Warning: full-on rant and spoilers below.
I just reading the the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy, so I feel like I should blog about it. But I honestly cannot articulate what just happened. It was so...polarizing. Polarized? The trilogy felt like it was being pulled in too many directions, but they barely managed to sync with each other. Having the animalistic Hunger Games juxtaposed against the Capitol with all their frivolity and fancy technology seems like a good idea, but I think this story takes the dichotomy a little too far, making it seem almost implausible. It came together a lot better at the climax of
Mockingbird, when the two worlds collided.
Actually, I think it was the reality TV that did me in. That's the main reason it seemed so far-fetched. The two worlds - the poor districts vs. the rich Capitol - are pretty standard, except then Collins throws in makeup artists and camera crews everywhere, filming and recording every moment of everything, and then arranging it into propaganda. That just seems out of place, but at the same time, I suppose that's what keeps this trilogy from falling into the cookie-cutter rebels-battling-oppressive-invaders storyline à la John Christopher's The Tripods trilogy (which is a good series nonetheless).
Another thing that irked me was the writing style. It is so solidly rooted in Young Adult Literature. Maybe it's because I haven't read new YA-lit in such a long time. (Haven't read much of anything in a long time, actually. With the exception of the occasional hipster novel.) Everything was spelled out (or it was, eventually), and every small remark had an explanation later on. Like the description of the Hanging Tree song! The lyrics had some promising nuance, which was promptly parsed in detail in the ensuing paragraph. Often events work out in just the right way, like how the last safe house for Katniss's group is a former stylist's pad, just when they needed to disguise themselves. Or things go wrong for a reason, like when Peeta comes back from the Capitol deranged. Not that it wasn't a surprising turn of events at the time; it's just that in retrospect, it was a very YA-lit thing to happen.
And I felt like some topics got more screen time because they were catered to the young-adult set: gory battle scenes, pretty clothes and personal stylists, Katniss's relationship with two guys who are madly in love with her (plus a random hot guy), authority figures who just don't
understand her. Her relationship with her family is centered mainly on her beloved little sister and less on her mother or dead father - sheesh, who needs parents anyways?
It was so maddeningly unoriginal with the ideas - the Hunger Games as a Minotaur/"The Lottery" reference with some John Christopher thrown in. And the naming! Castor and Pollux? Mockingjay? Really? The names seem overly descriptive and unimaginative, especially the naming tributes after their district. Although that did help me keep them straight; there were quite a few of them. But even though the books borrowed so much from pre-existing ideas, they were woven together in such an unexpected way (see above re: reality TV). And the third book was rather interesting in that although Katniss fought so hard to escape the Capitol to join the rebels in District 13, the rebels turn out to be little better than the Capitol.
It also focused way too much on nit-picky details, like the names and descriptions of all the tributes, as well as their districts. The clock arena also seems like an excuse to organize the twelve ordeals in a neat and orderly fashion. (Not that it wasn't a clever new idea for the arena!) However, as an obsessive list-maker, I can relate to this and rather enjoyed it. Stand proud, fellow anal ISTJs! We welcome you into our club, Suzanne Collins. Sometimes it felt like too much unnecessary detail (to draw a parallel to Harry Potter, that's what fan sites like mugglenet.com is for; don't try to cram it into the books themselves!), but somehow it all ended up being useful. I think the problem is that she had 24 tributes each year and tried to describe most of them, as well as their districts. If she had only 10 districts, maybe it wouldn't have felt like such an overload of details. But then District 13 would be named District 11, which I suppose isn't as cool. And the Games wouldn't have lasted very long, since a large percentage have to die in the first day.
And P.S., what the heck happened to Gale?? After all his talk about duking it out with Peeta, he just disappears? That could have been significant, but since it wasn't commented upon in this write-it-all-out YA-lit book, I'm inclined to say that it wasn't. Maybe it's because he bombed her sister. Whatever, asshole. Team Peeta all the way.
Also: side note to authors, epilogues are rarely necessary *coughHarryPottercough*. The one in
Mockingjay was barely passable; it ended the story very nicely, but the Suzanne Collins could have done without, and it would have been perfectly fine.
Despite all that, these books were the most gripping novels I have read in a long, long time. Even though I think it's sometimes melodramatic and unimaginative and grasping at straws. Even though it's terribly depressing and everyone dies. Even though Katniss is angsty and strident at times. I even spent my lunch break today in the car reading the last book. I think one of the reasons it was so enthralling was that Suzanne Collins created her own world with likeable characters that you could follow for two or three books, where no one was all good or all bad. (The series sounds a lot like Harry Potter in these ways. BUT THAT'S WHERE THE SIMILARITIES END.) It was also interesting to experience two iterations of the Games, to see how they were similar but so different from each other. Plus, I'm a sucker for series set in a different (but thoroughly described) world where the characters are still somewhat relatable (see: Harry Potter, The Tripods). And the books did make me think, even if a large portion of that was fixated on the YA-ness of the novels.
I know this all sounds really jumbled. I can't decide if I love or hate this series. Probably both.
Aaaand now I've officially spent an hour and a half writing this post. I should probably stop staring at screens for a while and take a shower.
