strange and random happenstance: Katniss

Showing posts with label Katniss. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Book Review - Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay

Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic
Publication Date: August 24th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
"Fire is cathing. And If we burn, you burn with us." Katniss may be out of the area and in the medical ward of District 13, but she is not out of the games. The inhabitants of 13 lead a very ordered life with everything planned and regimented, from your schedule printed on your arm when you wake, to how much food you need to survive. All of which Katniss ignores, choosing to sleep and hide. But President Coin has plans for how they will destroy the current government and the Capital. Plans that hinge on Katniss being the Mockingjay. After much to and fro Katniss acquiesces. But President Coin's use of Katniss is very similar to her use in the hunger games... Katniss will be the face of the rebellion with staged skirmishes and perfectly disarrayed hair. In other words, the rebellion will be just as fake as the government it is trying to destroy. The problem is Katniss rings false, she can't act, so in the end she gets just what she wanted, action. She's thrown into situations with her own film crew who then create the rebellion's propaganda. The capital retaliates with Peeta and a few bombs, the rebels counterattack with harsh truths of prostitution and poisonings. One thing is clear, having any of the victors at the mercy of the Capital is now unacceptable and a jail break is planned. They succeed, but maybe they were meant to. Peeta has been turned against them with all his memories distorted so that he no longer trusts Katniss and attempts to kill her. Having the one thing she was sure of yanked out from under her she realizes that it's time to step it up and take on the Capitol on their home turf. A home turf that has been rigged and bobby trapped more elaborately than any arena ever. As the death toll rapidly rises and mutts are at their heals, it is clear that Katniss doesn't plan to survive if she can win. But can you trust anyone? President Snow may be evil, but he has never hidden the fact. A new regime that is built on false promises and hidden cruelty could be a greater sin than letting the current leaders stay. But the real question is, will there be another Hunger Games?

The final book lived up to my expectations, true or not true? Not true, sadly. While I think, in the end, everyone ended up where I wanted them to be, there were some people left missing. Suzanne Collins killed some characters I can never forgive her for. Yes, I know it's a rebellion, yes, I know casualties are inevitable, but still, there are some people who shouldn't die. There are some people who should be safe. This is fiction, you can have the good live and the bad punished. Despite it being a chilling depiction of war, let some innocents live please! I think that's where this book failed me, it's just a long war. Katniss is a pawn at the mercy of this giant war machine where we don't get the minute to minute struggles, we get the greater picture while Katniss spends a lot of her time in a drug induced haze. This book is so contemporary while being a distopian future that it's jarring. The human race has fought and will always fight, maybe even to the brink of extinction. But it's the battle scared, drug addicted, pained wrecks that are left to re-create the world, when all they want to do is retreat. The characters seemed to have lost themselves and we are left with shells. It's a PTSD lineup of who's the most damaged. It's almost as if everyone has become Haymitch. They all have a crutch but have all lost their sense of humor. I am glad it's over, I'm glad they won, but I'm still sad because I feel like it could have been so much more than a post apocalyptic version of The Hurt Locker.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Katniss, Mockingjay, Peeta, President Coin, President Snow, PTSD, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, The Hurt Locker

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Book Review - Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 1st, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 391 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

It has been six months since Peeta and Katniss defied the government and were both crowned "victor" of The Hunger Games. Six months where things have achieved some sense of normalcy. Katniss' family and Peeta now live in the victor's village with Haymitch and they are now, more then ever before, an extended family. Katniss still hunts and is uncertain how things are with Gale, there was a tentative kiss, but that could mean anything...But now the tour of the Districts is upon them and Katniss has a rather terrifying visit from President Snow. There is disquiet and rumors of rebellion and Katniss must quell these uprisings with her overwhelming public displays of affection to Peeta to prove once again to the world that she and Peeta are not revolutionaries but two kids so in love they didn't understand the meaning of their actions. But it is obvious that the actions of two kids can not make up for the horrors that people have suffered at the hands of the capital, not even the prospect of Katniss and Peeta getting married can put out the fire that has been lite under these people. The only questions remains...with this year being the 75th anniversary of The Hunger Games, the thrid ever quarter quell...how can the Capital make Katniss pay for what she has done?

While I enjoyed the first book in Suzanne Collins' series it really did not grip me like Catching Fire did. I think this is down to two distinct factors, more of a glimpse into the post apocalyptic society that is Panem and character growth. In the first book, while I loved what we saw of District 12, it just wasn't enough, we were too quickly taken away to the candy coated world of the Capital, which I don't really like, except as a contrast to the lives in the Districts. While I can see the reasoning for Collins' doing this in the first book, seeing as each District is kept compartmentalized from each other, I really wanted to know more. But in a book written in first person narration, we can only expect to know what Katniss knows, which at the beginning is not so much, seeing as she lives within this compartmentalized society. Once she wins though she becomes something more to society, and I'm not talking about as a rallying point for a revolution, I'm talking about being above those she grew up with in her District, but also being not on the same footing as those in the Capital. Even more so because in District 12 there are only three others like her, but three others who when combined with the other past victors are an oddity to this society, but eventually they become something so much more. So with her new found "other" status she starts to learn more and therefore we learn more. We get to see the other Districts, though not in as much detail as I was initially expecting within the context of the "Victory Tour," it was enough to show Panem more completely. Also later on through Katniss' interactions with the other previous victors we learn more about each district, where the seafood comes from, where electronics come from, and by the availability of these goods the uprisings can be charted. It's a whole fascinating structure of Districts as basically serfdoms, and I just can't get enough of it! This is what I was looking for in the first book and I finally got it delivered!

But what I find most important is the character development. In the first book Katniss herself as such an autonomous little person, she has her few people who matter to her, but she has basically shut out the world around her. Again, this was on purpose, but she really kept infuriating me with her obliviousness to the world around her, her inability to see that she was loved and respected by those near her, Peeta in particular. When she won, when she finally grasped that the game she was playing meant something entirely different to Peeta, a wall finally cracked, something actually broke through to her. Therefore the Katniss we see in Catching Fire is a little more mature, a little more willing to let people in, a little more willing to expand her family circle and help others. Also a little more willing to fight for those she loves, and not just Prim this time, but for Peeta and Gale and for the past victors. She has forged alliances and not ones that will be easily broken when the time comes, but ones that mean something, ones that she will be willing to risk the wrath of the government for. She had to come to this realization of the world around her in order for her to become the person she needed to be in order to embrace revolution. You can not fight for something you can't grasp. When all you see or feel is that which affects you, then you are never going to hoist the banners, sound the trumpet and fight for the greater good. Katniss has become an empathic being, as have others, even some of the Capitals residents, and as an empathetic person I can relate far better to someone who feels the same and is not so self reliant and walled in. This is a Katniss I can like as well as admire. And who knows...empathy could easily be the emotion that could end these games forever...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:31 AM 4 comments

Labels: Book Review, Catching Fire, District 12, Katniss, Panem, Peeta, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Book Review - Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: October 1st, 2008
Format: Hardcover, 374 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

In the land that was once North America is Panem, a nation of districts that bow to the capital. Once there were 13 districts, then a revolution and an uprising led to 12 districts and the Hunger Games as punishment. Every year two tributes, a boy and a girl between 12 and 18, are sent from each district to participate in the Hunger Games for the capital's amusement and their continued obedience. The sole winner is chosen by them killing every other child out in the arena, which is designed by the gamemakers to be harder and more difficult then the year before. We follow Katniss, a poor girl from District 12. Only one person has ever won from her district, Haymitch, so people reaped from District 12 are seen as fodder for the canons, especially when Katniss' little sister Prim is chosen during her first reaping. Katniss then volunteers to take Prim's place, Prim was supposed to be safe her first year... Her co-competitor is Peeta, the baker's son who once showed her a kindess and who she will actually regret killing. They make their way to the capital, with Haymitch and Effie, their bubbly "handler." Once in the capital they are transformed into the capital ideal of what contestents should look like and then trained up a bit on basic combat and then sent into the arena. The arena is where the majority of the action happens and where alliances are forged and shattered and where the winner is finally crowned. I will not spoil the ending, but it's pretty easy to guess seeing as the book is written in first -person narration.

The Hunger Games is immensely popular, with it's follow up Catching Fire out yesterday. Personally, it took a long time for me to get into it, but I am glad that I stuck with it. I kept repeating, wait until the games begin to make my final decision, as the games are what the book is really about, and that's where I fell for the book. I didn't have issues with the idea of the games themselves, this seemed like a plausible post-apocalyptic, feral society thing to do, I had problems with the other "reality television" elements. While the game itself feels filtered through the future society, the "make-over" and the appearances of the capital's inhabitants seemed a little too colorful, candy coated and too obvious a reference to shows like Extreme Makeover and America's Next Top Model with a hint of Project Runway. I get that this is a reflection of our society, at times it seemed like she was beating me over the head with it. Also every time she mentioned the outrageous colors of hair of the capital's inhabitants, all sleek, shiny and funky I was reminded a little to closely of the movie The Fifth Element, and I am sure she did not want her book to be thought of in the same light as that horrid movie. I know it was to contrast the stark existence of Katniss to the elite, but it was too comical and heavily reminded me of the Dr. Who episode when the two robots try to "extreme-make-over" Captain Jack with a chainsaw. Which I might add, Dr. Who did very well and Suzanne Collins not so much.

The overall plot structure was a bit too predictable, has a first person narrator really died that often? Plus with Haymitch trying to "couple" Katniss and Peeta I kept thinking, perhaps the rules might change...sure enough I was right. But I admire Collins in that despite the plot's overall predictability, I was still glued to the book. A final thought, I find Katniss a little too hard and heartless at times. I get that it's the society she has been raised in and the life she leads, but some of the things she does to poor Peeta. She can't be that oblivious can she? Also Haymitch's "strategy" for the games with regards to Peeta and Katniss sometimes veered on the edge of too much, almost like they are being pushed into a physical relationship, a bit like they are whores. But in the end, whatever I might say, I can't wait for the next installment, I have too many questions I want answered to cover here, but hopefully I will have some answers shortly (she types as she reaches for Catching Fire).