Book Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The first thing that struck me about the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins was that I couldn’t put it down. It is so gosh darn exciting. Collins combines some of the most epic emotional stakes imaginable with a strong sense of pacing and perhaps the best nose for “nope, can’t stop here” chapter-ending cliff-hangers of any author I’ve ever read. Thus the second book in the series, Catching Fire, became the first novel I had read in one sitting since grade school. It is no wonder the first volume, The Hunger Games, has spent the past 92 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Now the third and final book of the trilogy, Mockingjay, has been released in one of the year’s bigger publishing events, and all I can say is that it lives up to the hype, and might be the best of the series.
I won’t spoil any of the events of the book here. If you haven’t read the first two books none of it will make any sense and if you have you will kill me for revealing anything. If you have not yet discovered the series, do not be deterred by its placement in the young adult section or the breathless blurb from Stephanie Meyer. This is a dark, violent, emotionally devastating series, and while at the very center of events there is in fact a teenage love triangle, it is never cloying. All the participants are deeply human and flawed, and in the end we are not so much wondering who will end up with whom as whether there will be any of them will be left with the ability to love at all.
"Mockingjay" is the final volume in the "Hunger Games Trilogy".
Our heroine is a sixteen-year-old girl named Katniss Everdeen. She lives in a post-apocalyptic far future, in an oppressive dictatorship called Panem. Her district, like most of the provinces, lives in grueling proverty, crushed under the boot of the far wealthier Capitol and its leader, President Snow. As a relic of a lost rebellion seventy-five years before, every year two children from each district are selected by lottery to participate in the Hunger Games. These are essentially an extremely elaborate gladiatorial reality show, in which the participants must fight to the death. It is a major advantage to become one of the more popular contestants, since you then receive advantageous gifts from your fans, such as weapons and medical supplies.
During the events of the first book, Katniss ends up as one of the participants in these Games. She appears to fall in love with one of the other contestants, and their star-crossed romance helps them gain huge number of fans. However, Katniss is only acting, to increase her chances of survival. But will her real emotions get in the way of her carefully constructed facade? Collins does a spectacular job of getting us inside the head of a main character whose inner thoughts and outer actions often do not match up, who is forced to put on a show at all times.
The consequences of Katniss’ actions in the first book continue to grow, and Collins continuously expands her scope, and by the third volume she is swept up in a rebellion that aims to take down the Capitol. However, she knows that she is for all intents and purposes still inside the Game, where symbolism is everything and you can’t really trust anyone. As you might expect from a series with a sixteen-year-old heroine who brutally murders people in order to survive, these books are steeped in moral ambiguity. Suffice it to say that the rebellion in Mockingjay does not end with a teddy bear luau like Return of the Jedi. It might seem to set up a classic story of the spunky rebels versus the evil empire, but in Katniss’ eyes, many of those theoretically working for the bad guys are innocents, and she starts to realize that a successful rebellion might just mean replacing one brutal dictatorship with another…
The themes of this book most likely strike extremely close to home to young people today. In the world of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and reality TV, everyone must learn at a young age to present a public persona different from their private one. Meanwhile, Collins manages to graphically depict violence without glamorizing it, moving from the personal battles of the Games to running house-to-house battles in the finale. The treatment of war in the final volume is visceral and affecting… it is hard to imagine a teenager raised on these books ever believing that war is a good idea. Still, Collins manages to avoid ever coming off as preachy. Though she is definitely enraged at the idea of war and the suffering it brings, it also seems in these books like it may be inevitable, that we are all doomed to experience a cycle of violence until there’s nothing left. Human beings are inherently violent creatures, and much of the time there may be no great victory or right answers.
Katniss Everdeen as depicted in the UK promotional materials for the series. She doesn't look at explosions.
However, I don’t want to make the books sound too heavy-handed. The action sequences throughout all three books are simply unmatched, routinely reaching levels that are more exciting and spectacular than anything in, say, the Harry Potter series. At the same time, there is a wry streak of dark humor that never quite leaves the characters, even at their blackest, most traumatized moments.
The star of it all, though, and the reason it all works so well, is the character of Katniss. She is hard, closed-off, “a real piece of work”, as someone points out in the final volume. She is fragile and indomitable at the same time. Years of hunting to feed her family have left her extremely proficient with a bow and arrow, a skill she uses to spectacular effect during the series. She is equally believable while desperately clawing someone’s eyes out or crying her own eyes out after an emotional blow. Collins never leaves her perspective, and watch as Katniss becomes a powerful symbol for a cause she’s not even sure she actually believes in herself.
I was a huge fan of the first two books, but it’s in Mockingjay that the true themes of the series are brought home, where the pieces really lock into place. It was the sort of ending that made me want to go back to re-read the previous books because I’m sure that the events of the climax will give earlier events far greater resonance. I think that’s a sign that Collins has achieved something great, not just a diverting young adult read but a great piece of Sci-Fi literature. Just make sure your schedule isn’t too packed when you start reading, because trust me, you won’t be able to stop until it’s over.
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