On War: A Review of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

There, I have read the outrageously popular YA series that everyone and their kitten has already read. I can be at peace.

In essence, this is a war book. It picks up where Catching Fire left us, with Katniss having been rescued to District Thirteen. They've amassed a rebel army and are intent on taking back Panem from the Capitol. They want to use Katniss as their symbol, their Mockingjay, to appear in propaganda videos and inspire the citizens of Panem to join in the fight. Meanwhile, Peeta is in the hands of the Capitol and is being tortured to insanity.

You know, for kids!

Positive Comments

I like the wartime atmosphere the book creates. It's horrible. Well, it isn't that gory, because this is still a YA. But I like that it doesn't shy away from showing that war sucks, and innocent people die. And sometimes politics are more complicated and corrupt than they appear on the surface. Sometimes war becomes more about winning war than about making lives better. Katniss sees all of this from the unique perspective as a symbol, a pseudo soldier, and a survivor.

I enjoyed all of the secondary character arcs. I saw Gale's transformation from poor coal miner to soldier to death trap constructor to be both natural and fascinating, in its dark way. Seeing Peeta driven to the darker areas of his own mind, and watching his struggle to come out of that, was heart wrenching. I liked Finnick and Annie. I liked Johanna, surprisingly. I like that Prim actually grew a backbone. And, (not to spoil here), I got bummed out for every single character that died, however minor. Except the baddies.

Katniss. She's strong, she's willful, she kicks ass. She becomes this awesome symbol that spurs a nation to war. She's not perfect by any means. She doesn't know how to be a soldier, and she's not great at following orders. She's in love but has no idea what to do about it. I love how Collins developed her, and I like the person she becomes by the end.

Critical Comments

Katniss.  I think she's PTSD and chronic depression just waiting to happen, and while the author succeeded in showing her trauma, I'm not sure she showed her recovery. Looking at the whole trilogy, there's this on going cycle that Katniss is trapped in. Terrible thing happens--> Katniss has minor psychological meltdown--> Other things demand her attention-->Katniss pulls out of meltdown long enough to perform some action-->Terrible thing happens. In the end, the cycle finally breaks when Katniss has her meltdown but she's no longer needed, so there's nothing to pull her out of it. We're told she recovers, but I honestly don't get how. She has no epiphanies. No breakthroughs. No new understanding of herself or the world. She just wakes up and says "Okay, I'll get on with life now." Which felt uncomplicated and unrealistic.

I still do not buy the romance. It still doesn't feel real to me. I believe that these people are in love, because that's what I'm told, but I don't get why. It makes for a nice clean ending, but does not by any means satisfy my romantic leanings.

Recommendation

As YA series go, I do like this one. It's smart, entertaining, and a little gritty. I can see why this is enjoyed both teen and adult audiences, and I do recommend it. 4 stars.

Reading Penguin Goes to the Movies: Hunger Games

Last night was date night, and after sitting through The Muppets no less than three times I was owed my choice of movies, and this is what I wanted to see.

I don't know why I'm always surprised to see families with very small children at movies like this. It's PG-13, not R, so it's not like it's going to contain anything that traumatic, but you would think the subject matter would make some parents think twice. Whatever the case, we sat in front of a family with three girls, the youngest of which was definitely Kindergarten  age or younger, and I worried about noise or seat kicking from them. Surprisingly, the worst that happened was multiple mid-movie bathroom trips.

The truly annoying movie goers were the two college age girls next to me, one of whom had apparently read the book and one of whom had not. The reader spent the entire movie explaining the plot to the non-reader in glorious detail. Everything from details that were only in the book, to stuff that the movie had already explained. I have a low tolerance for people who talk during movies. It gives me the urge to throw things and shout and stab people. And frankly if your too dumb to follow plot lines, you shouldn't go to public movie theaters. Josh hadn't read the book, and he was able to follow. He had a few questions after the fact, but it's not like he was lost.

So that was the movie going experience...what about the movie? I don't even feel like I need to say "It wasn't as good as the book!" because they almost never are, and I went in knowing that. It does take pains to stay pretty close to the source material, which is almost detrimental in this case. Josh's one major complaint was that there were "pacing issues", because it takes such a long time to get to the actual Hunger Games. All of the slower bits and the details of Katnis and Peeta getting reaped and preparing for the games, those things that work really well in the book for fleshing out their characters and making them more sympathetic, feel like filler in a movie setting.

The characters were pretty freaking close to how I pictured them. I felt they picked a good actress for Katnis. No complaints about everyone else. Josh felt that Ceasar and Effie Trinket were "Hammy and over the top", and no amount of my explaining the Capitol attitude and fashion sense could make him see them as anything other than ridiculous. The Capitol did look like they filled an auditorium with anime cos-players, and perhaps that did come across as unintentionally funny.

I liked seeing the gamemakers in action, which of course is missing from the book, since it's told from Katnis's point of view.

The most flawed thing about the movie is the editing and camera work. I'm no expert, but it seems like they made some odd choices there, either in an attempt to create a stylized feel, hide the violence so they could keep their PG-13, or some combination of the two...There were a lot of abrupt, quick cuts, which makes it feel like they're Punctuating. Every. Word. of the. Sentence. And a lot of shaky camera, which was there way of making the violence less overt.

One more comment about the audience: at the end, when the announcer says "Here are the winners of the 74th Hunger Games!" our audience cheered. Guys, I think you missed the point. You're acting like the audiences in the Capitol, who we're supposed to be disgusted with. Our main characters are facing a lifetime of PTSD induced nightmares. Also, cheering at movies is stupid.

Overall, I thought the movie was a solid 3.5/5, and admittedly a lot of the enjoyment came from seeing characters I already like on the big screen. Josh kept using the word "okay" which I interpret to mean average, so I guess his non-reader rating would be more like a 2.5/5. We recommend it, but try not to sit next to illiterate dumb asses.

On Symbols: A Review of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Finishing Hunger Games left me naturally curious to see how an author could possibly follow up a book like that. Since I was able to borrow this book at no cost and very little inconvenience (thanks, Amazon Prime) I decided to read it right away.

If I sound less than fervently enthusiastic, it's because I was afraid that this book might suffer from MBS (Middle Book Syndrome). It happens to novels in the middle of series with a pre-ordained number of books. Remember how Goblet of Fire, book four in the Harry Potter series, was the one with the abrupt tone shift from happy magic boarding school to "Holy crap, people are dying!"? (Although, oddly, I think book 5 was the bigger MBS sufferer in that series). Or there's Lord of the Rings, where so little happens in The Two Towers that you could almost skip it and miss nothing. Crossed by Allie Condie has MBS so bad that the characters spent most of the book wandering around in a canyon waiting for plot to occur. MBS is a serious problem, people. Authors just don't know what to do with that middle book. If all of the exposition and world building goes in the first book(s), and the climax is saved for the last book(s), then we need the middle book to make a bridge between the two--without being boring or losing focus, and it has to still have a satisfying beginning, middle, and end of its own. Keep that in mind when we get to the critical comments.

Enough ranting, what's the plot? That's a damn good question. Basically, Katnis returns to District 12 where she is supposed to be happy and victorious and in love...but in reality, her worries have only multiplied. She has no idea what her feelings for Peeta really are, and there's Gale to consider. The Capitol is out to get her, because her actions in the Games have unintentionally incited rebellion in the districts. The president more or less tells Katnis that if she can't find a way to help diffuse the situation, he will find a way to get rid of her. She and Peeta go on a victory tour of the districts that fails to even slightly diffuse anything.

Positive Comments

It's undeniably readable. I read most of it in a one night nonstop marathon, which I found quite enjoyable. There's action, turmoil, angst, rebellion. Decent pacing. All of the things that make a page turner.

I felt like I understood Katnis better in this book. I had a clearer picture of her motivations and emotions. Basically, she's conflicted. Deep inside, she wants to rebel against the Capitol and fight for a better world. But she can't do so without jeopardizing the important people in her life. So instead of grand gestures of defiance, her rebellion leaks out on impulse and to unpredictable degrees. I also really liked the idea of Katnis unwittingly becoming a symbol for rebellion. She's panicked by it, and sort of bemused, but reluctantly awesome is still awesome.

Critical Comments

The kindest thing I can say about the plot is: at least it's not boring. Boring is perhaps the worst symptom of MBS. Unfortunately, it's still a clear MBS victim for the simple reason that things just don't really happen in this book. Much of Katnis's homecoming is described in an after the fact, detached sort of way that sucks the emotion right out of it. The romantic tension is still lacking for me (more on that in a minute). The climax is basically a repeat of the first book. And then, at the very end of the end, we get a big reveal and a cliffhanger. So really, there's action, it's never boring, but the progress in the overarching plot is next to none.

I don't think Suzanne Collins knows how to create romantic tension. That's not necessarily something to be ashamed of, lots of popular authors can't ("It happens to a lot of guys!"). But with that in mind, I can't imagine why she sets up the Peeta/Gale dilemma for Katnis. I really don't feel emotionally attached to either relationship. There aren't enough raw, genuine moments between Katnis and either of them to really make me believe it's true and everlasting love. She obviously cares for them. She's willing to die for Peeta, but who can tell if that's love or guilt or wanting him to be the leader of the rebellion after she dies? Relationship building in this book fails completely

Recommedation

Obviously if your reading the series, you have to read the middle book. No getting around it. This one suffers from a mild case of MBS, but it could have been a lot worse. So yes, I still recommed it. 3.5 stars.

On Tributes: A Pseudo-Review of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I don't usually read books just because they're popular, and I don't usually read books just because there's a movie coming out. But as I've begun to enjoy more dystopian novels, it became clear to me that I was avoiding this one just because it's popular, and that seemed silly of me.

Even having overcome that, I still almost hesitate to review this because it has frankly been reviewed to death. What can I possibly say about this book that hasn't already been said dozens of times? Probably nothing. So instead of my usual like/dislike/recommendation format, I'm simply going to list what my expectations were when I went into this book--expectations based on what I read, was told, and saw in the movie trailers.

1)It has a strong heroine

Yes, it does. Katnis is a survivor by nature. She's strong and defiant and almost cold. But she has people she loves, people she'll do anything for, and you can't help but like her for that. Even when she does some unlikable things.

2) It's Really Violent!

This tends to be something everyone really focuses on about this book, especially with a PG-13 movie coming out. How are they going to get all that child death with a PG-13 rating?! Oh, easily. I'm not saying this book was a picnic on unicorn island to see the bunny festival, but it wasn't as gory as everyone built it up to me. Eleven of the twenty four contestants die right as the games open, and Katnis only clearly sees one of them happen. Then Katnis hears an idiot who built a fire die, but again sees nothing. Two die from bee stings, one from poison. They don't see Thresh die. A lot of the big deaths happen at night, happen quickly, and could easily be pulled off with very little blood if the film-makers are clever.

That being said, yes, it is a book about death and survival. It's about trying to keep your humanity when you're commanded to kill or die. So there has to be some violence.

3) It's about Defying The System.

This book sets you up for some epic show of defiance against the Capitol. Early on, you realize that Peeta has feelings for Katnis, and she begins to soften toward him as well. So my expectation was that it would come down to the two of them, and Katnis would have this big choice to make. Does she kill him, take her own life, refuse to do anything...this moment was extremely predictable from the beginning of the book. It loses something in the way of epicness as a result. It came across, to me, as a moment of impulsive resistance instead of a conscious decision to dent the system.

4) There's a romance

...That was lukewarm to me. This is where I sort of disliked Katnis. Does she feel anything for Peeta? Not until it becomes convenient too. When she's told they can both win. Then she wants him. Before this point, it doesn't even occur to her to help him. I'm baffled by this decision from the author, to have the Capitol lie to them and thus force them together.  Why not have them come together on their own despite it all? To me, that would have been more rebellious and more romantic and it would have made that final moment of defiance seem as epic as it should have. Instead, I'm left not really trusting Katnis's feelings or the entire romance in general.

Final Thoughts: It's a good novel. It (at least somewhat) deserves it's outstanding popularity. But, to me, it has some serious flaws that will likely keep it off of my Read Again list. 4 stars.