Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

WARNING: For those who haven’t read The Hunger Games or Catching Fire, there are spoilers in this review.

THE DETAILS

Mockingjay is the third and final book in "The Hunger Games" trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It was published in 2010 (last Tuesday, actually) and is 390 pages long, for those who care to keep track.

THE SUMMARY

Katniss Everdeen has survived her second run in the Hunger Games and now her world has exploded. Literally. Her home, District 12, has been destroyed. Her best friend, Gale, and her family have luckily escaped, but Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist, and a revolution has been set in motion. Now Katniss must decide whether or not to fulfill the role that she was designed to play in it: The Mockingjay. The symbol of the rebellion, with the power to decide the fate of Panem. Will she rise to the responsibility, at her own personal cost?

THE REVIEW

Mockingjay was one of the books I had been waiting for all year. I picked it up as soon as the store opened (along with a sweet keychain) and after 6 hours of reading, finished it the same day. It was that intense. So intense that I needed to take a few days to mull over what I had just read. No doubt that I’ll be reading it again very soon. However, I apologize in advance if this review feels a little more ambiguous than my other ones. I found it was difficult to talk about the book without spoiling the story for those who haven’t read it. Anywho...

I found myself incredibly satisfied with how this book unfolded and concluded. When I started reading it, I really had no idea what to expect, nor did I have any guess as to how it was going to end. Definitely the darkest of the three, Mockingjay didn’t have the same style that the other two books had. But given the nature of the plot, I don’t think there is any way that it could have fit the same pattern anyway. Not with a country-changing revolution going on. Collins does a good job showing us that in war, nobody wins. She is not nice to her characters, and didn’t believe in softening anything for her readers either. Characters die. Characters change. Nobody is the same as they were in the first book, Katniss most of all. While battling with her inner Peeta/Gale-I-can’t-live-without-either-of-them-but-can-really-only-have-one feelings (which I loved), she manages to demonstrate courage, and an honor for life that she didn’t really exhibit in the first book. No doubt this is the result of everything that has happened to her so far. I mean, having a few people die in your arms is sure to change your outlook on life, right? I wouldn’t say she becomes a white horse hero—far from it, in fact—but it’d be unrealistic to expect that that’s what she would become given the position she’s in and what’s she gone through. Everybody has their own agenda, and Katniss, the focal point of all of this, handed it as well as you could expect any teenager to: with a lot of confusion. But Katniss has always been good at trusting her instincts, and in the end that's what mattered. Though it’s clear by the end of the book that she’s damaged and will never regain the innocence of youth, the series concluded with a happy ending, one which I’m sure a number of fans will be satisfied with.

THE RATING

8/8 TENTACLES

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The Maze Runner by James Dashner

If you have heard anything about The Maze Runner, then you’ve probably heard people say that those who liked The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins will probably enjoy this book. After reading it, I have to agree, or agree that those who liked The Hunger Games will AT LEAST find The Maze Runner interesting. Though their plotlines are completely different, they have a similar dystopian feel and a necessity for the kids in the books to survive and escape the situation they’ve been thrown into. However, it’s hard to compare the two beyond that.

The book begins with Thomas waking up in a metal lift, also known as “The Box.” He has no memory of who he is (aside from his name), where he came from, or how he got there. When the doors of the lift open, he is greeted by a bunch of boys who, like him, don’t remember anything about their life before arriving at the Glade, an expanse of land surrounded by metal walls which close every night just before it gets dark. He quickly learns that the Glade rests in the center of a gigantic, continuously changing maze, patrolled at night by vicious cyborg-like slug creatures called Grievers. And…there is no way out.

Days after he arrives The Box makes another delivery, this time delivering the first girl ever to arrive in the Glade. She delivers a spooky message—the end is near—before passing out into a fitful coma. Now Thomas must decipher the reason why he thinks he knows this girl (named Teresa), and if there is a way out of the Maze before things completely fall apart.

As I said before, fans of THG will find the plot of The Maze Runner interesting enough. However, just about every answer to every question you can think of is withheld until the end, and even then there's a ton of questions remaining. I’m guessing that Dashner decided to do this in order to build suspense, which is accomplished, even though it was irritating in some places. Despite this, I found it forgivable because there was enough going on at the moment of the scene to excuse the questions, which is why overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. Dashner is very good at moving his plot along quickly, and filling it with action. At one point Thomas runs out into the Maze at night to save some of his fellow Gladers, and ends up facing the grievers in what I think is one of the coolest survival scenes to recently hit the shelves. There is quite a bit of jargon/invented slang that the boys in this book use, which takes a little while to get used to, but I don’t believe it hurt the story at all. It’s not difficult to figure out that words like, “Shuck-head,” and “Klunker” are curse words, and by giving his characters their own unique slang Dashner has made them more realistic. We all make up our own inside jokes and insults when we’re young, right? Especially as teenagers. I’m assuming that some of the mysteries about the Maze will be answered in book 2, The Scorch Trials (set to be released on October 12, 2010), as the focus of this first installment was really just about escaping.

Final Rating: 6/8 tentacles