Dystopian Fiction | Book Chatter

Mockingjay Book Cover

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Mockingjay
By Suzanne Collins
Scholastic, Inc.
August 2010
400pp

The Short of It:

Although I enjoyed the series as a whole, this last book was a total letdown.

The Rest of It:

I imagine that the pressure to write a satisfying third installment to this series was great, but from the get-go the book sort of limps along with poor pacing and writing that was so forced in places that it actually made me wince. I mean really, what happened here?

In my opinion, I feel as if the author did not event attempt to deliver with this one. Why bother? People will buy it, good or bad just because of the popularity of the series itself. I am so angry over this book that I would have thrown it across the room had it not been on my Kindle.

Things that contributed to my dislike of the book:

-Katniss. I never got the “girl on fire” thing. To me, that title belongs to a heroine that blazes a path to victory. Katniss is SO not that. The constant self-deprecating, the wide-eyed innocence, etc. Girl!! Get a grip. Get it together and kick some ass!

-Gale. What happened to my lovely Gale? Bitterness! Although a lot of you may think differently, this is the only character that I feel was true in the end. Yeah, he was a bit more violent in this book and seemed to have a blatant disregard for human life, but I could see where he was coming from. His eyes were on the prize, so to speak and that prize was not Katniss. I can’t fault him for that. I mean, how many times can a guy be turned down? My issue with him is that if he really wanted to end up with Katniss, he should have fought for it as he did for everything else.

-Peeta. Good lord. What the hell happened to Peeta? I know he was brainwashed but come on, even before the brainwashing he was…meh. He always seemed so juvenile to me and not as mature as some of the other characters. Supposedly he was a good-looking hunk with curls but it seemed as if he was sort of vacuous in my book.

-The suicide pill. So much mention of the pill yet no one took it. I sure wish some of them had.

-The entire book had this detached quality to it. Big things would happen but there would only be a little bit of description about it. Usually a startling image to send it home instead of a paragraph or two and then the chapter would predictably end with a shocking sentence like “…and then his legs blew off.” Ugh.

-The pomp and circumstance. The costumes and make-up and base zero beauty were all too much for me. Perhaps if I thought they were going on a true hero I’d think differently, but for Katniss? Seemed like a waste of good lip gloss to me.

-Prim. Killing off Prim in a one-liner seemed like a pot shot to me. She was one of the few characters that seemed to have her act together.

-Finnick. Sort of the same feeling here. No future for the good ones I guess.

-Katniss deciding to have kids just because Peeta wanted them. What? So now you are breeding weak-minded, ambiguous little darlings to boot?

Overall, I found myself cringing throughout the book. The story itself, the plot to destroy the Capitol had promise but with such a weak crew carrying out the orders, it’s no wonder it fell apart.

When they put that crack-pot team of snipers into one special unit I couldn’t help but think they were leading the lambs to slaughter. I suppose at the end they succeeded in taking down the Capitol and that could be interpreted as success but I would have preferred a true battle of the wits instead of them putting on wigs and going undercover.

Source: Purchased for Duckie (my Kindle).

This World We Live In
Susan Beth Pfeffer
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
April 2010
239pp

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

It’s been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. For Miranda Evans life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

The Short of It:

A solid follow-up to the first two books. Equally engaging but lacking that element of surprise.

The Rest of It:

This World We Live In is book three in the Life As We Knew It series and I must say, it has been a very enjoyable series for me. Not enjoyable in the traditional sense but there’s something to be said for a book that completely takes you away to another time and place. This place being a world, devastated by a catastrophic event where food and water are no longer a given. In this book, Alex and Julie from book two cross paths with Miranda and her family and they are all forced to live with one another while trying to figure out what do with the lives that they’ve been given. Do they stay? Do they leave? Is there a future for them somewhere else?

If I were in this situation, I’d be terrified of venturing out into the unknown. Especially if I had children that I was responsible for and this is the situation here. Laura, does not want to leave the house. She is comfortable at home with her four kids, Miranda, Jon, Matt and his new wife Syl, but when Miranda’s dad shows up with his wife, a baby and three other strangers tension begins to rise. Some feel it would be better to move on, others feel it would be better to stay put and what about food? What little there was before now has to stretch to feed these additional people.

What I like about this series is that the characters are very resourceful and believable. There’s no getting comfortable when you have that many people trying to survive. They are constantly taking inventory and figuring out ways to get more of what they need. I was also very glad that the story was told from Miranda’s point of view. Much of the story is shared through her journal entries which lend an authentic air to the story. What I didn’t care for, was how fast she and Alex fell in love. I know there’s the whole “end of the world” thing going on but it didn’t seem right. The two personalities didn’t mesh for me. That’s really a small quibble because even though I didn’t buy the relationship, it did symbolize hope and put a positive spin on an otherwise dire situation.

This book didn’t have the same feel as the first two books because we’ve already been introduced to what created this situation and we’ve already gotten a feel for what’s it’s like to be hungry (and cold) but I say… read it anyway. This is gripping stuff. Once you pick it up, you have to finish it. I know this is the end of the line as far as the series, but it’s open-ended enough where there could be more books. Ms. Pfeffer? Are you listening?

Source: Jill was kind enough to send me her copy as I was like a puppy dog, pressing my nose up against the glass. Thanks Jill!

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