Justine's Thoughts: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Just a note to everyone: this book was reviewed waaaay back during the time of its release! It just needed a little breather after the whole hype.

Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3)
By Suzanne Collins

Source: Bookstore/Midnight Release Party
Pages: 390
A quote:

What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.

Rating:

5/5

Any thoughts (*No major spoilers, only very vague*):

After months of anxious waiting for the final instalment in The Hunger Games, it’s finally here. And boy, was I ever excited for its release! So incredibly excited that I had to purchase it at midnight, stay up all night to finish reading it, pause and let it all sink in, and then re-read it all over again the next day.

It was such a scary ride, reading Mockingjay. Everything I thought that was going to happen -- well, they didn’t, although I was not disappointed. But all the while, my heart was racing so fast that it felt like I was having a heart attack. Especially during so many heartbreaking moments when I would sob while continuing to read.

I don’t know how Suzanne Collins did it with all the tragic occurrences, but I still loved every single bit of it. The pacing is perfect and I was surprised in the end to go over the numerous events that happened in only 390 pages. The action is fitting, given that Collins explores the topics of war and violence. Most of all, however, it’s the characters that have won me over. One of them is our heroine, Katniss. I adore her fearlessness, her willingness to rise above and her loyalty (and basically every single trait of hers). In Mockingjay, we really see how much she has grown, how much everything she’s been through changed her.

To quote Steff, this book will indeed “suck the soul out of you”. She and I read the first half of it together, pausing for a few moments to express our reactions. Mostly it was shock. It was just surreal.

I’ve never been sad over a series concluding. I can’t even believe that this is only the second series that I finished. The first was twilight, but I wasn’t included in the whole phenomenon at the time of its release. But now that I get to watch it end, it truly breaks my heart knowing that there won’t be another book. Suzanne Collins had made The Hunger Games series unforgettable and unpredictable. It will always be in the back of my mind, that I know for sure.

Justine's Thoughts: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins

Pages:

374

Book Description:

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

A quote:

I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.

Any thoughts:

I lost count of how many times I have been spoiled before reading The Hunger Games. But because I became lost in the book, deeply involved in the matter of everything in it, none of the spoilers affected me. Yes, it is that good. And if you haven’t started the series yet, I suggest you get The Hunger Games and read it now.

One of the things I love is the plot -- very unique, influential, organized, and amazing. The setting Suzanne Collins has created matches this type of plot, and it is so brilliant. You get a vivid picture in your mind of what the world in this book looks like. [(no spoilers ahead) To those who have read it: how did you picture the Cornucopia? I remember it being described as a golden cone that sticks out of the ground, and that’s exactly how I pictured it. But how were people supposed to climb it if it’s a cone? Don’t they slide right down?]

And the thing I love most is the characters. Katniss is a wonderful heroine. I admire her and her strength and her archery skills and everything else. She’s awesome, to say the least. One lucky girl, too. She has two guys pining for her and I do like them both, but I would have to go with Peeta. He is...heartbreaking, and that is all I’m going to say, but it’s true; he makes my heart break. The other guy is Gale, and although we don’t see much of him, he is good for Katniss and if not for Peeta, I would choose him. But anyway, I won’t get into the Eternal Debate (which you take a look at over at Steph Su’s blog).

All I am trying to say is, this book is unbelievably good. And I am absolutely dying of the excruciating pain of waiting for the third book, Mockingjay.

If you would like to view Steff’s thoughts on The Hunger Games, click here.

Steff's Blurbs: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

"You don't forget the face of the person who was your last hope." -Katniss Everdeen

Babbling Blurb:

First of all, I'd like to point out the fact that this review will be anything but a "blurb". There is just much too much to say about this book! Only having joined the blogging community for a few weeks and already hearing endless amounts of praises about The Hunger Games, I decided that I might as well see what all the fuss is about. At first I was a bit skeptical because I have never taken an interest in stories about survival and the wilderness. The fact that the book promised a lot of bloodshed and brutality also added to my doubts. By the 10th page, however, I found myself eating my words. I was hooked and it took all my strength to pace myself and not finish the whole book in one sitting.

For those of you who were like me (aka living under a rock) and don't know what The Hunger Games is all about, I'm happy to provide a quick overview. The story is set in the not-so-distant future where North America is known as Panem. Every year, each of the twelve districts in Panem must send a boy and a girl aged between 12-18 to the Capitol where they will have to participate in the Hunger Games. The horror of it all? The whole point of the game is for the twenty four "tributes" to fight with each other until only one victor remains alive while the whole event is televised all over Panem. When Katniss Everdeen's twelve year old sister, Prim, is chosen to be a tribute for their district, she puts her own life on the line by volunteering to take her sister's place. Before she knows it, Katniss is put right smack in the middle of the Capitol's favourite way to show the nation that they are in control.

I found this novel to be wonderfully written. Collins finds just the right balance of action, brutality, humour, and romance to make this book likeable to anyone. The character development of the main character, Katniss, is flawless. In the beginning she is mostly portrayed as a strong, independent girl who keeps all of her emotions tightly locked. As the story progresses, however, we see that there is a vulnerable side to her and that she is indeed capable of trusting and caring for others besides her sister. We see that, like anyone in the real world, no matter how independent she is, she still needs others to be there for her.

The world that Collins has created is disturbingly easy to imagine. It doesn't take a genius to see the similarities between that reality and our own reality. There is the constant need for power. The horrible fondness to violence. The way it is portrayed as entertainment. The way people overlook the poor. The fact that people shouldn't be judged by how they look. All of this is easily relatable to the world we live in now and this only adds to the value of the novel. I especially find the fact that the people of the Capitol treat the Hunger Games as a sort of Olympics to be especially haunting and disturbing.

Lastly, I need to allow myself to be a hormone-crazed teenage girl. (Insert squeal here.) The romance in this book is just utterly fantastic! There were times where I would be in my room squealing and jumping because of the cute moments scattered all over the book. I don't know how much I should say about this topic except that Peeta Mellark is amazing and if I could, I would keep him all to myself. Hehe. He is just too charming and funny and caring and... fantastic. ^_^ I can't say much about Gale, though, because I don't think they showed him enough in the book for him to be a potential love interest. Right now, I see him as more like a big brother to Katniss than anything else.

Needless to say, Catching Fire (the next book in the trilogy) is just days away from being read. Stay tuned!