As anticipated, I sat down on Monday night and read Mockingjay, the third part of the Hunger Games trilogy. If I'm being honest, I read it too quickly. Once things got going it was really hard to put down, and my impatience to find out what happened meant that I was practically speed-reading towards the end. Still, it was worth it.
Ok, so I then had to sit down last night and re-read the last few chapters, but that's somewhat of a habit that I've got into lately with the end of trilogies. It's nice to take a little while to reflect on what happened, and then return to pick up the nuances that were missed. And somehow it's much more satisfying to be able to just relaxing into the situation knowing what will happen. That is if you liked the ending of course. Probably if you hated the ending then it wouldn't be such a good thing.
Thankfully though, I got the ending I wanted. Selfish, maybe, but right from the first book I knew exactly how, in my mind, one of the plotlines should finish. And it did. Which is good, as it means I didn't have to get annoyed at the book. It would have been a shame to get annoyed with it, particularly given how beautifully crafted the whole country of Panem is.
This is where I have a difficulty. One thing I've really been trying while writing about the books I read is to not include spoilers. It would be great if my babble encouraged someone to pick up a book they might otherwise not try. And generally this is easy enough. But when you're writing about the third book in a trilogy which involves lots of killing it becomes difficult to write about the characters without spoiling earlier books.
Having thought about this, my advice is for you to go read the first two books now and then come back again. Or just carry on anyway.
A lot of conflicting feelings appear throughout this story, with Katniss struggling to decide on where her future should lie. Should she keep hoping that Peeta will be safe or instead try to build a future with Gale? Should she keep her head down or agree to be the face of the rebellion? So granted, they're quite life-changing decisions, but there a few occasions on which I just wanted to knock some sense into her. Well, many occasions actually.
My sister and I discussed the trilogy yesterday and she commented that as the time in the Arena is her favourite bit, she liked the third book the least. I can definitely see that point of view. The moments in the Arena seem the most thought through, with the attention to detail and raw emotion. The idea flows throughout the third book that Katniss performs best when she is just being herself, and I think that when she is fighting for her survival, or someone else's, she really shines through.
I had my reservations during the second book about how many events had been set off so quickly, however it definitely wasn't as extreme as it could have been. I liked the way a lot of the events were handled. The brutality of war situations wasn't covered up, and the idea of klling others wasn't glorified. It was just there, as something that was happening and couldn't be avoided. And the aftermath of emotions were there too.
My favourite character stayed the same from the moment they were introduced in the first book to the very last page of the last book. This could mean that I'm loyal, that they are the best-written character, or that they are the one I sympathise with the most. Maybe it's all three, I don't know. But as it always seems sad to read a book and not truly want at least one character to succeed, I would say this did its job.
Definitely read the Hunger Games trilogy. Even if it's not your normal sort of book, give it ago. I'm not sure if I'll have chance to read it again, but get the feeling it will be playing on my mind for a while. And after the beautifully described last few chapters I have no desire at all to watch the film(s), there are just too many favourite moments for the filmmakers to get wrong.
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