Sign in with FacebookEric Allen's Reviews > Mockingjay
Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
by Suzanne Collins
by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay
The Final Book of the Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
A Retroview by Eric Allen
Suzanne, it's Eric. Hi, yeah, this isn't working out. I think we should see other people. You're in this downward spiral, and your writing just keeps getting worse and worse. You obviously haven't been taking your crazy pills and your addiction to the blood of the young is starting to get a little creepy. I just can't take it anymore. I'm going my separate way. Please don't call me again. You've still got plenty of fans, and millions of dollars to console yourself with, you'll be fine without me.
Mockingjay begins with Katniss Everdeen recovering from wounds recieved in her second Hunger Games. She has been rescued but Peeta was not. She has been taken in by District 13 along with the other refugees from District 12. President Coin of District 13 wants her to become the symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol. Katniss is reluctant for god knows what reason, and proceeds to piss and moan about it for a good third of the book before agreeing to do it.
The next third of the book consists of Katniss pissing and moaning while making propaganda videos for the rebellion.
And the final third of the book consists of Katniss pissing and moaning while trying to sneak through the Capitol to kill President Snow. Along the way several throwaway characters die because of her stupidity, and she arrives at the president's residence just in time to do absolutely nothing to contribute. (view spoiler)
The Good? Not much. More good use of foreshadowing. Collins continues to realisitcally describe the effects of injuries on her characters. There are a couple clever nods to writers I like to call the Fathers of Modern Science Fiction, namely Bradbury, Asimov, Dick, and a couple others. However, the references usually left me wishing that I was reading one of the much better books written by those authors. And, yeah, that's about it.
The Bad? Every character in this book besides Katniss and Peeta are what I like to call throwaway characters. These are characters who have no personality, no motivation, no history, and no distictive character traits. They usually follow a stereotype and will have something told to us about them that is supposed to make us feel bad when they die. Their actions are usually confusing and vague, because they're not developed well enough for us to understand why they do or say the things that they do and say. These characters serve no purpose to the plot except to die and make the reader feel bad about it. The ENTIRE cast of this book is made of throwaway characters. There's no development for these characters. They serve no pupose whatsoever except to add padding and make you feel bad when they die, which, by the way, they fail to do because we barely know anything about them and frankly couldn't care less that they're dead. It is not sad when nameless, faceless cannon fodder dies.
(view spoiler)
The majority of the action, a bloody, gory rebellion, happens "off screen". Everything is seen through the eyes of Katniss, but she is not a participant in the majority of the rebellion. So all of the battles, the winning back of the Districts, the siege of the Capitol, everything, is not directly described to us. Most of the time we don't even hear about it second hand. If you're going to write a book that centers around overthrowing opression, AT LEAST INCLUDE SOME OF THE DAMN REBELLION IN YOUR BOOK!!! The action that we do see is, again, very bland and emotionless. Collins frankly sucks at writing action, which may be why the majority of it isn't even included in the book to begin with. When your weak point is writing action you do not have it happen elsewhere, you rework the story to have less external action and focus on politics, or inner turmoil or something else interesting that you're better at writing. You don't completely skip it and MAYBE mention that it happened off screen while the protagonist was doing something else.
The Ugly? Katniss serves no purpose whatsoever to the plot of this book. You can remove her character completely and nothing would really change in it. She does nothing but whine and cry about how the world is so unfair and how she hates everything. Other people do all of the fighting. Other people do all of the planning. Other people do EVERYTHING. Katniss does NOTHING. The one time she actually does do something,(view spoiler)
You should not have to find something for your characters to do for the climax of your book. Your main protagonist should be the center of EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING should revolve around her. But it doesn't. She barely has anything to do with what's going on, and Collins basically made up a pointless diversion to throw her into for the ending, which ultimately didn't serve any purpose to anything. If your climax works whether or not the protagonist is in it, YOU NEED TO REWRITE YOUR ENTIRE DAMN BOOK!!! If your protagonist is not the most important character in your book YOU HAVE FAILED TO WRITE A BOOK!!! Go back and try again.
Katniss' character has changed completely between books 2 and 3. She used to be strong and independant. Now all she does is whine and cry, piss and moan, and completely fail to make any sort of impact on the events happening in the story. I understand that she has been through a whole lot of horrible things, but this is the HERO of the story. This is the person that is supposed to overcome everything, defeat the bad guys, make the world a better place. This is the person that we, the readers, are supposed to most readily identify with, and want to be more like. However, she's a COMPLETELY unlikable crybaby here. The main character needs to be someone that the reader likes, connects with, and wants to root for. She needs to do something that is WORTH rooting for. Not someone they find annoying or unbearable. Yes, there can be powerful character developement in a protagonist dealing with severe psychological trauma, and I believe that was what Collins was going for here, but she failed so spectacularly at pulling it off. We don't sympathize with her. She doesn't deal with her problems, she spends the entire book running from them and crying about them, and she doesn't do anything at all to make them better.
(view spoiler)
I still absulutely loathe the writing style that Collins uses. I hate her substituting crying for proper character development. I hate her use of the present tense. I hate how nothing Katniss does is important to anything. I hate how Collins constantly has to explain her jokes to us because they don't make sense. If you have to explain a joke... IT'S NOT FUNNY!!! This book is horribly written. I'm talking like Dan Brown bad here. The Hunger Games books have gotten progressively worse rather than better. Writers are supposed to improve with age, not get worse.
I'm honestly having an extremely hard time figuring out why these books are so popular. They're not well written. They're not original. They don't give much in the way of entertainment value. And yet there are millions of people out there that LOVE them. Why? I don't get it. What is so great about this book? This series? The first book was superficially entertaining once I got past the bad writing, but the other two were just awful. Why do so many people practically worship these books? It makes no sense.
In conclusion, this book needed to be about a different character, because Katniss didn't participate enough in anything important for her to qualify as the main protagonist. Hell, even The Man With No Personality himself, Peeta, would have been a better choice, he at least has something resembling a character arc in this book. The writing is beyond awful. The main protagonist can be removed without changing generally anything in the book. Most of the action happens "off screen". And a previously strong and independant character did nothing but cry and force everyone else around her to do everything important for her. You get one star Collins, and I vow I will never read another of your books. Your writing is AWFUL and I can do without it in my life. This book is horrifically bad and a complete insult to anyone who was a fan of the first two.
Check out my other reviews.
P.S. The bird on the cover is the wrong color, geniuses. Good job!
The Final Book of the Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
A Retroview by Eric Allen
Suzanne, it's Eric. Hi, yeah, this isn't working out. I think we should see other people. You're in this downward spiral, and your writing just keeps getting worse and worse. You obviously haven't been taking your crazy pills and your addiction to the blood of the young is starting to get a little creepy. I just can't take it anymore. I'm going my separate way. Please don't call me again. You've still got plenty of fans, and millions of dollars to console yourself with, you'll be fine without me.
Mockingjay begins with Katniss Everdeen recovering from wounds recieved in her second Hunger Games. She has been rescued but Peeta was not. She has been taken in by District 13 along with the other refugees from District 12. President Coin of District 13 wants her to become the symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol. Katniss is reluctant for god knows what reason, and proceeds to piss and moan about it for a good third of the book before agreeing to do it.
The next third of the book consists of Katniss pissing and moaning while making propaganda videos for the rebellion.
And the final third of the book consists of Katniss pissing and moaning while trying to sneak through the Capitol to kill President Snow. Along the way several throwaway characters die because of her stupidity, and she arrives at the president's residence just in time to do absolutely nothing to contribute. (view spoiler)
The Good? Not much. More good use of foreshadowing. Collins continues to realisitcally describe the effects of injuries on her characters. There are a couple clever nods to writers I like to call the Fathers of Modern Science Fiction, namely Bradbury, Asimov, Dick, and a couple others. However, the references usually left me wishing that I was reading one of the much better books written by those authors. And, yeah, that's about it.
The Bad? Every character in this book besides Katniss and Peeta are what I like to call throwaway characters. These are characters who have no personality, no motivation, no history, and no distictive character traits. They usually follow a stereotype and will have something told to us about them that is supposed to make us feel bad when they die. Their actions are usually confusing and vague, because they're not developed well enough for us to understand why they do or say the things that they do and say. These characters serve no purpose to the plot except to die and make the reader feel bad about it. The ENTIRE cast of this book is made of throwaway characters. There's no development for these characters. They serve no pupose whatsoever except to add padding and make you feel bad when they die, which, by the way, they fail to do because we barely know anything about them and frankly couldn't care less that they're dead. It is not sad when nameless, faceless cannon fodder dies.
(view spoiler)
The majority of the action, a bloody, gory rebellion, happens "off screen". Everything is seen through the eyes of Katniss, but she is not a participant in the majority of the rebellion. So all of the battles, the winning back of the Districts, the siege of the Capitol, everything, is not directly described to us. Most of the time we don't even hear about it second hand. If you're going to write a book that centers around overthrowing opression, AT LEAST INCLUDE SOME OF THE DAMN REBELLION IN YOUR BOOK!!! The action that we do see is, again, very bland and emotionless. Collins frankly sucks at writing action, which may be why the majority of it isn't even included in the book to begin with. When your weak point is writing action you do not have it happen elsewhere, you rework the story to have less external action and focus on politics, or inner turmoil or something else interesting that you're better at writing. You don't completely skip it and MAYBE mention that it happened off screen while the protagonist was doing something else.
The Ugly? Katniss serves no purpose whatsoever to the plot of this book. You can remove her character completely and nothing would really change in it. She does nothing but whine and cry about how the world is so unfair and how she hates everything. Other people do all of the fighting. Other people do all of the planning. Other people do EVERYTHING. Katniss does NOTHING. The one time she actually does do something,(view spoiler)
You should not have to find something for your characters to do for the climax of your book. Your main protagonist should be the center of EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING should revolve around her. But it doesn't. She barely has anything to do with what's going on, and Collins basically made up a pointless diversion to throw her into for the ending, which ultimately didn't serve any purpose to anything. If your climax works whether or not the protagonist is in it, YOU NEED TO REWRITE YOUR ENTIRE DAMN BOOK!!! If your protagonist is not the most important character in your book YOU HAVE FAILED TO WRITE A BOOK!!! Go back and try again.
Katniss' character has changed completely between books 2 and 3. She used to be strong and independant. Now all she does is whine and cry, piss and moan, and completely fail to make any sort of impact on the events happening in the story. I understand that she has been through a whole lot of horrible things, but this is the HERO of the story. This is the person that is supposed to overcome everything, defeat the bad guys, make the world a better place. This is the person that we, the readers, are supposed to most readily identify with, and want to be more like. However, she's a COMPLETELY unlikable crybaby here. The main character needs to be someone that the reader likes, connects with, and wants to root for. She needs to do something that is WORTH rooting for. Not someone they find annoying or unbearable. Yes, there can be powerful character developement in a protagonist dealing with severe psychological trauma, and I believe that was what Collins was going for here, but she failed so spectacularly at pulling it off. We don't sympathize with her. She doesn't deal with her problems, she spends the entire book running from them and crying about them, and she doesn't do anything at all to make them better.
(view spoiler)
I still absulutely loathe the writing style that Collins uses. I hate her substituting crying for proper character development. I hate her use of the present tense. I hate how nothing Katniss does is important to anything. I hate how Collins constantly has to explain her jokes to us because they don't make sense. If you have to explain a joke... IT'S NOT FUNNY!!! This book is horribly written. I'm talking like Dan Brown bad here. The Hunger Games books have gotten progressively worse rather than better. Writers are supposed to improve with age, not get worse.
I'm honestly having an extremely hard time figuring out why these books are so popular. They're not well written. They're not original. They don't give much in the way of entertainment value. And yet there are millions of people out there that LOVE them. Why? I don't get it. What is so great about this book? This series? The first book was superficially entertaining once I got past the bad writing, but the other two were just awful. Why do so many people practically worship these books? It makes no sense.
In conclusion, this book needed to be about a different character, because Katniss didn't participate enough in anything important for her to qualify as the main protagonist. Hell, even The Man With No Personality himself, Peeta, would have been a better choice, he at least has something resembling a character arc in this book. The writing is beyond awful. The main protagonist can be removed without changing generally anything in the book. Most of the action happens "off screen". And a previously strong and independant character did nothing but cry and force everyone else around her to do everything important for her. You get one star Collins, and I vow I will never read another of your books. Your writing is AWFUL and I can do without it in my life. This book is horrifically bad and a complete insult to anyone who was a fan of the first two.
Check out my other reviews.
P.S. The bird on the cover is the wrong color, geniuses. Good job!
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read Mockingjay.
sign in »
Comments (showing 1-13 of 13) (13 new)
date
newest »
newest »
Yeah, but at least in those books the main protagonist actually has something to do with the story. Katniss could have been removed completely from this book, which is really saying something since it was told from her point of view, and nothing in it would have changed. Everything would have played out exactly as it had, because she did nothing of worth in the entire book that infulenced anything important. THat's just a complete and utter failure on a basic storytelling level.
Awesome! Let's not forget that Suzanne Collins must have been hungry while writing these books. Little baker boy Peeta, and Messalla make me want a falafel and some eggplant masala.
I know, right? It was literally the one and only thing that she did through the entire book. Even when she was supposedly doing something awesome, she was still pissing and moaning through the entire thing. This is supposed to be a character that we, the readers, are meant to look up to and sympathize with. Instead she actively annoyed me to the point that I wanted to reach into the book, give her a good shake, and tell her to stop being such a wretched waste of human life. I'm far from a fan of the series, true, but even I was taken aback at how horribly her character was handled in this book.
You're a better man than me, Eric. ;)If I felt something was one or two stars I'd never finish it or I'd at best skim every 30 pages or so.
I kept holding out hope that it would actually go somewhere... Unfortunately, it didn't. And I'm usually determined to finish things that I start, no matter how bad they get, with a few exceptions. Also, I was listening to the audiobook while at my day job, so I didn't actually have to expend the effort to read it myself. That helped.
And naw, I like "Nameless, faceless cannon fodder" That's how I would normally say it aloud, so that's how I wrote it.