Book Review #13 - The Hunger Games - Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins

Reason of the choice

Since I have read the previous book of this trilogy, which, from the very beginning was very nice, I felt the need to know how Suzanne Collins would finish it and it was the main reason why I have chosen to read the book.

Reaction to the first pages

Although the beginning of the previous books were amazing and super engaging, I haven’t felt that this book also had it, which disappointed me but, after finishing the book and thinking a little more about the trilogy and the way we moved through it with Katniss, I have to admit that it was a very good way to start the last book.

Summary

After being picked by the Rebels, Katniss went to District 13, which wasn’t destroyed as it was believed by the remaining 12 Districts. In there, Katniss was told that District 12 was destroyed and, due to everything she had passed, the doctors from 13 considered she had mental issues but after some time, the doctors told Katniss that she was better and she was assigned, like all the others, a schedule but usually she didn’t care and she just wandered around.

While she was considered “sick”, Katniss was asked by President Coin, the woman who was the leader of 13, to be the Mockingjay, the symbol of the revolution, since she was the one that “defied” the Capitol to win the 74th Hunger Games but she didn’t accept to play that role as she was asked but only after some time after being considered better Moreover, she only accepted it after Coin agreed with some conditions made by Katniss.

After the agreement being settled, she discovered that her preparation team was being punished, which made her feel disgusted with many people from 13 almost as much as she was with the Capitol. Despite it, she carried on and they tried to film something to use to advertise the rebel cause but it didn’t work very well because she was really bad at it. To solve that problem, Haymitch convinced everyone to let her go into the war because she was only able to inspire people if she was being herself, not saying something that was planned before.

They accepted that suggestion and she was sent to District 8, where she showed herself to the wounded in an improvised hospital, which gave them hope because some of them wasn’t sure if she was alive. After the visit, they were supposed to get back to 13 but, before reaching to the point where they had to get, the Capitol bombed the hospital. Even though Katniss was only supposed to show herself to those who were at the hospital, she decided to help the rebels, destroying some hovercrafts.

After the attack, they went back to 13, where they told Katniss that they had some footage that could be used. After making the advertisements, Beetee, a victor from District 3, was able to air them everywhere, except in the Capitol. In response to that, the Capitol aired an interview with Peeta, in which he told what the Capitol wanted him to say about the participation of Katniss in the rebellion but he also warned the people from 13 that the Capitol would attack them.

Due to the warning, all the population from 13 was able to stay alive and only one part of their fortress was destroyed, since most of their activities were done underground. After that, Katniss convinced President Coin to rescue Peeta from the Capitol but she, Katniss, had to stay in 13 or they wouldn't save him. Since she couldn't go with the rescue team, she and Finnick had to tell some stories about the Hunger Games and some other secrets which would be aired and it would even be seen in the Capitol, being this a distraction to help the rescue team.

They were able to get Peeta back but they also rescued the other two victors: Johanna, from 7, and Enobaria, from 2. As soon as Katniss knew that he had arrived, she went to meet him but he wasn't the same boy Katniss left in the arena because he tried to kill her as he saw her. For some time, she wasn't able to face Peeta and she started to behave the way she did when she was taken to 13.

When she was better, she was sent to District 2, which was the only District that hadn't joined the rebel cause. In there, Katniss convinced the rebels to only blow up and destroy every entrance but one controlled by them, so they could surrender or, if they didn't do so, they would kill them more easily. The Capitol forces chose not to surrender but they weren't slaughtered because Katniss was caught by a man who was willing to kill her. While trying to convince that man not to kill her, she spoke loud enough to be heard by everyone, she asked them why were they fighting and who the real enemy was. The man who caught her didn’t shoot her but another man did it.

Thankfully, she survived and, while she was recovering in 13, she discovered that the people from 13 was planning to invade the Capitol. Snce she wanted to kill President Snow, she wanted to join them but President Coin and some other members with high positions in the hierarchy didn't allow her, unless she was really ready to combat, which she wasn't. Luckily for her, the departure would be in a few weeks and she was able to get back in shape, meaning that she was able to go.

Therefore, she joined a group in which was also Gale and Finnick and which was led by a soldier she met when they went to 8. Johanna, who was supposed to go along with them wasn't able to do so and Peeta filled her spot, but, when he arrived, they handcuffed him and they set some turns to guard him at night, so he couldn't kill Katniss. When they were trying to get to President Snow's mansion, since they knew where some of the pods were, they advanced without much trouble, until they activated one they weren't aware of, that killed some members of the team.

After, they saw on the television that the Capitol was going to get their bodies, since they believed that the whole team died, and, to gain time, they decided to let Peeta go alone. While they were advancing, they faced many other dangers and most of the group died, being Katniss and Gale the only ones left, but, when they activated another pod, they were split. When Katniss was almost reaching the mansion, she saw that the only people which were being rescued to stay in there were children and they were bombed by a hovercraft, which only killed some of them but the second wave killed much more, being Primrose, Katniss’ sister, one of the dead people because she was a rebel doctor and went to help the wounded from the first explosion.

When Katniss woke up from the explosion, she was in the mansion and she was told that Snow would be judged soon. Although she wasn't supposed to enter the room where he was, she entered and they talked. He told Katniss that he wasn't the responsible for the death of the children she witnessed. In the beginning, she didn't believe it but, later, she saw that he was telling the truth because she had already seen something like it, in 13, being Beetee and Gale the inventors of such weapon.

In the day of Snow's trial, she was supposed to kill Snow but, instead, she killed President Coin. Despite it, Snow also died because, as Finnick had told before, he was slowly dying because he drank poison he used to kill some of his "friends" and rivals, and the antidote didn’t cure him properly.

In the end, Katniss was absolved in her trial, being stated as a mentally sick person and she was sent back to 12, where, after some months, arrived Peeta, not Gale, who stayed in 2, and the two victors of the 74th Hunger Games lived as happy as possible together.

Highlights

Although not liking this book as much as I liked the previous ones, this was still pretty good and it was definitely a good way to end this trilogy due to the final plot-twist. Despite presenting the love triangle as one way to follow the story, the “hidden” message was really the thing that made me want to read this book until the end.

Moreover, the evolution of the many characters was cleverly made and we can see it clearly: the torture, either directly, either indirectly, applied to the many victors transformed them, being this very notorious in Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, Johanna, Finnick and many others.

Looking again to the message behind the story, the author, with this book, wanted us to see that fighting for the rebels against the dictatorship doesn’t necessarily make the situation better than it was before. Throughout the book, it can be seen but two of the best examples of that situation is when President Coin sends Peeta to Katniss’s team, because he was “programmed” to kill her and Coin wanted her dead, since she wasn’t really in favor of her; and the other situation is when Coin orders the attack against the children near President Snow’s mansion, with the objective to discredit President Snow so she would be able to get the power he had.

Recommendation

As I said above, this was my least favorite book of the trilogy but it was still very good and a good way to end the series. For those who like a love story or the ones who like a good political metaphor, this is a great book, along with the previous two.

Book Review #12 - The Hunger Games - Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

Reason of the choice

Not taking into account the fact that I have already seen the movie adaption of this book and the fact that I really liked it, I loved the first book of this trilogy and it made me see this series in a completely different way. Therefore, I felt I had to read this book and that I needed to know how the series would keep going.

Reaction to the first pages

Since I was used to Suzanne Collins’s writing style, I wasn’t caught by surprise with the beginning of this book but she managed to make me want to keep reading the book since the very beginning, because, despite knowing the story, the way she tells it can give us a bigger insight.

Summary

After winning the Hunger Games, along with Peeta, they return to District 12, where they stay for a while before departing to the Victor’s Tour, throughout all the Districts and the Capitol. However, before leaving, Katniss is visited by President Snow, who tells her that she must convince everyone that her last decision in the Games was made due to love and not to defy the Capitol, or her family would suffer or even be killed, like Seneca Crane, the Head Gamemaker, who was murdered after letting Katniss and Peeta live.

During the Tour, Katniss did the best she could to do what the President asked but it wasn’t enough to convince him. After, they returned to District 12 and Katniss saw Gale being whipped because he went to the house of the Head Peacekeeper with some game he had hunt to sell him, which was illegal but the previous Head Peacekeeper allowed them to do it, but he didn’t know that the Head Peacekeeper had been changed. As soon as she saw it, she put herself between the Head Peacekeeper and Gale and the whipping only stopped when Haymitch and Peeta appeared too.

Then, it was announced the rules for the next edition of the Hunger Games, which were special, since it would be the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games. The tributes would be chosen from the poll of the living victors, which meant that Katniss had to go again into the arena, since she was the only living female victor of District 12. Until the Reaping Day, the three victors from 12 prepared themselves for the Games to be able to face whoever they had to. In the Reaping Day, it was no surprise that Katniss was picked but Peeta volunteered to go to the Games as well, not to save Haymitch but to protect Katniss.

After that, they went to the Training Center in the Capitol, where they met most of the other tributes. Haymitch, who knew most of them, told Katniss and Peeta that many of them, like Beetee and Wiress, from District 3; Finnick Odair and Maggs, from 4; or Johanna Mason, from 7, wanted to be their allies.

In the interview that they had to give, Cinna, Katniss’s stylist, made a change in her wedding dress, since she and Peeta were fiancés by imposition of President Snow, which she showed everyone: when she spun, the fabric turned to Mockingjay’s feathers. Before going to the arena, Cinna was spanked in front of Katniss by his act of defiance against the Capitol, as she was unable to do anything to protect him.

Then, they went to the arena, where, soon, Katniss made an alliance with Finnick and Maggs. After some time and some people have died, Katniss’s group found Johanna, Beetee and Wiress, who helped Katniss to understand that the arena was like a clock, meaning that, depending on which time it was, there was a different way to hurt/kill the tributes. When there were just a few tributes left, Beetee made a plan to use the electricity from a thunderbolt to electrify the water to try to kill the tributes from District 2.

The plan didn’t go as it was supposed to and Katniss, who was in charge of taking a wire into the lake, returned to the tree where they were expecting the bolt to fall. In there, there was only Beetee in bad shape and it was hard for her to understand what he wanted to do but, as soon as she understood, she shot an arrow, with part of the wire knotted in it, against the force field, which was destroyed as soon as the thunderbolt hit the tree.

The book ends when a hovercraft picks Katniss, Finnick and Beetee but leaving behind Peeta, Johanna and Enobaria, from 2. With that new act of defiance against the Capitol, Katniss triggered the revolution in all Panem’s Districts and, only a few days after being picked, she was able to understand that she was going to District 13, where the rebels were gathered and that Peeta wasn’t with them.

Highlights

As it was already mentioned in the review of the previous book of the trilogy, the author’s writing style is very light, which is very helpful to engage us in the story but, once again, the political criticism must be the main highlight, because Suzanne Collins keeps showing us how could be the things in a country where there is a dictator ruling and it could be seen in several parts of the book:

For example, even though Katniss had won the Games and had a higher social position, President Snow was able to turn things against her by putting her back in the Games, although the “rules” said that, once a person is a victor, he is safe from going into the Games, which, in this case, didn’t happen.

Naturally, that wasn’t the only case when the Capitol forces were set against her: Katniss was whipped by the new Head Peacekeeper. Before entering the arena, Katniss was forced to see Cinna being beaten as she couldn’t do nothing to protect him. It also happened when some birds created by the Capitol were reproducing the sounds of screams of people Katniss knew. Since those birds were designed to copy the sounds they heard, Katniss understood that those people were forced to make them, which devastated her.

However, despite all these things, Katniss and most of the other tributes fought against the Capitol the better they could, showing that the people should fight for what they believe, having that culminated in a general uprising across the Districts after she destroyed the arena’s force field.

Recommendation

Although I really appreciated the first book, I liked this one even more because it is very clear what Suzanne Collins wants us to understand. I think this is brilliant because this book is targeted for young adults, but the truth is that everyone would be able to read this book and understand it. After stating this and pointing out the previous highlights, I definitely recommend this book.

Book Review #11 - The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Reason of the choice

One friend of mine, a long time ago, presented this book in class and I really liked the story back then. Then, the movie adaptation was made and I loved it so much that all I wanted was to buy the books that inspired such a good movie. These were the two main reasons why I have decided to pick and read this book.

Reaction to the first pages

Since the beginning of the book, it was impossible to keep the movie apart and I was a little surprised by the early characterization that was made by the author in the first pages, which didn’t appear in the movie. Although I knew the story beforehand, these first pages were able to engage me into the following pages and made me read it in a completely different way than the one I was expecting to.

Summary

There is an early characterization of Katniss, the main character of this book, who was living in District 12, a poor State of Panem, who had to guarantee her and her family’s survival after her father’s death, since her mother was completely devastated and depressed.

In the Reaping Day, the day that two young people, aging 12 to 18, from each District of Panem are chosen to fight for his/her life against all the remaining tributes in the Hunger Games, which is the way the Capitol reminds every citizen in the Districts, that once had rebelled, that they are the ones who rule the country, Primrose, the younger sister of Katniss was the chosen female tribute from District 12. However, Katniss volunteered to take her place. The other tribute chosen was Peeta, the baker’s son and the one who once fed Katniss when she was starving, when she was younger.

Then, they went to the Capitol by train, in which they met Haymitch, a previous victor of the Hunger Games, who would be their mentor. When they reached the Capitol, both Katniss and Peeta were stunned by the richness and by the strangeness that characterized all people, including Effie Trinket, the woman who picked their names back in District 12, since they were used to the extreme poverty.

After arriving in the Capitol, they were presented to every citizen of Panem and, due to Cinna, Katniss stylist, she was noticed by everyone. Later, in a private session with the Gamemakers, Katniss was given a punctuation of 11, in a scale of 1 to 12, because she shot an arrow in the direction of the Gamemakers into an apple in the mouth of a pig. Before departing to the arena where the Games were supposed to take place, the tributes were interviewed and Peeta made a huge statement by telling everyone that he was in love with Katniss.

Then, they went to the arena, and the Games started. In the first hours, most of the tributes were dead and Katniss found out that Peeta was allied with the Careers, the tributes from District 1, 2 and 4. After some troubles, Katniss made an alliance with Rue, a little girl from District 11 which reminded Katniss of her sister, and together they destroyed the supplies of the Careers. However, when Katniss went back to meet Rue, she killed the boy from District 1, but only after he had thrown a spear into Rue, killing her.

After Rue’s death, it was announced that two tributes from the same District could be crowned winners and, as soon as Katniss heard it, she went looking for Peeta, who was camouflaged and badly hurt. To help him recover, Katniss had to go to the place where the remaining Careers were to gather a medicine to treat him. However, in there, she was ambushed by the girl from District 2 and Katniss was only able to get out of there alive because Thresh, a boy from District 11, killed the girl and spared the life of Katniss, since he felt all the pain she felt when Rue died.

After a some days, Cato, the boy from District 2, killed Thresh and the other tribute that was still alive was killed by Peeta’s ignorance of what berries to eat. When there were only just the three of them, Katniss and Peeta went after Cato to kill him, being successful in that mission.

In the end, there was only Peeta and Katniss alive but they weren’t declared as the victors and it was announced that, once more, there could only be one victor. However, Katniss decided that they should eat the poisonous berries, leaving the Gamemakers with an option of having two victors or no one at all and they chose to let them live.

Highlights

There were many good points about this book but the main one is surely the criticism that is made to the dictatorship, which was present throughout the book.

It could be seen in the way that only the people from the Districts had to fight between themselves just to entertain the people from the Capitol, and nobody from there had to worry about it. Moreover, the people from most of the Districts had to live in very poor conditions, while, in the Capitol, there was food in abundance. Besides, it could also be seen when the Capitol censored some footage from the Games, where Katniss “defied” the Capitol, both when she covered Rue’s body with flowers and when she and Peeta decided to eat those berries.

Recommendation

In my opinion, this is a very good book. The author’s writing style is very light, which helps to go through all the book, not to mention the amazing plot which gives body to this book.

Moreover, as I already highlighted above, I definitely have to recommend this book due to the message the author wants to share with everyone: a dictatorship is a very serious issue, which must be faced by all of us, being the first step to identify it as soon as it appears to avoid the bad consequences it always carries.