Review by Dale:
Finished the last book in the trilogy and its an impressive finish to an amazing series. I really admire the skills that Collins has displayed in putting this together. It's engaging, its educating its immensely entertaining and its almost one of those books that really makes you think differently about life. In fact for Young Adults it probably is. The first book I ever read like that was John Wyndham's the Chrysalids and there are parallels here with the Hunger Games. I might reread it and post a review so you can all compare.
But back to Mockingjay, and its easy to to point out that Collins manages to maintain her amazing style of keeping every scene buzzing, and forcing you to turn the page to see how things will turn out for Katniss. She has a great talent for building up a scenario and then doing the complete opposite of what you would expect. It almost become a little game of mine as I read. As Katniss would pursue some element of the story I'd try and guess how Collins would twist my expectations around.
And what of the characters themselves? Katniss Everdeen, is she someone you can relate to? I must point out that she looked much younger in the trailers for the Hunger Game's Movie than I had imagined in my head. Same was true for Peeta's character. I think it's great how both those characters developed over the series. And again in ways i didn't expect. Sorry to disappoint you mills and boons die hards, it's not a hands held gazing into your lovers eyes till time turns you into dust kind of book.
I would suggest you read it before Hollywood destroys it.
Highly recommended, 5 stars. Suitable for Ages 14+ (violence)
Format: Hardback
Available from Amazon Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3)
Link to Download: Here
Price: $9.50c (at time of review)
Pagecount: 390 pp (appx)
Author: Suzanne Collins
I only read the first one. Even though it was excellent, I happen to despise first person, present tense. Makes my skin crawl. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm not usually a big fan of it either. But if you have only one main character and it is all about Katniss in this saga, would 3rd person omni work that well?
ReplyDeleteIt's not the first person so much that I don't like. It's the present tense. For instance:
ReplyDelete"I swing my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots."
I would rather read:
"I swung my legs off the bed and slid into my hunting boots."
I just prefer past tense. :)
Yes that definitely makes it worse running like a mental commentary. Like I dont have enough voices in my head already.
ReplyDeleteWe should do an interview for you on here, what do you think? I'd love to ask some questions about your writing and background!
Sure, anytime and thanks for asking! I'm at laura@lauraeno.com
ReplyDelete