Mockingjay

Ok, first off, yeah yeah, everyone sees how well my brilliant plan to keep myself motivated to type has been, which is to say, not at all. Oh well. And on to what I really wanted to say in this posting. But first: WARNING!! This posting will contain spoilers for the Hunger Games Trilogy and more specifically for Mockingjay.

I just finished reading the final book from the Hunger Games Trilogy and it has left me a little, um, listless? It's the same feeling I get whenever I finish a particularly captivating series. I'm kinda happy that it seems to have worked out for the main characters, more or less, and sad that I have to say goodbye to them now. I've spent several months of my life reading about them, worrying for them, cheering at their triumphs and crying when things have just been so heavy and unfair that there's nothing else I can do. And now their stories are over and I miss them. Katniss, the main character, really grew on me. I mean, I liked her from the very first book, but the author, who's name escapes me even though I just finished the book, wrote her so well that I felt what she did. I was right there through all the emotions that the girl was going through. And if I were going to complain about anything, it's that even though the final book had a slightly happier ending than its two predecessors, it was not a "yay, everyone celebrate because this was one of those people who endured many hardships but got what they deserved in the end, which was blissful happiness" kind of ending. A lot of characters who I really liked were killed. A couple characters who I didn't necessarily like but wanted to live because I like their love interests didn't live. It was just all around a not very happy series. Not that it was meant to be. But still. Ok, getting into details that will really spoil the books, so if you haven't read them but may do so some time in the future, because of the mad revue I'm giving them no doubt, stop reading!

I'm glad that Katniss ended up with Peeta. As much as I liked Gale, I completely agreed with the author's line about Katniss not needing some one who had fire in his personality, fire fueled by hate and rage. She had enough of that on her own. She needed Peeta who was much more a water personality. I'm happy that they had kids together at the end, but I was hoping for more about their relationship growing and blossoming from the staged performance to the real thing. I was hoping to go through that with them instead of having it summed up for me in the epilogue.

I was horribly sad when Peeta came back into the book having been highjacked by the capitol. He was, besides Katniss, my favorite character. He was so solid for the first two books. I felt like I could really count on him. He always did the right thing, was always putting others before himself, always eloquent and thoughtful. If I had to be like someone in this book I would want to be like Peeta. It was really hard to reconcile the highjacked horror in book three to the first to books. It was hard to read about him like that. I wish that he would have been mentioned more in the epilogue. Whether or not he was happy, how he adjusted, all the little things that make up the normal life that should have been theirs all along. I only ever knew him under remarkable amounts of pressure, and yes he was amazing during all of it, but I find myself wondering what he was like when the most stressful thing in his life was the three am feeding. I want to imagine that he was as perfect at home, loving his wife and kids as he was in the arena, and that he was happy, but it would have been nice for that to have been spelled out as the reality by the author.

I still don't know what to think about Haymitch. I don't think I like him. Yeah, he had redeeming qualities, but he wasn't trustworthy and always seemed to have a hidden agenda. I know I didn't understand him half as well as Katniss did, which may add to my general indifference if not dislike of his character. I just don't think I have the energy to invest in trying to read into every little thing he says or does in order to really like the guy.

I did like Prim, though she really wasn't a very big part of any of the three books. The only thing that made her character of any interest at all was Katniss' love for her. She was sweet and looked after their mother, but the only reason I was sad when she got blown up at the end was sympathy for Katniss rather than a sense of loss due to her death.

I liked Gale, but he seemed so angry. He was good to Katniss and he was a good guy. I'm glad he didn't die. There are a lot of good things I could say about his character and I think I'd like to have him as a friend, but again, I really think Katniss ended up with the right guy in the book.

I'm sad that Finnick died. He'd only been married to Annie for what? A couple months? At most? She was fragile in the first place. I don't know how she would have coped with his death. She didn't seem too out of it to vote on the hunger games for the capitol children, and that seemed a little...mm, out of place maybe? I would think that after losing the only thing that seemed to keep her even a little sane, she'd be too out of it to really be present. But, after getting more of Finnick's story, I'm sorry he died. It wasn't a nice death either! To be torn apart by mutts. Not pretty. I feel the author did a very good job fleshing him out in the short amount of page space allotted to Finnick. Again, I was sad that he died and would even have liked to have seen his death, if it had to be there, have a little more time spent on it, a little more focused on.

Who else? Oh, Cinna. I really liked him. I was really, really hoping that he'd be alive and in the third book. It didn't really need him, as illustrated by him not being in the third book and it still being really good, but still. He always seemed like the rock that Katniss needed. He was the calm in the middle of the crazy capitol, the proof that not all capitol citizens were bad. If he had had a slightly larger role, he would probably have been either my favorite character or second. As it is, he's my third after only Katniss and Peeta. I like Cinna even more than Gale, though they are pretty close.

And that is my revue of the characters. I think I'm going to read the whole trilogy through one more time before relegating the books to a shelf I keep for books to recommend and loan out should they be requested. I know I'll read them again next year or there abouts. They will be added to the list along with Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and the Dark Elf Trilogy, that will be read at least once a year because I like them so much. I'm wary of the movie coming out. It will be very difficult, probably even impossible, to convey what the book did in a movie version. Still, it should be interesting to see what they do with it.
Signing off. Until next time.

Decision and Disclaimer

It's been more than a week since my last posting, but don't think its because I have nothing interesting going on inside of my head! I simply have not felt in the mood to share my ingeniusnouness with others. Sometimes intelligence has to be private.
I haven't been working on my story like I should either. I've drawn a couple pictures though. I've decided to try to keep myself motivated to keep writing by posting it here. If I think, even a little, that some one else is waiting for the next part, I'll be more motivated. That's what I've decided anyway. Heheh. Ok, so...mom, don't think you'll like this. That's just my little disclaimer. To anyone else, it's not bad or anything, it just has to do with angels and demons and has nothing to do with religion. I'm writing this as a fantasy and merely thought that making the characters supernatural would allow me to add interesting elements while giving me a little freedom to exercise my imagination. Everyone knows what humans can do. Ever since Lord Of The Rings came out everyone knows what elves, dwarves, and giants can do too. So angels and demons are not so well defined and give me a little wiggle room to surprise even myself with abilities and ways of thinking and so on. See? My story has no underlying meanings or disrespect intended. Alright, so anyone still interested, please look forward to my next posting which will start the story. And if anyone can think of a nifty title for me, I'm afraid I've been a little stuck on that part for a long long, long long, long long time. ...Did I mention that it's been a while? Yeah. Alright, that's all. I'mg going to start typing now and I'll be back with my first chapter or so. Ok, bye!