The Hunger Games: A Review of Mockingjay******SPOILER ALERT******

And now for something completely different.  (Ignore this post if you've not read the book in question, or if you still intend to, but haven't yet).  I've always intended to post reviews of movies and books here.  So my first review might as well be of a red-hot publishing phenomenon written by Suzanne Collins.  Someone near and dear to me was curious about my opinion of the book, so here goes . . .

Now, I really loved the first two books in the Hunger Games series.  I consider them to be as close to perfect as any teen novel can reasonably expect to be - on par with the Harry Potter series.  And I still recommend the third book in the series if you've read the other two.  It's good.  Nonetheless, I see some serious flaws in Mockingjay that are too major for me to just overlook.

I am thankful that Collins brought a decisive end to the rebellion subplot running throughout the series.  It would have been very frustrating if she foreshadowed it so much and then faded to black with a last line saying, "finally the rebellion began and a future without the Capitol felt possible for the first time."  That would have stunk!  Nonetheless, the actual handling of the war was horribly repetitive.  Katniss goes to a war zone.  Katniss does something unexpected against orders that is good for the rebellion.  Katniss gets hurt and wakes up later in the hospital feeling drugged and groggy.  Rinse and repeat.

The mold is only slightly broken (and only for the worse) in the final cycle - the invasion of the capital.  This time the events unfold in a far more aggravating manner because Katniss's predictable order-breaking actions do absolutely nothing except get a lot of interesting characters killed for no greater purpose.  Their deaths wind up being completely and utterly meaningless.  The sequence keeps foreshadowing that people are dying for Katniss's sake, because they believe in her ability to do something great that will end the war.  No such thing happens.  If Katniss had just stayed in bed, all of those people (minus one) would likely have survived the war.  Of course, Collins has a stated interest in exploring the emotional damage and futility of war.  However, Katniss's character never reflects back on the pointlessness of her actions in the capital.  Her reflections are all focused on the death of her sister.  So the message goes missing and the emotional stock the reader has placed in the 'Star Squad' soldiers, particularly Finnick,  is wasted in their pointless deaths.

And what about the death of Prim?  What was the point of that?  Katniss's initial motivation from the first book was to protect her sister.  All through the second book her thoughts and actions continue to focus on Prim's protection.  And in the end Katniss fails and Prim dies horribly.  As a writer, why do that?  While the death could have been handled poignantly, or meaningfully, it wasn't.  If Katniss's character development was somehow deeply affected by Prim's death then it could have payed off.  But Katniss's character development was nonexistent in this book.  Her emotional state was pretty much the same on the first page as it was on the last.  Prim's death turned out to be just another bummer in a long list of bummers. 

For character development, it could have been worth it to kill Prim if Katniss had grown to enjoy the war against the capitol - becoming the bloodthirsty killing machine she was so loathe to be and yet capable of being.  Then Prim's death at the end could have opened her eyes to the horror she herself had become.  It would have been even better if Katniss somehow directly caused Prim's death in a state of bloodlust.  That would have been a completely delicious and ironic twist.  But no - Katniss goes on a completely pointless mission that gets nearly everyone around her killed - only to see her sister die for no particular reason at the end.  Sorry, it doesn't work for me - not when so much more could have been done with it.

And about the psychology. . . there is so much Collins gets right.  Katniss's early lethargy and confusion are textbook mild traumatic brain injury reactions.  The victors' tendency toward self medicating is likewise a classic PTSD symptom.  Their nightmares are also fairly classic symptoms, but a bit cliche too.  But that's okay.  The real showstopper that cannot be justified is Katniss's perfect ability to function in combat situations while she is a neurotic wreck back at District 13.  Completely opposite to the way PTSD actually works, Collins writes Katniss's character as if she is somehow helped by being in danger and then hurt by having quiet time away from combat.  This is backwards in the extreme.  It facilitates the idea that the cause of PTSD is also its treatment. 

Actively serving combat soldiers dealing with PTSD symptoms most frequently get help (if they get help) because they have found themselves incapable of adequately functioning during missions.  They worry that they will get either themselves or their comrades killed because the stress involved with being in danger is simply too much for their hyperactive sympathetic nervous system to handle.  It is soldiers' inability to adequately function in combat, and their subsequent attempts to avoid it, that have historically gotten sufferers of PTSD the (tragic and incorrect) label of cowardice from their fellow soldiers.  Bottom line - Katniss's problems should have multiplied tenfold while in the field, not gotten better.  To me that's a pretty major defect in the writing - especially when the psychological fallout from war is a major theme.

My other gripes are comparatively minor.  Gale gets a completely inadequate send-off.  While his decision to leave Katniss behind makes sense, Collins doesn't even give him a farewell scene.  She makes it appear that Gale simply never spoke to Katniss again.  Collins likewise gives no satisfactory resolution to Katniss failing to kill Gale when he was captured in the capital.  Humbug I say!

While I agree that Katniss and Peeta together is the right happy ending, I would have preferred a more symbolically meaningful ending, wherein Katniss winds up with Gale because she realizes that her experiences have left her too damaged and bitter to love anyone the way Peeta loves.  It would have been more meaningful if Katniss sacrificed her potentially more happy life with Peeta to save her little sister.  Instead, Katniss fails to save her sister but sorta gets her own happy ending.  So her original intent to sacrifice herself at the beginning of the first book is thwarted - but hey, she gets Peeta.  Another humbug from me.

As an example of how Collins very successfully brought closure to a subplot, look no further than Katniss's murder of President Coin.  That was brilliant.  It took all the (annoying) instances of Katniss continuing to let herself be used and made them somehow meaningful.  It was also the only instance of real character development for Katniss in the book.  If only the other plotlines were resolved so successfully. 

Ultimately, my biggest problem with the book is that all the sacrifices are empty.  The Star Squad soldiers, who died so that Katniss could something great,  all died for nothing.  And Katniss, who got involved in the Hunger Games only to save her sister, ultimately failed.  This book sends the subtle message that when you sacrifice for others, you run a high risk of doing it in vain.  I think that's a lousy message to send.

Hmmm, after writing all of this I've realized that I don't much care for this book.  I really, really wanted to.  Perhaps my expectations were just too high.  Nonetheless, in so many ways Mockingjay just hits a slightly wrong note, and for reasons that I can't understand from a writer's perspective.  The book's still good overall, but it doesn't fit my tastes.  Oh well.