Review: Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins

Title: Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages: 390

Source: Personal library

Rating: 8/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

Summary (From book flap):

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans -- except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay -- no matter what the personal cost.

My Two Cents:

I know a lot of people were disappointed in this book as an ending to the trilogy, and I can see where they're coming from, but I quite liked it. Sure, it wasn't perfect and there were things that had me scratching my head, but for the most part, I thought it was a good ending.

I'm not going to give this a traditional review (In my normal style) simply because my thoughts on it are a little scattered still. So, I'll start with the things I liked, then end with the things I disliked.

First, the good

I'm glad there wasn't a third set of Games in this book. First, it wouldn't have fit what with portions of Panem totally falling apart and all, but a third Games would have been repetitive. We just would have seen Katniss fight for her life, again, and maintain her humanity and compassion in the face of evil, again. It was refreshing to have a change from that.

I also liked how you're never quite sure how to feel about Haymitch. He's kind of the Snape character of this series - Is he good and helping Katniss out, or is he bad and serving the Capitol's interests? He's a great character that has a lot of shading to him, and I enjoyed that.

I was glad that Katniss and Peeta spent most of the book apart from one another. Katniss needed Peeta to be elsewhere and in trouble of his own in order to grow up and realize that the world does not revolve around her. I think the loss of Peeta is really what catalyzed Katniss into becoming the leader she needed to be to help out the revolution.

I also was glad the revolution wasn't all sunshine and rainbows (What revolution is?). If there had been no snags within the group, it would have been an unrealistic portrayal. But, Collins has been faithful thus far in making even the most desolate situations realistic, so I don't know why I would have thought maybe she would have slipped up on this one. Either way, it was good to see that even people fighting for a good cause can have their own personal desires and can put those desires before the good of everyone.

The not-so-good

First, what the heck was up with Gale in this book?!?! He suddenly became super angry and violent and just really, really savage, and I didn't like it. He wasn't exactly my favorite character in the first place, but the turn he took in the third book was kind of out of left field. I didn't like it one bit, and I was always glad when the scene would shift and Gale was gone.

To me, Katniss still seemed a little self-absorbed, especially in the beginning of the book. "I don't want to be the face of all this, find someone else" doesn't really work when the people will rally around YOU. Even though you're a teenager and, well, teenagers tend to be a little self-involved, if there's a revolution going on and the lives of everyone you know are at stake, you suck it up and do what has to be done.

The revolution seemed to move a little more quickly than I would have expected, and I think that kind of diluted the effect. There were some big scenes, and some major uprisings in the Districts, but it just seemed as if the whole thing just got started and then it was over. Revolutions are usually protracted and much, much messier than this one appeared to be (Minus the loss of pretty much all of District 12). I think the story would have been a bit stronger if we could have seen some more of the struggling and fighting of the other areas of Panem before the revolution just suddenly ended.

The epilogue just seemed kind of tacked on there. Katniss spends the entire series thinking one thing and saying one thing and, all of a sudden (To us), she totally does a 180 and has this completely different life? I know the epilogue takes place many years after the rest of the series, but it just seemed a little too neat and tidy a way to end the whole thing to me.


If you're thinking at all about reading this series, I would absolutely recommend doing so. It is well worth the investment and will have you thinking and talking about it long after you close the final book.

Show Me 5 Saturday: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here

1 book I read: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2)

2 words that describe the book: Young adult dystopian (Three, but it works!)

3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

Finnick Odair - One of the former tributes from District 4, Finnick initially comes off as pompous and confident, qualities which make Katniss dislike him. Eventually, during the Quarter Quell Games, he shows that outside appearances aren't all they seem to be.



President Snow - Although we heard of him in the first book, we never actually met the man at the head of the Capitol. He's just as cruel and sadistic as he's portrayed from afar, and the worst of him is yet to come.


Mags - Another victor from District 4, Katniss takes pity on her advanced age and teams up with her early in the Quarter Quell Games. She proves to be much more useful, and incredibly self-sacrificing, than Katniss originally thought she was, once again proving to Katniss that she can't always trust first impressions.

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked that, even though things seemed horrible and bleak in the first book, they just keep getting worse. I know this sounds really terrible of me, but it's the whole "The night is darkest before the dawn" thing: Things can only get worse before they get better, and people have to be tested to their absolute limits to find out what they're made of.


I liked that, in the midst of all the horrible things brought on by the Capitol, Katniss still has time to worry about "typical" teenage things such as love. It made the horrors of Panem seem a little less relentless.

I liked that there are hints of what's going to happen in the final book of the trilogy, but you don't actually piece together the puzzle until you've read it all. That thread of the story is what makes other series, such as Harry Potter, so appealing.

I liked that Katniss evolved as a character, even though less than a year elapses between the end of the first book and the start of this one. She's even more jaded and angry than before because of what she witnessed during the Games, but her experience also taught her to hold her loved ones a little bit more close.

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 5 stars. Although I can't put it exactly into words, this was my favorite book of the trilogy.

The Whys and Wheres: Personal library

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

Review: The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages: 384

Source: Library

Rating: 10/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

Summary (From back of book):

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before -- and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

My Two Cents:

I was pretty late to the Hunger Games train, but I'd read the buzz about it on Twitter for months before I picked up the series. I'm big into dystopian literature, but I was a bit hesitant as to a young adult series involving a fight to the death. Just seemed a little too brutal for me.

Boy, I'm glad I finally picked up this trilogy.

Collins creates a world where people have just enough freedom to talk about how much they despise their government, but not enough that they can actually do anything about it. They all hate the Hunger Games and the controls the government puts on them. They all try to find small ways around the controls. But, they can't (Or don't) actively fight the Powers That Be. It's all pretty classic dystopian, but for some reason the people of Panem seem a little less settled into their world than the people of, say, 1984 or Brave New World.

Katniss was a great choice for a main character. She's got just enough fear of the Capitol to keep her in line, but she's openly rebellious (Which sets her up for later in the series), so her defiance during the Games doesn't come from nowhere. And while she's had to take care of her family for many years, she's still naive enough in a lot of ways to be a believable teenager. Collins strikes the right balance between making Katniss a strong hero and an inexperienced young girl.

A lot has been made by critics of the trilogy that it's too violent and disturbing to be marketed at young adults. They feel the concept of a people oppressed by their government is valuable, but that pitting teens against one another in a fight to the death is barbaric. I say it's a ridiculous criticism.

Literature's job is to make its readers think. In this case, Collins wants the reader to think about what life could be like if we allow the government to have too much control. While much of the traditional dystopian canon isn't so violent (1984, Brave New World), Collins shows that humans can resort to terrible things in order to keep control. These are important issues that a lot of adults don't even think about, and I believe that using young adult literature to get kids thinking about these possibilities early is commendable. I'd much prefer my teen reading a book that raises incredibly important, disturbing questions that lead to family discussion than if he or she read nothing but books about sports teams or mean girl cliques (Not saying these type of books are all bad, but there's a difference between books that are just there for entertainment and books that actually make a person think). The issues Collins brings up are ones that a lot of adult authors are afraid to broach, and I laud her for being gutsy enough to make her readers uncomfortable.

This is a book (Series, actually) that kept me up at night and held the need to do laundry at bay. I couldn't stop reading even though I felt sick to my stomach much of the time at the sheer barbarity of the words on the page. It got me thinking and talking, and one co-worker and a customer of mine have since read the trilogy and we still talk about it from time to time. This is, I think, one of those enduring works of young adult literature that everyone, young or old, needs to read at some point.

Show Me 5 Saturday: The Final Solution by Michael Chabon

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here
 




 
1 book I read: The Final Solution: A Story of Detection

2 words that describe the book: Detective fiction

3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

Setting: England

The 89-year-old Detective: It's never fully said, but it's very obvious that this once-famous detective-turned-beekeeper is the Sherlock Holmes of legend. He still retains much of his mental acuity and deductive reasoning, but loses a lot of the quirks that made him so interesting in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical works.

Linus Steinman: A 9-year-old mute whose past includes seeing some hideous things. When his parrot pet disappears, it's up to the Detective to find out what happened and what's made Linus lose his speech.

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked Chabon's writing. I've never read anything by this Pulitzer Prize-winner, but his prose is the stuff of legends. He's a master of the clever turns of phrase and immense vocabulary.

I liked that the mystery centers around a set of numbers that could be anything: A code, a math problem, a phone number. I don't know why this was so intriguing to me, but I think I enjoy it most when the mysteries in books are a little more brainy and a little less whodunit.

I didn't like the way Chabon basically ruined all that was good about Sherlock Holmes. This may sound harsh, but I have a HUGE fond spot in my heart for the eccentric detective (I'm also not a fan of Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of him, but that's another story for another day) and I don't like seeing the things that once made him so interesting just gone. Sure, he's older and retired, but he should not lose the ability for witty repartee that made him so intriguing in the past.

I liked that Chabon wrote an entire section of the book from the parrot's point of view. It was, in my opinion, the most charming part of the book. I wish there would have been more of it!

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 3 stars. I was just disappointed in this one. It would've rated higher if Sherlock Holmes hadn't been so lame.


The Whys and Wheres: Library

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge; Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge 11: All in the Family)

Review: Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

Title: Red Hook Road

Author: Ayelet Waldman

Pages: 335 (I have an ARC, so page numbers in the final version may differ)

Source: Publisher

Rating: 6/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge; Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge 11: All in the Family)

Summary (From back of book):

Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherleys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.

My Two Cents:

I really didn't have many expectations going into this book, so I can't say I was as "disappointed" as a lot of the reviews I've read are saying. Overall, I liked this book and enjoyed Waldman's writing, but I can't say I loved this book.

Waldman is a fabulous writer. She has a gift for conveying the varied perspectives of different characters on one event. She's also great at describing her setting. In fact, the picture she painted of the area of the Maine coast in which this book is set was probably my favorite part; it made me want to go visit Maine in the summer.

She also has the ability to create some pretty vivid, memorable characters, whether you ultimately like them or not. My favorite character was Mr. Kimmelbrod, the virtuoso violinist and grandfather of the Copaken family. He was devoted to his students and their music, and at times standoffish with his family, but you could tell that deep down, he loved them. I think maybe it was his emotional detachment to the situations presented in the book that allowed me to like him so much, as every other character spent the entire novel so overwrought with emotion and the ghosts of the past.

As much as I enjoyed Waldman's writing and her characters, I felt as if a lot of the plot was just too contrived. There was just too much happenstance in everything going on surrounding the accident that it started to become unbelievable. Also, (nearly all) the characters' unwillingness to move on and dig themselves out of the pit of despair was maddening. I just wanted to scream, "Get on with your lives already!" sometimes.

Show Me 5 Saturday: The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1) by Lemony Snicket

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here
 




 

1 book I read: The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1)

2 words that describe the book: Juvenile suspense

3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

Violet Baudelaire - A 14-year-old who, along with her two younger siblings, is suddenly orphaned by a house fire. But, that's not the worst thing to happen to the Baudelaires in this book. Violet is smart and cares deeply for her siblings, something you don't often see in juvenile or young adult literature.

Count Olaf - The Baudelaires' mysterious distant relative, Count Olaf is an eccentric, mean man who wants only the children's money. He forces them to cook and clean his house, and even attempts to trick Violet into marrying him. He's one of the biggest creeps I've ever met in literature.

Justice Strauss - Count Olaf's next door neighbor, she has a gorgeous library to which she allows the children access. She cares for the Baudelaires, but she's just another oblivious adult who only does what the law says is right.

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked that Snicket didn't talk down to the readers in this book. He didn't simplify the language, yet he offered up explanations and definitions when he used a larger word. I think it's important for children's literature to challenge the readers instead of just being a breezy good story.

I liked the Baudelaire children. They are great characters who I just wanted to spend the entire book rooting for.

I didn't like that nothing really good seems to happen to the Baudelaires. I know that's the premise of the book, as this is a "series of unfortunate events," but it was just one bad, depressing thing after another. I don't think I can read the rest of this series if it's just all going to be this way.

I didn't like how creepy Count Olaf was. I'm sorry, but in a book aimed at older juveniles (Ages 8-12), I don't think it's appropriate to have an old man try to trick a young girl into marrying him, no matter that it doesn't really happen. Just a little too disturbing for me.

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 3 stars. It was well-written, but there were just too many things I didn't like about this book for me to rate it higher.


The Whys and Wheres: Library

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

Review: The Lovers by Vendela Vida

Title: The Lovers

Author: Vendela Vida

Pages: 225 (I have an ARC, so page numbers in the final copy may be different)

Source: Publisher

Rating: 8/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

First Sentence: "When half an hour had passed and there was still no sign of a white Renault, Yvonne began to fear she'd been scammed."

Summary (From back of book):

Yvonne, recently widowed and the mother of grown twins, returns to Datca, the coastal village in Turkey where she and her husband honeymooned twenty-eight years ago. She hopes to immerse herself in the warm sand and sea, and in memories of a better time in her life. But her plans are quickly complicated. Her Turkish landlord and his bold and intriguing wife have a curious marital agreement and are constant visitors to the home. And rather than being comforted by her memories, they begin to trouble her.

Overwhelmed by her past and her environment, Yvonne clings to her new-found friendship with Ahmet, a young Turkish boy who sells shells at the local beach. With the boy as her guide, Yvonne gains new insight into her own grown children and begins to enjoy the shimmering sea and the relaxed pace of the Turkish coast. But a terrible accident throws her life into chaos, and her own sense of self into turmoil.

With the crystalline voice, mordant humor, and depth of feeling for which her work has been so celebrated, Vendela Vida has crafted another unforgettable heroine in a beautiful and mysterious landscape.

My Two Cents:

I have never read any of Vida's other work, but I think after this experience I will try to track some down. I really enjoyed this book.

Several people who've reviewed this book on other sites have said the constant depressive feeling (Over Yvonne's husband's death, over the way her children act, over her surroundings, etc.) turned them off this book. However, I think it works well here. Yvonne's wounds are pretty fresh, and her husband's death was so sudden. Hoping to find some kind of healing, she returns to the site of her honeymoon, but instead of finding what she's looking for, she's constantly reminded of how things have changed and the absence of her husband.

Yvonne is a great main character. She's interesting enough to carry the whole novel, but she's relatable enough that most readers will find some way to identify with her. She's broken without being so down-in-the-dumps that she just sits on the couch all day. Instead, she does what most of us would have to do in her situation: Force herself to go out and do things in an unfamiliar country. She could have been a little more dynamic, but her reserve worked well for her situation.

Vida's writing is most evocative when she's describing the landscapes and customs of Turkey. She really helps bring this country, a place I've wanted to visit for a long time, alive, and it adds so much to the story. She's also good at creating memorable characters -- Even though we only met the owner of the house in which Yvonne stays briefly, we hear so many interesting details from other characters that we are left with the impression of a very ... ummm ... interesting man.

This is a great story of a woman in mourning trying to find out who she is without her husband in the picture. If you like stories like this, I would recommend giving this book a go.

Show Me 5 Saturday: The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory (The Cousins' War #2)

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here
 




 

 




1 book I read: The Red Queen (The Cousins' War #2)

2 words that describe the book: Historical fiction

3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

Setting: England

Margaret Beaufort - Henry VIII's grandmother knows that she has one main purpose in life: To bear a son to assume the throne of England. And, she's not letting anyone or anything stand in the way of her ultimate goal. Although much of the book is fabricated, Gregory did a lot of research into Margaret and her court, and you can almost see the hunger in her eyes as she preens her son for the throne.

Henry VII - Margaret's son who is (If other competitors can be eliminated) next in line for the throne of England. He's young when the main battles start, but with the help of his uncle, he steps ably into the role of military commander.

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked Gregory's writing and everything that goes into it. Not just is her writing mechanically fabulous and easy-to-read, but she so thoroughly researches her subjects that you can't imagine that they lived any other way. She really knows how to re-create historical periods and figures.

I liked that Gregory is filling a need, of sorts, in historical fiction with this new series. She and many authors like her have tackled the Tudors and the Elizabethan era, but it's nice to see some historical fiction about this family's predecessors (Yes, I know there's other historical fiction about the Yorks and Lancasters out there, I just haven't seen as much of it as Tudor and Elizabethan historical fiction).

I didn't like that I didn't like Margaret. This is, however, a credit to Gregory's skill. Even though I found Margaret conniving and cold-hearted for the vast majority of the book (I liked Elizabeth Woodville from The White Queen much better), I still overall loved this book. That she was able to make such a repellent character the center of her novel and still make the novel enjoyable on the whole is an achievement.

I liked that, even though a lot of it is fabricated, we get to see some of the more minor, but still crucial, players in history. I'm thinking mostly about Jasper Tudor, Margaret's brother-in-law and Henry's uncle. I knew he was part of the real events, but have never looked closely enough at him as a person. Now, I want to do more research on him!

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 5 stars. As always, Gregory pulls out a fabulous work of historical fiction.


The Whys and Wheres: Library

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

Review: Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Title: Still Missing

Author: Chevy Stevens

Pages: 340 (I have an ARC, so page numbers in the final version might be different)

Source: Publisher

Rating: 10/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

First Sentence: "You know, Doc, you're not the first shrink I've seen since I got back."

Summary (From back of book):

On the day she was abducted, Annie O'Sullivan, a thirty-two-year-old realtor, has three goals -- sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Through sessions with her psychiatrist, Annie retells the terrifying story of the year she spent captive in a remote mountain cabin. Interwoven is a second narrative recounting the aftermath of her escape and her struggle to piece her life back together.

My Two Cents:

This book came totally out of nowhere and surprised me with how much I liked it. I started the book unsure of how I would feel about it, mostly put off by the obvious attitude of the narrator (The entire book is told in first-person narrations during Annie's sessions with her psychiatrist). But, the story quickly drew me in and I finished the book in less than a day.

Stevens weaves an amazingly tense story with so many twists and turns you never know who to trust. Just when you think you have one person pegged as the bad guy, something else happens to make you look at someone else in a different light. And, when the final revelation comes, it just hits like a ton of bricks. I couldn't put this book down because I just had to find out what happened.

Annie is, not just because of the plight in which she finds herself after being kidnapped, one of those characters you root for. You want to see good things happen to Annie because, despite her rough edges, she's a likable person. I kept my fingers crossed the whole time, hoping that Annie would get a happy ending. In a way, she did, but it's definitely not a storybook ending by any means.

At times, Stevens' writing seems a little rough, but I just chalked that up to the type of narrator she had created. It wasn't distracting to the point of drawing me out of the story, but there were times when I had to re-read some sentences to get what was being said because of the way they were constructed.

This is a fabulous book that you won't believe is the author's debut. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a thrill ride or who wants a book exploring the darker side of the human condition. I will warn you, though: This book is intense in every sense of the word. There's rough language, scenes of horrible abuse and violence, and just bad situations all around. If you're at all sensitive to this type of thing, you may want to steer clear of this book.

Show Me 5 Saturday: Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here
 




 

1 book I read: Shalimar the Clown

2 words that describe the book: Literary fiction (I don't have much insight beyond that!)

3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

Settings: Kashmir, India and Los Angeles, California

Max Ophuls - The former ambassador to India is murdered, in broad daylight, on the front steps of his daughter's apartment building by his new limousine driver. Ophuls, a larger-than-life man who holds the secrets of the underground intelligence world, isn't exactly as gregarious and innocent as he first appears. Throughout the novel, we learn the long series of events spanning nearly three decades that led to his murder.

Shalimar the Clown - A native of the Kashmir region of India, Shalimar mysteriously appears at Ophuls' door one day, looking for work as a chauffeur. We know from the beginning that he is Ophuls' murderer, but it's not until we are taken back through a story of deep love and devastating loss do we understand why.

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked, as always, Rushdie's writing. It's disjointed enough to make his books a challenge, but has a fluidity and a beauty that is unparalleled. There's a reason I've been leading a (joking) Facebook campaign for nearly five years to get the man a Nobel Prize for Literature.

I liked the character of Shalimar, even though he is a murderer. I didn't like him right at the beginning of the novel, but he was pretty quickly thereafter established as a sympathetic character whose plight we were meant to understand.

I liked the glimpse we get of a world I've never seen. Sure, Rushdie's portrayal of Kashmir may not be totally faithful to reality, but he makes the region and its people come alive.

I didn't like (and this is probably a failing of myself as a reader) that the book is blurbed as a work of magical realism. I didn't really get that part of the story, even though I was looking for it!

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 4 stars. I would recommend this book to any fan of Rushdie, those who like literature set in India, or anyone looking for something interesting and complex.


The Whys and Wheres: My bookshelves

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge