Ladies and gentlemen, let it be known that I, Katie Saba, have *finally* finished the last book in the Hunger Games series.
-Thusly noted on this day, the eleventh of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand and twelve-
It only took me like, a year and a half to complete the whole series from start to finish. It wasn't that I didn't like them. Just....I let other stuff get in the way. But I am officially DONE, son.
I've been hinting at a Hunger Games post for a while now, ever since the movie came out in March, but I wanted to wait until after I finished the last book in order to give a thorough evaluation of the series as a whole, and not just the first book which the movie was based on.
Okay, so I finished Mockingjay (the third and final book of the series) at about 1 AM last night. I stayed up thinking about it for at least an hour, mulling over all of my intense feelings that had just arisen after reading the last lines on page 398. I expected to turn another page, but instead I was greeted with two big, ugly bold words: THE END.
Let me get one thing straight with you here...I thoroughly enjoyed the first book. I thoroughly enjoyed the second book, up until the last page. I did NOT thoroughly enjoy the last book. Actually, I didn't like the last book. At all. But I had to see how it all ended, so I kept reading until the end in the hope that something awesome would happen to the characters that would resolve all of the unhappiness and despair that is found on pretty much every single page of Mockingjay.
Then all hopes were dashed. DASHED I TELL YOU.
There was one tiny little glimmer of something that might have been happy in the end, but that was it. There was a very uneven balance of despair and happiness in the whole story itself, actually. Very disturbing. And unsatisfying.
Maybe what really annoyed me was the whole love triangle resolution. For those who aren't familiar with the story, there is a love triangle between Katniss (the main character) and two guys, Gale and Peeta. I had been rooting for one guy since book one. The other guy started to grow on me in book 2, and I ended up liking him in book 3.
Without giving too much away, Katniss ended up with the guy that I had been rooting for, which is great...right?
The thing is, I just don't like Katniss. I really don't. I decided somewhere in the middle of Mockingjay that the guy I wanted Katniss to end up with was actually too good for her. And when he did actually end up with her, I didn't feel great. I felt terrible. And then the book ended.
It's hard to like a story in which the main character/hero of the story is not likable and/or doesn't learn anything by the end of the story. It just doesn't work. And I guess that was my problem. Katniss didn't learn anything. At least, not to the point where she was made into a more likable character. You get a small tiny hint of something in the last two lines of Mockingjay that indicate a slight change in Katniss' thinking, but nothing more.
It's just annoying.
And since I'm on a roll, another thing that annoyed me was how fast everything happened in the end. It was like Suzanne Collins decided she'd had enough and just wanted to end it quickly. There was no closure with any characters (besides Katniss and the guys she ends up with) and there was no explanation about what happens to anyone or anything after the big battle at the end, not even a mention. Did anyone stop to think that maybe we liked other characters besides Katniss and wanted to see their endings too? Apparently not. Grr.
It's just annoying. But I already said that.
So, if you want my recommendation, I would say read the first book. Then stop. It only gets worse from there. Oh yeah, and watch the movie.
And since we're on the topic, I thought the movie portrayed the first book really well!! With what they could do with the story, I thought they did an excellent job. The whole story is written from Katniss' perspective, so the moviemakers only had Katniss' views on everything to work with. But they did awesome. It was great. Go see it if you haven't yet. But remember, THE BOOK IS BETTER. The book is always better.
That is all.
P.S. If you really want to read a great series which follows a character who you will actually like, read Harry Potter. But I think I'll be saving that for another post at another time... :)
