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

RATING: 4/5 Mockingjays

Well, it's over you guys. I have finished this bestselling series. So, what do I think? Complete crap? Genius? More like somewhere in between. Mockingjay started off slow. After the heart pounding action of Catching Fire I was ready to see this rebellion take off. It didn't. Katniss spent most of her time sulking and worrying about Peeta.  It's not that there wasn't enough action in the beginning. It just felt like the plot was moving too slowly. Everything felt a litte more dull and I'm sure it's because Katniss's emotions were so bipolar. She was erratic at times, but mostly numb. I understand she's been through a lot, but this much back and forth between emotions was a little draining on me as a reader. It also made the storyline feel a little unfocused as well.

I almost thought this book was going to be a dud. I was starting to lose interest fast. Then they went to the Capitol. That's when I really started to get into it. I thought the last part of the book was great...filled with action and emotion. It saved the book in my opinion. I enjoyed the new setting in the Capitol as well as the new traps. I wasn't sure who was going to make it out alive and appreciated that some of them didn't. One of the main ideas about Mockingjay that I loved is the idea that no matter what side of the way you're on there's always going to be someone thirsty for power. President Coin is an extremist. She does whatever she thinks is necessary to keep herself in power. As the story unfolds, you really see how little she cares for Katniss...and how manipulative people in power can be.  I know some readers disliked the ending, but I thought it was appropriate. It's the best future you could hope for for 

Peeta and Katniss

. On a side note, I realized that never once was gender an issue in this book. Nobody complained about Katniss being a soldier because she was a woman or Prim training to be a doctor. It was refreshing.

I enjoyed this series overall. It's the first teen series that I've actually finished since becoming an adult. I give this book and 4/5 stars as well as the entire series. It's definitely something I wouldn't mind my children reading.

The trailer for Mockingjay Part 2 just came out. Looks MUCH better than the first part. Check it out if you haven't seen it yet!

Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

So I have started a new thing. At work and on my way home I listen to an audiobook and at night I read a book. I totally love this. It's allowed me to absorb so much material and I'm surprised how easy it is for me to jump between two worlds. I started this for a few reasons. First, I need to start reading more YA novels. I'm in my last year of my master's and soon I'll be a school librarian. I need to know what the kids are reading. There's no way around it. Most of these books I don't want in my library and I don't want to take the time out of my regular reading schedule to read them so I've decided to try the audiobooks. Luckily, if you buy the kindle ebook the narration is MUCH cheaper than if you buy the actual audiobook. That shit is expensive!!! Secondly, the A Song of Ice and Fire series takes a long time to read and I'm impatient.  Most of the books I read are huge and it's annoying, but it cannot be helped. I'm a sucker for epic fantasy and most of those books are 1000 pages. Anyways, I'm going to give this blog another try. I've missed it. I'm doing things differently this time around. I burned out before because it felt like a job. I already work full time and go to grad school - this is supposed to be fun! So I'm going to make it fun.

Thoughts on Catching Fire: 

Rating: 4/ 5 Mockingjays

This book was actually a lot of fun. I moderately liked the first installment. I read it a few years ago and just never felt the need to go on. But I saw the series on Kindle Unlimited and decided to give it another chance. I'm glad I did! It's hard for a sequel to live up to the first installment and I thought this one surpassed The Hunger Games. 

I enjoyed the games a lot in this book. I thought the clock idea was pretty creative. It was a good combination of physical and psychological challenges (or should I say torture).  I thought the supporting characters like Finnick, Johanna, and Beetee were well developed. I especially liked Betee. I was cheering for him the whole time. Of course, I still found Katniss and Peeta a little annoying. I enjoyed the other characters more than I enjoyed their little attempts at keeping one another alive. 

This story feels deeper almost. You can feel the districts rebellion beginning to boil. The whispers Katniss hears about other districts helps this feeling. I wish we could have seen a little glimpse into the other districts, but it's not their story. I also would have enjoyed a little more interaction with President Snow. He's such a good villain! 

One of the main things I enjoy about this book is that there are casualties. This is a country at war and on the brink of rebellion. Collins doesn't sugar coat that for her younger audience. It's not graphic, but it still hits home knowing that nobody is safe. These characters will probably all be dead soon but that's the price of war . I like that about this series. I also like that even though Katniss loves both Peeta and Gale, she states that she isn't interested in children or really marriage. I think that is completely reasonable for her situation. I know I wouldn't want to bring a child into that awful world. She's not a romantic - sure she's very emotional, but you can't say she's romantic. There's no room for romance in Panem. There's only room for survival. I think that's what sets her apart from all the other female protagonists in other teen books. Go Katniss! Ain't nobody got time for babies during a rebellion. 

Overall, I found this book to be a great addition to the series. The narration was wonderfully done and it's a fairly quick listen. Now I'm on to Mockinjay!

Review of The Windup Girl

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Nightshade Books
Release date: April 2010
Rating: 8/10 lightsabers

                                 Goodreads Summary

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...

Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.

What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century.

Ohhh, the intrigue.  This is Paolo Bacigalupi's first novel and it rocks. At first I thought it was slow, but then I realized that I had been reading Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series for a month and that series is action packed from start to finish.  Anything I read after Dresden will always seem slow compared to it.  After that realization, I really began to take in the entire landscape. Everything feels dirty and sketchy.  It is a future I definitely wouldn't want to live in.

The genetically modified food debate is really hot right now. I've taken two classes in college that deal with this type of issue and I can tell you that people get heated with this topic. I thought it was fun to see how a writer could take a relevant issues and create a story around it. Are GMO'S harmful? Should we revert back to nature? Is Paolo's fictional future an actual possibility? A good author makes you think and Paolo has done that. I wouldn't be surprised if this book starts being taught in various college courses.

One of the things I liked most about this book was you don't really know which character to root for besides Emiko. Kind of like Lost. You only really root for Hugo because he's pretty much the only decent human being on the island.  Anyways,  Emiko is a windup girl aka a New People.  She's a fantastic character and you really feel for her.  You want her to find her people in the hills but you know she wont.  The whole time I was just thinking, "Please Paolo, don't kill off Emiko.  She's the only friggin character I care about".  I won't say if he did or not because that would be *cue River Song's voice* spoilers.

  It really says something when the most likable character in a book isn't even human.  I will warn you that there is some pretty strong graphic violence towards Emiko.  It's pretty horrifying.  If you can't handle that then this probably isn't the book for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It takes a little while to catch on to the futuristic jargon, but you get used to that. I won't say the ending surprisded me. I pretty much knew what was going to happen. But once the shit hit the fan, the shit didn't stop hitting...and it was awesome.

Fans of dystopian novels will love this book. I give it 8/10 lightsabers and I'm pretty picky about giving out lightsabers. So yeah, go ahead and read this one. You'll thank me later.

And YOU, yeah, YOU. Thanks for reading.

Next Review: Frank Miller's Sin City: The Hard Goodbye