Mockingjay - I really love it

[dangermousie]

I continue my contrariness - I am about halfway through Mockingjay, the near-universally-reviled third part of the Hunger Games trilogy, and I adore it. Maybe even more than Catching Fire. In fact, the only book I don't care for is the very-loved first part of the trilogy, Hunger Games. I also don't have a problem with not seeing a wider world but sticking with Katniss POV - these are YA books. Sure, gritty ones, what with deaths and child prostitution, but still...

I like Katniss, but I can't say she is my favorite character in this - I like Peeta, Haymitch, Johanna, and Finnick better than I do her. But I don't get the loathing fandom seems to have gone into. I've seen people complain that Katniss is surly in Mockingjay and/or whiny. I don't find her whiny, I do find her surly, but I am absolutely fine with it. She's seventeen. I am almost twice her age, and if I'd been through what she's been through, I'd be more than surly, I'd be locked up in a straight-jacket somewhere. She is gritted-teeth tough, but she is human and she holds it together better than most anyone would (including some of the characters in this).

Also, I don't really get the shipper wars in HG fandom. You know me, I am very easy to please, shipper-wise, and will ship almost any canonical couple, but even though I like Katniss, adore Peeta, and don't loathe Gale (though honestly, I find him almost a non-character), I just don't think Katniss/Peeta is a love story for the ages. In fact, I don't think Katniss should be with either Peeta or Gale because she's not ready (and possibly never will be - she makes me think of Haymitch) to emotionally open enough to a person. It has nothing to do with 'she's too damaged to love' (if you think about it, Finnick went through way worse, and he indubitably loves Annie beyond anything), but the way her damage manifests and the fact that, even before all the stuff happened, she just seemed like a very emotionally closed-off person. I guess I just don't see her as being happy in any relationship. So the rabid Gale/Katniss/Peeta shipping confuses me. I do ship Finnick/Annie like mad though - it hits all my fictional kinks. I need fanfic.

Other things - for some reason, the atmosphere in District 13 makes me think of BSG. Who gets to be Adama? Lee can certainly be Peeta (I don't know why I see the connection, but I do). Haymitch is Tigh, hello there drinking problem, toughness and my inexplicable crush.

Also, I guess that proves me like everyone else, but I pretty much decided Finnick is my favorite character. Ummm. Am embarrassed. Slipping into my hole now.

Comments

[spunspider.livejournal.com]

wait til you get to the end of mockingjay - it was the end that i disliked. not like some people do, and i quite liked the way katniss and peeta turned out, but i still disliked it. finnick/annie is THE BEST and i love haymitch and i love cinna. i don't get the shipper wars either, it's not complex or developed enough to be compelling. it's a fun series, though.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

While I haven't read the end yet, I am spoiled for it, and it didn't bother me.

Yeah, I don't get shipper devotion at all - I mean, Katniss is pretty lukewarm about romance - sure, she loves Peeta and Gale in different ways, but as for romantic life - not buying it.

Also, please tell me someone else is going to be raising Finnick/Annie's baby and not just Annie. Because eeeeeek.

[spunspider.livejournal.com]

i guess what i didn't like was that the tone was so uneven, it felt like it was going beyond it's depth for the finale, and it rang a little hollow for that. felt gratuitous.

ia. i wouldn't be surprised if in the past 5 or so years agents had begun to tell writers to throw in love triangles in YA stuff for the sake of it, because it sells. like, gale could've been interesting if he'd gone off on his own and had his own story. it's kindof irritating to have everything be subordinate to romantic love.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the love triangle never made sense to me in this. I mean, I wasn't particularly into Katniss/Peeta either (I could buy he loved her but not really vice-versa. Or at least I couldn't buy she was in romantic love) but at least it was mildly plausible. Gale's feelings seemed to be tacked on and he never really developed as a character so I was all blaaaaah.

But honestly, I just can't buy Katniss as paired off with anyone.

[mionenoelle.livejournal.com]

I actually enjoyed Catching Fire more, although I agree that Mockingjay is the best-written of the three. The last third of Mockingjay punched me repeatedly in the gut and didn't stop until the end. At one point, I had to stop reading for a day because I just couldn't handle it.

Finnick/Annie=LOVE

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It is pretty shockingly depressing for a YA book, isn't it? How dare they kill Finnick off, booooooooooooooooo!

I am so glad I decided to continue despite not caring for the first book.

[mionenoelle.livejournal.com]

That was the point where I had to take a break. After that, I sort of just resigned myself with whatever bomb Collins was going to throw at me.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am very very surprised what the publishers let her get away with. I mean, in general, even leaving aside the deaths. I would not be keen on my 13-yr-old (if Baby Mousie was 13) reading them...

[(Anonymous)]

WOW All your posts today are something I feel the need to comment on. LOL I have been going to each post to comment.
See I on the other hand loved the first two books but hated the last one...it was too Big I suppose. Can't really describe it but I guess for me it didn't focus on the characters as much who I was really attached to in the first two books. But that's the beauty of books...each takes away what they want to. Also I shipped Katniss Peeta really really hard. Aww I miss the giddiness I felt when reading each book in the series for the first time. Can't wait for the Movie!!!
---leaves45

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I like Katniss and adore Peeta but I guess I just wasn't too into them as a ship. But the books are really fun anyway.

[littledelusion.livejournal.com]

I have a preference for Katniss/Peeta just because I think she really needs someone sane and (mostly) whole in her life. But I'm a huge Peeta stan, so. :)
Also, the greatest Finnick/Annie fic of ever is this one: http://puella-nerdii.livejournal.com/151267.html
...and I wrote one too. *hides*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Link pls? I am obsessed with them :)

I adore Peeta to bits, I just can't really see Katniss in a relationship.

[littledelusion.livejournal.com]

http://littledelusion.livejournal.com/72766.html
*hides*
Also has a vague sequel, but it's spoilery for Mockingjay. (which you seem to be plowing through, lol)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I loved it loved it loved it

[(Anonymous)]

*gleeful giggling*

[(Anonymous)]

*gleeful giggling*

[littledelusion.livejournal.com]

*gleeful giggling*

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I really would have been sad for Katniss had she ended up all alone, though. I think she would have turned into Haymitch or become a morphling living on memories. And I think Peeta is the only person she could have ended with simply because he was the one who understood what they had endured together. (I adore Peeta too!)

And thank you also for mentioning Gale: I have so many friends who love him but I don't understand why because he's more a collection of personality traits than a well-developed character.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I agree she would have turned into Haymitch but that would have struck me as realistic. I don't particularly mind her ending up with Peeta (whom I did adore) but if SC was trying to sell me on some epic K/P romance, she failed. She cared for him and liked to see the way he idealized her, but true romantic love? No. To use one of many examples, I don't either blame or dislike her for ditching him once he came back all altered by the Capitol but that doesn't scream undying love to me!

Re: Gale. I honestly don't get the fandom love. I don't hate him (I can actually very easily understand how one wants to hurt those who hurt you, stopping distinguishing between individuals - one of my maternal great-uncles was part of the Soviet army that took Berlin and the stories...Especially since between the Holocaust and war casualties, my mother's family lost more than half its members). But he just never came across as a main character to me, or a very well-developed one. Sort of always on the periphery, but not really enough for me to be invested in.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

My only comment re:Mockingjay is HELL YEAH!!! I loved it, and I think it was the logical extension of what went before. So glad you like it too!!!

(Also melding current and past obsessions, my fantasy casting for Finnick is now Charlie Hunnam - he could do that golden boy + angst so well!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I could definitely see Charlie Hunnam, especially since when I first saw him (in the very mediocre adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby), I remember literally thinking for one second 'can someone so gorgeous be real?' /embarassing fangirl moment. I do think I like Finnick because he's a Lymond-type (though obviously nowhere nearly as well-developed or written and I kind of glommed to that type).

I don't really get Mockingjay hate. I thought it was logical and well-developed. I think a lot of people have problems with it because they want/expect the trilogy to be something that it isn't - it's a well-written teen dystopia, no more no less. To expect a war epic with hundreds of characters and geopolitical discussions, is to want something else entirely. I think people forget that unlike pretty much every other character in this, our POV character (and Peeta, and to a lesser extent Gale), is still a child! Children don't lead revolutions, don't plan governments - sure, she's a symbol, but to expect her to be the political mastermind or war commander par excellence (as opposed to having it be one of the adults, all with years of hard living behind them), is a bit much - sure, there is always Alexander of Macedon, but even he didn't conquer the world at 17.

In fact, I think SC made a wise choice to stick to her chosen genre, because the last third of the book, where she tries for a larger canvass, doesn't work as well imo (I think the author's strengths are with a small cast and structured-specific situations).

Btw, I didn't get the hate for the epilogue either. I actually liked it (more than some of the stuff near the end, see above). I liked it a lot.

[hope-fuleigh.livejournal.com]

Katniss is surly - she has been throughout the entire trilogy. It's why they spent hours trying to get her ready for her first interview, before Haymitch gave up and was all, 'well, just try not to offend anyone too badly' so I don't know why it came as a surprise to anyone that after 2 Hunger Games (and with Peeta in captivity / brainwashed, and losing Cinna, and losing District 12, etc etc etc), she wouldn't be a ray of sunshine.


I read all three books over a very brief period while on vacation last spring, and so by the time I got to Mockingjay, I was ready for a reprieve from the bleak horrible awfulness, but I did like it. I wasn't really compelled by the love triangle, either, except that what each of the boys represented in the grander scheme of things, in relation to Katniss and her outlook on humanity. I think the ending was pitch perfect, actually.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought the ending fit.

And I like that Katniss is surly!

[ulkis.livejournal.com]

no, I love Finnick too! I definitely thought he has way more personality than Peeta or Gale (who I agree, seems to be a total non-character, although at the same time I thought Katniss likes him better.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't get the Gale thing at all...

[quaggy]

Interesting. I gave up after the first book. You almost make me want to give the other two books a try. Almost. It's hard living in Katniss's head or being anything but annoyed at the love triangle. (I actually didn't like Gale much at all.) But because I wasn't planning on reading the rest of the series, I spoiled myself with a plot summary for the rest of the trilogy and then skipped to the epilogue... which I actually found quite lovely and fitting. Even though I really am not interested in taking the whole trip, I like that it finished up well.

By the way, did I ever recommend you check out Alison Goodman's Eon and the sequel Eona? (I think I did, but can't remember for sure.) If I did, it was probably before I finished them. It took me a while to get through them, because there was a hell of a lot more court intrigue that I had expected in a fantasy book about (Chinese) dragons. But since you love C-dramas the way you do, it might be a good fit. The author world-builds very, very well and the characters are well developed.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, sounds interesting. Thanks for the rec!

[akosikae.livejournal.com]

Well, now I'm curious. I might even read the 2nd and 3rd book.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Be warned I am in the minority in my opinion :)