Mockingjay book review part 2

The Hunger Games series book 3: Mockingjay (by Suzanne Collins), part 2 of the review

*major plot spoiler warning through out*

Suddenly, I mean suddenly we are told that the fight in every Districts had already been settled, saved for the battles in District 2 and the Capitol. The rebels had already taken control of almost all of the country, oh really? I was a bit caught by surprise, especially after the author, Miss Collins had remained us for many times the Capitol is so powerful and unforgiving.

However, I could still turn a blind eye on how seemingly effortless battles had been won in that story. Because after that the story finally took a turn for the better, e.g. Finnick and Annie's wedding, Katniss's friendship with Johanna and Katniss' attempt to reach out for an armed solider from District 2 and called for a cease fire, those are the good parts of the story, at least as a reader I could emotionally related myself with Katniss and the other characters, and I didn't feel like I was reading a poorly written fanfiction anymore.

Call me a whiny, but what I couldn't overlook is how awful some of the characters' names are. I mean just look at those monstrous names: Pee--ta, Bee--tee, Mad--ge, Leeg, Glimmer (a tribute from Book 1), Wire--ss, whoever given them those names deserve a good spanking.

When the battle with District 2's diehard soliders dragged on, Gale made a plan to trap the soldiers and citizens alike in their mountain hideout by causing an avalanche. Gale's method is an controversial one, but I have to say I'd seen the cold logic in his plan, within the point of view of tactics, Gale's plan made sense, despite the casualties.

So here comes the moral dilemma. Winning by killing the innocents along with soliders; or winning the hard way by sending your own troop out and let them fight to their death?

That surely is a difficult question with no easy answer. The most I can think of is that dirty deeds need to be done when things got extreme, even though it still doesn't justify the killing of the innocents. However I'd rather people to be honest and admit it, deal with the fact and circumstances instead of putting on 'holier than thou' face. I mean, hey Katniss! If the idea of killing citizens along with soldiers really bothers you that much, you wouldn't have been just sitting around and watching. If Gale and the other rebels are guilty of killing people in District 2, then Katniss is too.

Shortly after taking out District 2, the battle moved on to the Capitol. It's supposed to be the clamix of the story, right? But instead of things being heated up, soon as Katniss and Team 451 went on to the Capitol for a mission, everything got a nose-dive to the worse.

Again I want to point out the action scenes are quite good, but I hate it when Miss Collins started killing her characters all over again in such a wasteful, pointless manner; like she did it simply because she could. Of course I didn't expect everyone to make it alive without losing a single lock of hair, but...let's see what happened to Finnick, to Boggs and other secondary characters in the team who were more or less just put there to be killed off. It's just pointless. Why brought those characters forward only to kill them off 50 pages or so later? Why bother?

Then I also had problem with the mission itself. At first Team 451 was supposed to be shooting some footage in the Capitol, then things went wrong and a few team members were killed, the team's commander, Boggs was fatally wounded and he handed control over to Katniss before he died. Then Katniss decided that she'd take her team members to do a self-assigned mission to assassinate President Snow......I don't particularly like this development, I think risking your team members' lives to assassinate Snow is not a wise, worthy and responsible thing to do, but I can still stomach such a development... But what had ever been came out from this self-assigned mission? Nothing. Just Nothing.

One after another, members of Team 451 fell down during the fight, only Katniss, Gale and a few members made it to somewhere near Snow's mansion; Katniss and Gale almost made it to the very mansion,  but then a bomb went off, killing a bunch of children, with Katniss' sis Prim among them.

Katniss just lost it when she saw her sister died, then she was dragged back to District 13, suffering another mental breakdown. As to Snow? Under lock and key (finally!). But the main problem is, after losing almost all her friends for the mission, after losing her sister, Katniss didn't even achieve her goal, the same goal that her team members had also put so much faith and effort upon. So even the mission and their death are pointless, POINTLESS.

It looks like the author, Miss Collins just wanted to tell us despite how hard you try, it's just pointless, she just had to kill every single bit of the hope that's left, regardless of story-telling and whatsoever.

By the end of the story things also get pretty confusing and rushed. For example by the end of the mission, did the secondary characters Cressida and Pollux ever make it out alive after the battle? No word about them whatsoever.

Prim's death, like many other reviewers had already pointed out, is more like a plot device than anything else. In the book, Snow insisted that Prim's death was plotted beforehand and then exploited afterward by Coin, but in my opinion; Miss Collins used Prim as thoroughly as Coin did.

Plus Katniss' reaction to her sisiter's death is as awful as how the death itself had been handled by the author: She lost it, got a mental breakdown, had to be drugged and be 'out of it' for days. Although it's understandable that Katniss would break down after losing her sister. But why we never know whether Katniss got to see her sister's remain for the last time, was there any final goodbye, or did she go to her sister's funeral, or even if there ever was a funeral in the first place. None of these are mentioned, like it doesn't matter, though it should have mattered because it's her beloved sis for goodness' sake!

Then there's a plot twist about Coin being the mastermind beyond the bombing of those Capitol's children and Prim. But instead of being thrilling, the said plot twist looks more like it's plot twist for the shock value's sake. If Coin really, really thinks sending Katniss' sister to a death trap is a good way to win Katniss' loyalty over, then she is not as cunning as everyone had given her credit of. A cunning person would not come up with such a poorly designed scheme, they just wouldn't. Anyone in their right mind would realize as long as Katniss is still the face of the revolution---their revolution, then Prim would very much need to be kept alive as a hostage. Simple logic speaking, a dead hostage is simply of no use. On the other hand, if Katniss is by that point no longer important for the revolution, then why on earth would Coin ever bother to send Prim, a 13 years old, to die? Killing those Capitol's children alone would be enough to make Snow look bad.

The aftermath of the war is just as unsatisfying. If 'No more Hunger Games!' is Katniss' belief, then by the end of the book she failed to stand up for her belief! Not before and after she shot Coin. Even her own trail went by without her taking part to defend herself. She didn't tell people: "Coin is evil because she wanted to start the Hunger Games anew! I couldn't allow that to happen! I have to stop her and make sure no child is ever used again!" Instead other people lied for her so she was classified as insane and got dumped back to District 12. The truth about Coin and her plan was never exposed.

That's just wrong.

To me, after Katniss shot Coin and then got dragged away from public's view, her trail came and went without her ever being present, it's when the Mockingjay, the symbol of revolution, hope and unification, died thorough and thorough. Worse still, as it turned out, Katniss was the one who killed it with her own hands.

Plus the story also died with the Mockingjay after the assassination drama ended.

After Coin's death, Paylor, a minor character we barely know anything about, become the next president. And somehow we're supposed to believe everything's alright again with Paylor in power. How come? If Katniss was classified as insane and she never publicly explained her assassination of Coin is an attempt to stop The Hunger Games. Why wouldn't people keep carrying Coin's plan, like:"Poor Coin got killed by that crazy girl, let's forget about her and start a new Hunger Games with the Capitol's children in it!"

After the assassination of Coin, I was shocked to see Bella Swan become the main character of this story. Katniss Everdeen, where did you go? So instead of fighting till the end, Bella Katniss tried desperately to figure out how to commit suicide; after she returned to 12, she spent months doing nothing but sitting around in her house like a zombie, other people must take care of her. Wait......did I see something similar before? Oh yes, New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. But at least Katniss had the excuse of being traumatized by war and her sister's death.

As to the ending, basically I just don't give a damn, it's pointless to see a dead inside girl carrying on living, it's no better than watching a zombie wanders around even though she's still living and breathing.

I didn't expect the book to be a propaganda for heroism, but I did want the main character to be more than just a weakling. Plus I notice that Miss Collins seemingly wants the plot of Mockingjay to fit into her anti war, anti heroism propaganda other than telling the life story of a young girl. Yes, I feel characters are cheapened and boxed into something OOC (out of character) to suit Miss Collins' anti war agenda than having the chance to naturally grow and develop: Gale got a personality shift and became a war-maniac, Snow and Coin stereotyped and stupid-ized (if there's such a word...), Peeta got the cheap excuse of being brainwashed, Katniss being reduced into a weakling, that's just sad. I feel sad for those characters who got so manhandled by their creator.

By the way, supposedly Collins was inspired by the myth of Theseus, but the more I read her Hunger Games series, the less I buy this story. Check Wiki for 'The Hunger Game'; you'll see a 'See Also' at the very bottom, and from there you'll find the mention of Battle Royale, The Running Man, The Lottery, The Long Walk etc. Ah huh, If you really think The Hunger Games is all that original and ground breaking, think again please.

You know what? the Theseus myth is about teenagers being sent into the maze as sacrifice to the monster. And Theseus went there to kill the monster, saving those teenagers. The myth never mentions anything about teenagers being ordered to kill one another, nor the rule about only one survivor left, or the backpacks with food or weapons in them. However, those details are all there in Battle Royale. I honestly hadn't read The Running man, The Lottery or The Long Walk so I don't know whether there's any similarity there. I'm not talking about plagiarism, but in my opinion Collins saying she got inspired by the Theseus myth is as likely as Stephenie Meyer claiming the idea of Twilight came from a dream, only that she never tells you it was a dream she got after reading The Vampire Diaries.

In an interview, Christopher Nolan the director of Inception freely acknowledged the existence of cyberpunk pioneers such as The Matrix trilogy and even the lesser-known Dark City. You know, it doesn't hurt to admit you drew inspiration from/got influenced by someone else' works.