Presenting a young-adult take on a young-adult novel: this is a guest post from my almost-16-year-old stepdaughter, Katie (Caitlin).
Two people in my house read Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay last week, and we had rather different responses to it, which basically makes my house a microcosm of the novel’s readership. Having already posted my own reaction, I invited Katie to share hers here – she had some venting to do!
Katie says:
I read Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins as someone who had absolutely loved the first two books in The Hunger Games. Sitting in my class all day, I was just watching the clock until I was able to go home and read. I did so, and just about cried when I read that Cinna had (supposedly) died in the first chapter (I still don’t believe it until I see a corpse). But, I moved on, very sadly. I saw both Gale and Prim growing, and they soon settled into their spots as my favorite characters (just below Cinna of course ‘cause he’s not dead).
Reading more, I also became attached to Finnick, who was mentally unstable, yet one of the coolest people out there. I had somewhat lost interest in Peeta (not saying I wanted him to die, just lost a little bit of interest).
Anyway, the middle of the book is not why I am writing this. No. I am writing this because of THE FREAKING ENDING! What happened?! Prim! Finnick! Gone! For no apparent reason! Then there was Gale leaving off to somewhere in district two after a romance had grown with Katniss. He just gives up and leaves?! And she gives up and goes with Peeta who she considered killing on more than one occasion?! I closed that book and the first words from my mouth were, “What was that?”
They also had decided on having another Hunger Games for the Capitol’s children! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
Overall, I loved the books, but the ending was a complete fail in my eyes and I personally would have ended it very differently.
Me again: I’m quite sure one thing that Katie would have done differently is that she wouldn’t have killed off Cinna – or if she did, she wouldn’t have done it off-page. Katie started reading Mockingjay before I did, and when she started wailing aloud while still on the first chapter, I had a bad feeling something had happened to her very favorite character. I’m kind of with her, though…I want some proof he’s actually dead.
Question for you: Which character death in Mockingjay did you mourn the most?
When the mood strikes her and she has something to say about things unrelated to The Hunger Games, Katie blogs at AshiOutLoud.
Book cover image via IndieBound. I am an IndieBound Affiliate.
