Wednesday Review: Mockingjay

I devoured Hunger Games and loved it. No, I don't like Katniss, (and neither do several coworkers who read and loved the series that's how good it is) but the world, the supporting characters, the plot were fabulous. I read Catching Fire in a night. While it didn't have the same intensity as Hunger Games, it read wonderfully.

Mockingjay didn't do it for me. It took me weeks to read it, and I should have known my own hesitation was not because I lacked time (there's always time to read a much anticipated book) but because I feared Suzanne Collins would disappoint me with her finale to this series.

She did. I won't go into details, but everything I loved about Hunger Games and Catching Fire were taken, tossed, shaken, stirred, and replaced here. Characterization went down the drain. If she wanted to show what she ultimately did, maybe having 4 instead of 3 books was the way to go. It seemed as if she skimped on what I as a reader loved most about the first two books and then delved into other things just enough to make you think she was going in one direction only to have her redirect just when things were getting interesting.

I'm all about the red herring but sheesh, follow through! And don't finish the entire series in 20-30 pages when the majority of the book could have been dumped.

And then there's characterization. WHAT HAPPENED? To say I was disappointed is a huge understatement. But I won't spoil anything here. Sufficient to say, I'm deeply saddened by what she did to core characters.