Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (2010, 400 pages)


I just finished the first book in Suzanne Collins' trilogy, The Hunger Games, and I found it an exciting book for the world it creates and the constant cliff hanging action.   I had received a Kindle edition of The Hunger Games as a prize in a blog contest.   The next installment in the trilogy is Catching Fire.   Of course I wanted to read that next but I confess not bad enough to pay for it.     I recently have found a useful no cost web page Lendle that connects lenders and borrows of Kindle editions.   It allows you to request books so I requested the two next books in the trilogy.  I was offered the loan of the last book in the trilogy, Mockingjay, so I accepted it.   I read the summaries of book two and I think I am missing a lot but the loan is only for a short time so I read the last book before the middle one.

What I liked best about The Hunger Games was the very interesting details about the world Collins has created.    It really is quite an interesting alternative  account of the future of North America after an apocalyptic war.    I sadly found Mockingjay a let down.   I freely admit maybe I would not feel this way if I had read book two before book three but I did read several posts on the middle book so I at least knew the basic plot action.

My biggest complaint is on the development of the characters.   I did not find the romances of much interest and I was not moved by the use of the central character as a rallying point person.   A lot of the book was about a war and I felt this went on too long.   I began to speed read the book at about the midpoint.   I would still like to read part two, Catching Fire, but only if I can get it as a free loaner.  I  will for sure see the movie in May.   This book is also of interest to me just because it is so huge in the book blog world.   The whole trilogy is all over the book stores of Manila.   It is a quick easy read aimed at the young adult market.  

Is Catching Fire more about the world of the districts than Mockingjay?   Is it a better book?  Did I short change this trilogy by my out of order read?

I still have a request in for a loan of this book so if I get a copy, I will read and post on it.



Mel u

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins (2008, 374 pages)


I never expected until I started reading  The Hunger Games  that a young adult novel set in a post apocalyptic version of North America would be the first book I would finish and post on in 2012.    The Hunger Games is the first work in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins     It and the two subsequent books in the Mockingjay Trilogy are huge best sellers here in Manila and all over the world.    I was lucky enough to win a Kindle edition of The Hunger Games a few days ago.    I was very happy as I do like an occasional change of pace from my normal reading and I do have a fondness for books about dystopic alternative futures.  

I was so captivated by the world that Collins created in The Hunger Games that I read it almost straight through.   I did a Google book blog search on The Hunger Games and there are 100s of posts on it.   Given  this and the fact that I am late to the fair on this book I will not relate the plot.   I will just talk briefly about what I liked about it and what I thought its weaknesses might be.   To get this over with, it is not high art and does not pretend to be.   It is entertainment that can make you think.   I think the intended audience are young bookish teens on up to older readers.   Young adult books are just a huge part of the book blog world.

I think what I liked best about this book was the very believable world that Collins  has created.   She sort of sets out the basic outlines, gives us some details and lets us run with it.   I really liked the idea of the evil Capital Provence creating genetically engineered "war wasps" who leave marks as big as a ping pong ball when they sting you.   Three or four stings can kill.   After the war was over and the Capital area was totally dominate so they left the wasps out in the other provinces just to show who won.   I liked the account of the day to day lives of the ordinary people in District 12, the coal mining district in what used to be the Appalachia area of the USA.

I did not find the characters that well developed and I will say I think I have read stories very like the games that are so central to the plot in some Japanese novels.  

I was kept interested because I wanted to see what would happen next.    Maybe the fact that the people in the story did not grab me that much was due to the fact that I am way out of the demographics of the audience this book is probably meant for.   Given that I liked it a lot and now I have been kindly loaned a Kindle edition of the third book in the trilogy Mockingjay I will read it soon though I am hoping to find a loaner of book two, Catching Fire first.   If I do not, I will read the last book soon as I only have two weeks to read it under the rules of Kindle loaning.  

I endorse this book for sure for young adult readers of cliffhangers (book one for sure leaves you hanging) and those who like books about alternative futures.   There is some violence but no sex.  

I hope to see the movie version which I think is do out in May.


Mel u