**spoiler alert** Mockingjay was, in my opinion, the best installment of a beautiful and terrifying story. Everything set up perfectly through The Hun...more**spoiler alert** Mockingjay was, in my opinion, the best installment of a beautiful and terrifying story. Everything set up perfectly through The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, with THG setting the stage and CF sowing the seeds of rebellion, Mockingjay was where the heart of this story and this message came into play.
There are a lot of messages that come out of this trilogy, many themes to draw from. Suzanne Collins' book flap bio from THG said that she wrote the first book to explore the effect of war and violence on those people who are just coming of age. But why? Look at the world. Who goes to war? Oh, sure, men and women in combat are adults but many times just barely; many put on the uniform with the promise of college tuition paid in exchange (not long ago, near my home, a girl who could not afford college enlisted and now she's back home after losing a foot -- many like her have lost so much more); others go in search of honor or something to give their lives meaning for whatever reason. 18, 19, 20 years old. There's nothing pretty about this.
In Mockingjay, Katniss becomes the face of the rebellion, of the war itself. Except, she's fighting for the good guys, right? Are there any "good guys" in war? (That isn't a slight against troops -- my father and both my grandfather are veterans and I have the utmost respect for those who serve -- but rather an acknowledgment that, in war, violence is inescapable.) Katniss might be fighting to bring down the bad guys in the Capitol and Snow (but is anyone truly a "bad guy" or just people who have been brainwashed through upbringing and the Capitol's propaganda?), but she has doubts. She doesn't trust Coin and District 13 fully despite having given them her allegiance. But she has to believe that fighting for their cause is the only way to build a better world.
She's 17. She's been to the arena twice, where she's murdered other children. People she loves have been killed and/or tortured -- because of her. And yet she's supposed to be strong and resilient and "the face of the cause." And she gives up everything: her best friend, her lover, her sister, her friends and allies, and her very soul. And then everything comes crashing down when she sees the truth of what she's fighting for. Nothing ever changes, right? It would be better for her to die.
But she doesn't die. And the world does change. She still has nightmares. She's still lost mostly everyone she loves. Other stories which feature this type of epic struggle, it ends, and you get the feeling that the characters will, after a period of grief, move on and the trauma will be over and everything's all better. And while I love all of those stories, we know that's BS, right? Katniss will never recover, not fully, which doesn't mean she can never know happiness again. The terror will fade, but it doesn't go away.
Of course, it helps that she hasn't lost everything. She still has two people she loves, who know exactly what she's been through. She lives on, she can have a family without living in fear for her children. When the nightmares come, she can wake in the arms of someone who knows her horror, and he comforts her, and she does the same for him. They protect each other. That's what they do.
Let's talk about the love story. So often in YA stories like this one, the love story is trivialized as a subplot or as something that is irrelevant to the larger themes involved. But the romance, in the end, serves as a glimmer of hope, the joy that Katniss is allowed to have for herself after her world has collapsed around her, and the comfort. They keep each other sane, quite literally, and remind each other of what is real and what is worth fighting for. It is her happy ending, to know that no matter what, she isn't alone.
I read the entire book on the plane ride from Tulsa to Sacramento (about 3 hours or so). Very easy read, but good. It was probably too young adult for...moreI read the entire book on the plane ride from Tulsa to Sacramento (about 3 hours or so). Very easy read, but good. It was probably too young adult for me (and I love YA), but I still enjoyed it. I like the idea of getting into the mind of a teenage girl dealing with a horrible tragedy. It was heartfelt, filled with sentiment without being cheesy. Jenna is a very likable protagonist and you can't help but grieve with her. Oates doesn't wrap everything up neatly -- grief is never really over, after all -- and Jenna's path to finding peace and forgiving herself is far from easy. The story, however, is not without hope. 3.75 stars. (less)
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