter what they've done to her. She chooses to turn against him and doesn't even blink. One small moment is this catalyst to her not being able to trust him, not turning to him when she's spent two books talking about how Gale always understands her and is always there for her. She's mean and she's selfish and she's hypocritical.
It was the hypocritical part that bothered me the most. Because everything she said about why she didn't like him anymore was everything she admitted about herself when Peeta really saw her. So you hate him for being everything you are and yet you accept those qualities within yourself. What kind of sense does that make? And in District 2 how she was appalled Gale was willing to kill those Peacekeepers when she's spent the entire book talking about how she wanted to kill Snow. It was a more impersonal killing for Gale, but he even said it was because of everything the Peacekeepers did to District 12. It was the same root of vengeance that she's thriving on but can't accept in him.

It was just dumb.

Also it was too political. I get what you're saying. I've been reading for two books now this post-apocalyptic world of decay and hubris and violence. I don't need you to say it out loud. Mel Gibson in Apocolypto was more subtle.

And then, of course, I didn't like the ending. Was it really necessary to kill EVERYONE? I get that the nature of this story doesn't lend itself to a happy ending. There's been too much violence and betrayal and death for the characters to emerge unscathed. But I just couldn't accept Kat's unending despair. Because people do recover from awful things. Audrey Hepburn even said, "People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed... never throw out anyone." Healing and restoration and redemption are as much a part of human nature as despair and destruction. I don't like that she only accepted one side of who we are.
She didn't even name her children at the end. She was cold and unfeeling and there was no sense of love in Kat or in her life. Which was one more reason not to like a thing about this girl I've followed through three books.

And I don't like that.