Comments on: Mockingjay

By: Hannah

Hannah — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:53:24 +0000

Maybe one of the reasons why Collins didn’t have Katniss involved in the remaking of Panem was because Katniss never wanted to be involved in that type of stuff. Really, I think she just wanted to be left alone. The only reason why she even decided to become the Mockingjay was to save Peeta.
But it would have been nice if she had wanted to be involved.

I agree with the Katniss not doing anything. That bugged me a lot. I got excited when her and her team started to make their way through the Capitol thinking that she was going to do something significant but no, she just catches on fire.

I didn’t like Prim dying at all. I know it’s war, and Collins writing is realistic ( one of the things I love about it. It’s not just a yay-everybody-magically-survived-books) but that with Finnick dying was . . . depressing.

Even though I didn’t like some parts in the book, the series is still one of my favorites.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:34:06 +0000

Same here– I didn’t *love* it while reading, because I kept waiting for the story to start. But it was really after finishing, and thinking and talking about it, that I realize just how big of a disappointment it was.

It occurs to me that Collins did not really have a story for Katniss, post-THG.

By: Jess

Jess — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:46:31 +0000

Ha ha, sorry, Carolyn, we’re terrible at responding to comments. But yeah, pretty much everything you said. The further away I get from the incredibly gripping prose and my hoping against hope that the book would be perfect, the more disappointed I am in it. And I’m wondering what happened, because, you know, Collins has never gotten below a perfect score here before. I wonder if she suffered from the Rowling problem and wasn’t as strictly edited on this because she’s been such a sensation? Normally I’d have more faith in David Levithan than that, but something clearly went wrong along the way.

By: carolyn

carolyn — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:26:40 +0000

Right? ….right?

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:47:47 +0000

Let me first acknowledge that I am BITTER. That said, let me point out that the majority of your review describes ENORMOUS FLAWS with Mockingjay. So that while you enjoyed the book, you are also saying that 1) the heroine didn’t have a complete story arc, 2) the heroine was rendered passive for like 2/3 of the book, 3) much of the book was “told”, rather than “shown,” because of Katniss being either unconscious or, again, passive and not involved in the rebellion’s main action, 4) the climax of the book fell flat, 5) the messaging of the book was both confusing and yet the only way to justify the structural crimes of the story (e.g. Prim dying). I could go on.

I’ve thought about it, talked about it, and I think Mockingjay was just NOT VERY GOOD. And Jess, you KNOW how crazy I am about THG, so this breaks my heart. But this was ridiculously bad. A friend of mine articulated it fairly well here: http://cosetteferaud.livejournal.com/49418.html (I disagree with her on Gale and the epilogue, but won’t say it’s not valid critique) Also, if you’re interested in further critique, I think the run of 3-star reviews currently on amazon are all insightful and astute: http://www.amazon.com/Mockingjay-Final-Book-Hunger-Games/product-reviews/0439023513/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_3?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addThreeStar (particularly Ilana’s review)

My last point is that I have heard “Twilight” criticized endlessly because its heroine doesn’t do anything and is, what do you know, unconscious during the book’s climax. I don’t see a difference here.