Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 

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PJVs QUICKIE POV: Never has a series touched me like The Hunger Games series. Every moment, every heart ache, every bit of dialogue is real. The characters reactions, moments of clarity, moments of insanity, pain, loss, love, hate, anger, hurt, even their drug induced stupors are real, real real.

Parajunkee loved this book? Real.

REVIEW: The culmination of Katniss' adventure comes to an end in the 3rd installment of The Hunger Games, Mockingjay. She has been pulled from The Quarter Quell Hunger Games, forced to leave Peeta and a few other tributes behind and take up shelter in 13. District 12 has been reduced to ashes. Thousands have died, all because of her.

Within the confines of District 13 she finds no solace at the heart of the rebellion. She is torn between a multitude of emotions, to give in, to flee, to take too many pills, to hide --- but most of all she is driven by revenge and an underlying love that she is unable to define herself. She knows she has to see this to the end, she must kill Snow, she must protect Peeta and her family. If that means sacrificing herself, well so-be-it. From Katniss' POV she has no future, the pain is just too great, the nightmares just too real, she doesn't see an end to the pain.

Hearth-wrenching at times, gruesome at others,  Mockingjay led me through a plethora of reactive states. I stared wide-eyed at the pages as death and destruction were described. I sniffled as Katniss' peers and friends tried to reaffirm to her that they did care about her. I hissed when the big baddies made their appearances and did not-so-nice things to Katniss and her group. I giggled at the description of some of the Capitol wear. I awed at moments of touching lovey emotional scenes and I think I might even have thrown the book once when there was a deceptive moment. I even parried...back and forth between Gale and Peeta, but not too much, because there is no question in my mind where Katniss belongs.

Read the books. If you haven't read the series, you really should. This isn't a Twilight phenom, these are really good books, with awesome plots, great characters and should go down as one of the best YA series ever. This is, this generations Wrinkle in Time type series.

RECOMMENDATION: Fans of Ender's Game - this is a must read. Westerfeld's The Uglies - must read. YA fans, dystopian fans, people that don't even know what dystopian means...who cares, find out what it means by reading this book. Adults, older teens, men, women - it is cross-generational, cross-gender and cross species {mutants might be offended with the mutt talk though}. There is a lot of violence though, so I would stick with older teens, or mature younger ones.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Welcome to the future, Suzanne Collins style. It is not a place I would want to visit, in fact her view on our future world had me shivering under my bed sheets. This book scared me and that is no small feat, since the last book that had me scared was Communion by Whitley Strieber and it was supposed to be a true story – hence the lights on for a month (did I mention I read that book when I was 12?).

The story is so well-written and gripping it had me believing that this was possible and in fact could be on the verge of happening. I actually shed tears throughout this novel and read it so quickly that I surprised myself. If I wouldn’t have had a birthday party for an aunt this weekend, I would have finished it in a day – I tried smuggling it in my purse to maybe read there – but it was a no-go.

The Hunger Games is a depiction of life in the near future where the former North American continent is ruled by an unforgiving society that holds its surrounding districts in contempt with a chokehold grip. The story follows Katniss, a citizen of District 12, the poorest district in Panem. Katniss has one mission in life and that is to provide for her family. If she doesn’t bring home food, they will starve.
The Capitol, the ruling body of Panem has other things in mind for the children of the districts - it is called The Hunger Games.  Each year there is a reaping, 2 children ages 12 - 18 are taken from each district, a boy and a girl - they are forced to fight to the death in a reality tv type environment.

This story is gruesome, touching, thought invoking...you name it's got it.  I was so entrenched in the story that I stayed up way past my bedtime finishing it and then moving on to Catching Fire, which is Book Two.  I'm thinking about reviewing Book Two, but just the description would give away spoilers that would affect the reading of The Hunger Games. Let's just say book two is one of those rare sequels that surpasses the first. I was sobbing...sobbing throughout half the book!

I have been reading a lot of phenomenal books lately and have been loving every minute of it! My hat goes off to Ms. Collins - remarkable job. I'm hooked and am in desperate need for even a synopsis on the third book!

I've posted the two covers - UK & US - as a first I like the US version better.

FYI:

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate bought distribution rights to the The Hunger Games, and word is it will be produced by Nina Jacobsen (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and her Color Force production company. Word on wiki is that Collins (who is a former tv writer) will be screenwriting and release date is set for 2011.