In my opinion, the hardest part of writing any book or story is writing the ending. I imagine that it's probably incredibly more difficult when you are writing the ending of a book that has been a popular series. The author always knows that some fans will love it and some fans will hate it. Of course you can't please everyone.
That said, how do I feel about Mockingjay? As I book, I loved it, and I wasn't disappointed at all. The action was just as fast-paced and captivating as the two previous books of the series. Suzanne Collins has mastered the art of keeping the reader from getting bored. Around half way through the book, I got a little teary, but I won't say why just yet. Nor will I reveal what part of the ending of the series made me cry. Maybe later I'll come back, when more people have finished the book, or when I figure out if there's a way to do something similar to Livejournal's ljcut that will hide part of the post behind a link. (If anyone knows a way to do that, please let me know!)
My feelings for the ending itself are a bit mixed. I had a picture in my mind of how the war would end, so I wasn't expecting the way it did actually end. What came after that wasn't too surprising, as I was able to figure out what would happen. It's the final ending, the resolution to the series, that I have mixed feelings about. But as I said, endings are so hard to write. In my own case, I find that I am rarely able to find a suitable ending to any story. I end up going on and on until the story completely loses itself. So I respect any author that can write a story that has an ending that people like. I guess I just felt like the last few pages didn't have quite the impact I wanted them to have. But I can't truly fault the book because the rest of the book held great impact for me. I'm also really not sure how I feel about the result of the love triangle. I won't give anything away here that could tell those who haven't finished what happens to those three. Of course, the story wasn't really about the love triangle, it never was. But it did become a central part of the story that was told because she did truly care for both of them. So how it's resolved, it just feels like something is missing. I will give it more thought and see how I feel about it.
I do have one final thought that is cryptically spoilerish, so I will post it in the comments, so that people can skip it if they want.
I was surprised that in the end, in her despair, she never really wondered if it were all worth it. What she started, the reason she started it all, and what happened in the end...yet she never seemed to reflect on that point in particular.
ReplyDeleteI agree, although I started wondering what was going on with her mind when she voted yes for a Hunger Games with Capitol children as upset as she was even before Prim was killed. I was a little upset that Gale just left the book but Collins probably thought that readers would just understand that there was no place for Gale after Katniss confronted him about whether the parachute bombs were his. After reflecting on the story, I decided the ending suited me after all. It seemed like she was finally starting to accept what had happened and was finally starting out to live her life without being so clueless about everyone around her.
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