Mockingjay

The Hunger Games books are very good. I don't deny that. However, I just wonder if I might have outgrown them in the past couple years since I first read The Hunger Games. Now, I enjoyed Mockingjay, I really did. But... Well, bear with me. I'd like to give my thoughts and impressions, but they'll be disjointed as I try to figure out why I'm not such a fan of the series anymore. I suppose I lost patience with the romance drama pretty quickly. Really, some of my favorite moments are when Katniss is either called on her issues or when she has enough clarity to realize that she's messed up without angsting about it at the same time. I mean, one of the reasons I liked Katniss in the first book was that you don't really see a rational, calculating heroine who acts pragmatic even to the point of shocking coldness. In Mockingjay, I liked the parts where Katniss wasn't dealing with her boytoys but instead focusing on the business of training and being an awesome action girl. The main reason I liked the first book so much was because of the how the action all really culminated in the arena. Indeed, maybe it's just my own misconceptions about how the series should have played out, because the less focus on the actual games, the less riveted I was. Well. Um. This is kind of embarrassing, but the last book I read before Mockingjay was The Host, right? (I sometimes post reviews out of order; it was.) I feel weird saying this, but I actually liked The Host better than Mockingjay. There wasn't an angst overload, the romance actually stayed fairly low-key but still drove the plot when needed, the pacing was better. Just... Yeah. I suppose I'll put it this way. If you're someone who thought that Catching Fire was better than The Hunger Games, then you'll really enjoy Mockingjay. As for me, it just wasn't what I was hoping for. Still an objectively good book, though. I can't honestly say that I hated it, after all.