The trilogy’s final is here and read, and this time read through a glowing screen. I didn’t know anyone who physically owned the finale of Suzanne Collins young adult series The Hunger Games, but I did have a friend who owned it on their Amazon kindle. Amazon has a feature where you can lend your digital books to your friends for a 2 week period of time. Despite having the feature, I don’t think Amazon actually wants people to use it as it was not a simple process to either send the book, nor to receive and read it.
When the process of getting the actual book onto my device was done, reading the book off my phone (an Android Razr HD using the Amazon Kindle App) was easy. While I know lots of people with kindles or other e-book reading devices, I rarely hear anything good about digital reading. Generally the complaints are Giles-esque, missing something superficial like the smell of the book. I did miss the feel of a page in my hand, or mass flipping pages to see when the next chapter begins so I know how many pages I have to go through. But I miss them because that’s what I’ve been doing all my life; reading is associated with these antiquated notions, and its not necessarily that one is superior to the other. The print on my phone was the perfect size, and while each page was smaller, that was actually a benefit to me considering I read while at work and am frequently interrupted, and a smaller page makes it easier for me to find my place. Staring at a screen can cause eye-strain (when staring at a screen, you blink less which can cause your eyes to feel strained), but it never affected me in that way. A big benefit to me is that I don’t own a night light, or a desk lamp, or any small lighting device near my bed. If I want to read in bed, I have to get up, cross my room, and turn the light on, and repeat the process when I’m done. Reading from a device means the light from the device is all I needed. Now, when I go camping again, this will eat a lot of batteries, and if the battery dies I lose out on reading. But, when I’m around town or in an area where I know I have easy access to a plug-in, its much easier to carry my cell-phone, which is always in my pocket, then it is to carry an extra book. After reading it, I don’t have a preference for future books.
But I did more than just read on my Kindle, I actually did read a book. A book which will now be spoilered if you continue.
The series of the books is classified as “Young Adult,” and I might not understand what that means. Part of the problem is that by the time I turned 13, I had already read many Stephen King books, including The Stand, which includes not only gruesome deaths, but plenty of sex. My idea of what a “Young Adult” may read is a little warped. Still, this book felt a lot more “adult” than its predecessors. There were people melting, heads getting bitten off, people being set on fire, and a much deeper plot. Comparing the last Harry Potter to the first, there was growth... but that was 7 books over 10 years, and the audience reading the book grew up alongside the characters during that time. The Hunger Games was 3 books in under 2 years; the audience had not grown nearly as much, and the character of the book had barely grown as well. As a 28 year old male reading the books, I was happy to see it go from what felt childish to me (read my review of The Hunger Games), to almost a mature book that just focuses on the life of a 17 year old, but it was still shocking.
For the final time, the book focuses on Katniss Everdeen. A 17 year old female who tries to be self reliant, but is actually pretty paranoid and reads way too much into everything everyone says. This book at least gives her more reason to actually be paranoid. She has multiple characters that tell her she is just being used; she is also being manipulated from afar by President Snow. She still in love with two different men, and she doesn’t want to admit it, and her little heart strings are pulled through out the book. Oh yeah, and she’s the figurehead of a war after her home city has been firebombed to nothing. She does not mature throughout this book. In fact, she goes a little bit more crazy. Its not entirely unexpected, considering everything she’s been forced to handle and that through the large majority of the time period that the book covers, she is so heavily drugged and removed from society that the world doesn’t even make sense. I still would have preferred a character that matured over time, or more of a denouement. Instead, the book goes through preparing for the war, winning the war, to her assassinating the president, to “and everything was happily ever after.” Seriously, the book just feels like it ends. The epilogue doesn’t count, in fact, I’m going to rant about that later. But first...
The driving factor in this book isn’t my interest in Katniss anymore. The first book I was right there with Katniss, rooting for Katniss, and totally rooting for her as a friend (partially because she was very similar to one of my friends in real life). There’s this book I once read where its all told through a rat’s perspective. The rat isn’t anthropomorphised (yes, I did spell that correctly on the first try) or anything like that, its just a rat running through this apartment complex and sees things. You don’t care about the rat, you’re not supposed to. The rat is just a tool on how to witness the various characters and the plot that unfolds. Katniss is almost that rat. I care about what’s going on with the war, I care what’s going on with Finnick and his wife, I care about what Gale and Beetee are planning, and most of all, I care about the incredibly tortured Peeta. The difference between Katniss and the rat is I care about these characters because of how they relate and interact with her, but not because of her herself. I care about Peeta because he’s constantly tried to protect her through the books; I care about the war because we saw the aftermath of the firebombing of District 12 through Katniss’ eyes. But in the end, I read because I want to see how the world turns out, and not because I’m invested in Katniss any longer. That care and concern for Katniss left me in book 2. She was no longer my friend, but that crazy chick that is always around you, and you gave her advice and she doesn’t take it and keeps going crazy over the same bullshit. Which is just too bad, I liked her so much in the first one.
Something I enjoyed about this book is that it was no longer a black and white story line. It was no longer “Capitol evil, 13 good.”. Yes, The Capitol is evil, but how clean is 13? They are still strong and controlling, and human life is still only a number of calculations. We see how people get pushed to that edge to act like the capitol. There is a vote as to whether or not a Hunger Games should be held. Yes, we see 13 cross this line, but more importantly, we see Gale go well beyond that line. Gale’s plan to take The Nut specifically, but also his emotional trap that is later used to kill Prim. I can’t blame Gale for his crossing the line, I understand why he has snapped.
The question of what side is good is further pushed by Peeta, and his repeated question “Real or Not Real.” It shows up most at the end, when the war is too far along to stop. But its important to have in your mind. Who is trying to kill Katniss more, Snow or Coin? We question who Katniss’ friends are, we question who her enemies are, and as soon as we get an answer, we might have to ask again. At the end, the only question I felt answered is Peeta and Haymitch, which are the two characters that I never actually questioned. Katniss’ point of view tried to make me question their intents, but to me I didn’t. They had long ago proven their worth and love.
The book ends with with Peeta asking Katniss if she loves him, Real or Not Real. That’s the ending I like. While it left a lot of strings open, it allowed me to dream the future they might have. Then there’s an epilogue. An epilogue where Katniss and Peeta made the decision to breed. Hate. The way it is described sounds like Peeta pressured her into it. Even after 20 years, I don’t envision Katniss giving in to pressure about something like that. Now, Katniss’ original argument against having children was she didn’t want to watch them go through the reaping for The Hunger Games. Yet, somehow I feel that “because my husband was driven insane and used to go on murderous rampages, and he’s the sane one in the family” is a better reason not to reproduce. At the end of the second book, I had made a wish that Katniss ended with neither Peeta or Gale. Through the adventures in the third book, I am okay with her being with Peeta. He’s the character who got her only real change to occur, which was to stick through it with another person, and not just judge them on how well they serve her.
Despite my dislike for the end, and my apathy towards Katniss’ character, I liked the book much more than I liked the second book, Catching Fire. If Katniss had been more of a relatable character to me, I may have even liked this book more than the first, Hunger Games, as it had a much better plot line, even if the book left so many threads open. It was still a quick and easy read, but the content was much more mature. As with the second one, I really look forward to seeing how this is done on the big screen. The sequel, currently slated to be released November 2013, and this movie will both probably get rid of much of the middle, and focus on the “games” part of the book. Where all the action takes place; but the action that they have to show is going to be outright riveting. I will definitely be paying to see it.
No comments:
Post a Comment