I know I made a post a couple years back about reading
The Hunger Games, I don't think I did one for Catching fire though. I finished reading the third book in this trilogy "MockingJay" and it still haunts me! I just can't believe it's over, I am depressed that it is over! I have since read a few reviews and just can't understand why so many people are upset about the book. I don't think I really have to many things to be upset about except that it is over
forever! lol I know there were so many things that happened in this book that were heart wrenching, but I think they are what made the books what they are, the emotion was so real! In the first two books the characters go through so much! So of course this book was going to be filled with the same thing!
My
views/Opinions on a few things-
1.) Prim! I swear this book made me cry at least a handful of times! When I read what happened to Prim, the first thing I did was scream a few things out loud along the lines of "omgosh, omgosh, Nooooo!!!!Nooooo!!!! There may or may not have been a swear word mixed in...I'm not telling! :) Next thing I did was set the book down on my bed, sobbed like a baby and then went out to recap what I just read with my hubby (who by the way has NOT read the series, he never reads any of the series I read BUT, he says I give the best "play by play" summaries ever lol. This is how he got to know the Twilight series and of course the Sookie series lol (and he LOVE the twilight movies and Trueblood just as much as I do lol....shhhh).
Anyways, I told him all about what lead up to Katniss making it to the center of the circle, about the children, the parachutes and what happened. I was a mess after that play by play, and you know what he told me...the man who has not read the series, who has just heard the play by plays of the three books in the last three years... He said, WOW, what a way end the book, makes the beginning of the first book a little ironic (don't you think? lol, Prim was saved but then she ends up dying at the end of book three). I could not agree more. I did a flash back of The hunger games, where they call out Prim's name and Katniss calls out to take her sisters place. And then kinda like what Katniss saw when Finnick died (my view on that in a bit) I get a massive flashback of all three books all at once, and then I think, WOW! Can you imagine this... What if it were really Prim who went to the Hunger Games? Everything would be different, all the people who would still be alive, Katniss and Peeta would not be scarred on the inside and out. It would have probably all stayed the same, The hunger games would go on, and the districts would still be slaves to the Capitol. So it made me think, even though so much happened to each one of these people, so many died, poor Katniss and Peeta are all scarred and been through so much, they had to grow up so much (please tell me that I am not the only one who forgot from time to time that they were only 17 years old, by the third book Katniss was no longer a girl to me, she was a strong, tough Woman!) I was so sad Prim had to die, I enjoyed getting to see her grow more in this book, like I said, I sobbed!
2.) Finnick- Okay, there was so much going on during this whole intense scene, that I actually had to go back and re-read some of it after the 5 left made it to the top of the sewer on to the street. I knew there were a couple that were down the ladder when Gale came up and said they could not be saved, but It took me a second with all that was going on to realize that one of them was Finnick! I was SHOCKED! I had another NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Moment! I loved Finnick! I thought he was so stinkin funny in Catching Fire. I mourned for poor Annie, who needed him! I wondered if he would have known Annie was pregnant, would he have gone on the mission? I will wonder forever what the heck poor crazy Annie will do with a baby by herself, who is helping her? I wish all the surviving characters would have been touched on a little more in the last chapter and the "epilogue" about their future and what happened to them, I mean we just spent three years of our lives reading and waiting for the novels to come out, getting to know all these characters, I wanted a little more closure on somethings. Like yeah, we know Haymitch went off to drink and raise- what was it geese? But I wanted to hear more about what happened to him in the future, did he die from all the drinking, did he live long enough to see Peeta and Katniss's children? What did he think of them finally spending their life together? You probably think "why does she care what Haymitch thought"? But I do, even though he was not much of a father figure, I did see how much he loved them, they both turned to him time and time again and he was the only one who really knew them, knew that even though half the time they had a "showmance" LOL, they truly did have feelings for eachother. I wanted to know more about what everyone was doing, Gale, why did she leave us hanging with such little info, maybe there will be a Gale spin off LOL and we will get to live life through Gale's eyes and adventures in district 2? Sounds good to me LOL, and maybe we would get some Katniss and Peeta cameos LOL. Also When Katniss and Haymitch fly back to districts 12, it said that most of the lights were on in the houses in the victors village, so who else lived up there besides, Peeta, Haymitch and I am assuming Greasy Sae got one. LOL, I know, I know, why does this bug me? But I want to know all of this LOL!
3.) Peeta and Katniss- Okay I have heard so many things about this and the end of the book. I will say that it was a huge shocker what happened to Peeta! I was shocked half way through the Peeta making it to district 13 and almost everything that came out of his mouth! He was truly filled with so much hate for Katniss, I thought Peeta would be lost forever. But then half way through Katniss's "fake" mission I saw the old Peeta shine through sometimes. Of course he was not fully back but I longed for the Peeta/Katniss romance for so long that I was biting at every little thing (like how when they were in the machine room in the underground sewer place, Peeta was laying under Katniss's feet looking up at her, watching her, or the kiss in the shop befoe the horrible Prim scene (it's the little things people lol), I got the feeling that the real Peeta was coming back, not fast but showing through.There were a few things that made me think this. And I have a feeling so did Katniss. Like at the end of the book where Peeta shows up at Katniss's house so quickly after being sent home from district 13, and what is he doing? Just what "old" peeta would have done, trying to make Katniss feel good, loved! He dug up the primrose bushes and was planting this in honor of Prim, but FOR Katniss! Katniss even says "His eyes have lost that clouded tortured look", she commented on "that" look through out the book when he was lashing out at her, but now, she saw just Peeta! And then it goes on to say "he frowns slightly, as he takes me in. I make a half-hearted effort to push my hair out of my eyes." He never looked at her with concern while he was in his tortured mind, he only did that as "old" Peeta. I honestly think that most of the "Real" Peeta was back at the end of the book. And when it says "There are still moments when he clutches the back of a chair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over" I think it was his way of getting through the moment of everything he went through (the hunger games, the torture, the brainwashing etc.) It's his way of couping with it all, like how Katniss liked to find a hideaway space, a closet etc to hide in when she would go through her flashbacks and nightmares. I don't think it had anything to do with the whole brainwashing thing and wanting to fight away the feelings of killing Katniss or hurting her, but all the experiences he went through (like what people who come back from war go through). Honestly that last line of the last chapter, where Peeta whispers "You love me. Real or not real? and Katniss says Real. I think that is just a little humor, I know Peeta knows she loves him, I think it was just a little messed up "pillow talk" LOL. I think he was making "light" of something that was tragic for them in the past, I can tell you my hubby and I make jokes to each other now about things that were serious at one time in our life, I think this was one of those moments, a kinda "every things going to be okay" thing. Know what I mean? I mean moments before Katniss said that quote up there, she was saying how Peeta was not fire like Gale, but her dandelion in the spring, the bright yellow rebirth instead of destruction.(the piece of hope in a world that was so cruel to them at one time) That he was her promise that life can go on no matter how bad it was before, that HE made her feel that way, What I am trying to say people is that...I FELT the LOVE lol. ;) Sure it did not end the way I wanted it to (maybe then it would not be a YA book LOL) but it did end with me walking away knowing that MY Katniss and Peeta ended up together and they were in love and happy together, scarred with horrible life experiences but happy and in love and with eachother!
4.) Katniss and the way she acted towards having children. My opinion from what I got from reading this part was I think it weighed on Katniss's mind to have kids and it took her fifteen years to say yes because, even though the War was over, no more Hunger games, she probably worried about the future and what it would hold for her children if she did have any! She was brought up in a world since birth, where children were picked to go into games to kill or be killed, where people were slaves to the capitol, the torture. I know being a mom of three myself that I would NEVER want to bring a child into a world where in the past kids/children had to fight each other to the death all for the entertainment of the rich government/capitol. If like for Katniss, things changed, I would be just as unsure of the future as she was, I think this is why she is the way she was when she talks about her kids. I did not sense at all that she did not want her kids after she had them, that she just had them for Peeta. Katniss talks about her daughter, she says "When I first felt her inside me, I was consumed with a terror that felt as old as life it's self", I think this proves what I am saying, she was afraid for their future, if it would end up like the horror she experienced. She feels uneased with her daughter at first but better when her son is born because, her daughter was the first born, she was unsure of the world, the future still, but a few years later she saw that things were working out in the world which made having her son a little easier. You saw her say on the very last page, "Some days it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I am afraid it could all be taken away". Again, I just think she is being cautious because of her experiences.
Okay I am sure I have a million more things to say about this book, but I think I have already written a book myself with my little review lol. I will say this, this by far is one of THEE best series of books I have ever read! Suzanne Collins, you are one amazing writer, you had me go through every human emotion with this series, I fell in love with all the characters! I look forward to reading what you write in the future.
It has taken a few days to get back into reading after MockingJay, but I am now back to reading The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff, which will be out in stores in a couple weeks :) I won an ARC of it. I am only a couple chapters in but so far so good! :)
Nikki
