Book Nineteen: MOCKING JAY

Mocking Jay, by Suzanne Collins, 2010.

 


TTR:  A day or two.

Comments:

I liked this book, but I also had less than happy feelings about this book. Blerg. It was frustrating (and, as a writer, completely understandable). Katniss is (again, understandably) a very unlikeable character in this book. She's being churned, once more, through the system. She's being asked to make decisions that go against everything she ever knew or thought she believed. She makes decisions that (SPOILERS) I do not think she should make: namely, to reinstate the Hunger Games one last time. BAD KATNISS. Although, I'm also not sure if this "yes" vote on her part is just her plan to assassinate President Coin or what.

Sorry for the garbled response. Garbed feelings equals garbled review...

Book Eighteen: CATCHING FIRE

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, 2009.
    

TTR:

A few days. I read this during finals week, and although it was great I was pretty burnt out.

Comments:

For some strange reason, this series reminds me greatly of Cormac McCarthy's The Road which (SPOILERS!) is about as pervasively hopeless in terms of world view.

In terms of the series as a whole, I think this was one of my favorite books. Although it feels somewhat abrupt and disorganized at the end, the characters in this book are much more relate-able than the characters in the first. Which is partly because Katniss is forced to move out of the narrow world-view she inhabits in the first book to see the humanity in people she would normally write off as sell outs or evil.

I liked it. *Shrug*

Book Thirteen: THE ROAD

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, published by Random House, 2007.


   

TTR: I read this in about two hours. I could not put it down. In fact, I got a phone call in the middle of reading and it jarred me so badly that I was probably rude to the caller (sorry, mom).

Comments: Aside from the fact that I kept expecting zombies and getting cannibals, I both loved and hated the book. Hurray for my inability to decide, right? The world McCarthy created was so alive for me, which is ironic considering that it is a dead world in this book. The simplicity of the dialogue and plot were poignant.

I *may* have cried at certain heart-rending parts. Ehem.

The ending, though, seemed to undermine itself. It presents a hope that cannot exist in the world McCarthy creates. I also felt very suspicious about the family that adopts the boy at the end.