I have a huge soft spot for young adult dystopian novels, but I was pretty disappointed with this one. It's not that it's horrible -- it's just that iI have a huge soft spot for young adult dystopian novels, but I was pretty disappointed with this one. It's not that it's horrible -- it's just that it's not that good either. It's very average, very bland. I didn't connect to the characters and I wasn't invested in them and the story. In fact, if you asked me to describe each character, I'd find it pretty hard to come up with a clear picture of any one of them. They're underdeveloped characters with little substance. All I know of them is what the author TELLS me. That's probably the main problem with this book: the author tells but does not show. She'll tell us Xander is intelligent, which is fine, but she doesn't proceed to show it with his actions. She'll tell us Cassia is falling in love, but the events leading up to it don't convince me of this fact. It really came out of nowhere and I nearly choked from laughter because it all felt so unrealistic. Not unrealistic in the sense that "oh this could never happen in real life but i'll suspend disbelief and go with it because it's good fiction" but unrealistic in the sense that "logic is being stomped upon and things don't connect and the author is trying to force pieces of a puzzle together that don't fit" ..
There are no flaws with any of the characters. I used to get so fired up about character flaws in other books because it would cause the characters to think ignorantly, or do incredibly stupid things sometimes that made me want to reach through the pages and shake some sense into them, etc etc, but after reading Matched, I now realize I took that for granted, and I am now more aware than ever that those flaws that evoke such emotions in me are absolutely necessary for a good novel with interesting, three-dimensional characters. I never got emotionally worked up in this novel, and I was truly just ambivalent throughout the whole thing. The only real emotion I had, and it was but a fleeting thought now and then at that, was "Poor Xander. He's portrayed as this perfect guy and he's totally getting gypped." None of the characters, not even the Officials who are supposed to be the "villains," were unlikable nor likable nor did they do anything particularly interesting.
Ally Condie writes fine (it was simple and easy to get through), but her writing gets melodramatic and forced sometimes. Not in a way that super annoyed me, but I'd notice she was trying too hard to make her words sound pretty. It didn't feel effortless and naturally-flowing the way good novels do. She'd force in unnecessary "deep" metaphors and try to end each chapter with something masquerading as something very deep and philosophical but really isn't if given a few seconds of reflection. Also, small complaint but ... I don't think teenage girls think or talk this way. Cassia is too perceptive of everyone else's motives and thoughts -- not in a way where you admire her for being so aware and able to read ppl so well, but in a way where it feels like the author, the creator of the characters, is talking instead of our main character narrator. Cassia jumps to correct conclusions about everyone's actions as soon as she sees them. She's never confused and never taken aback for long because she figures it out so fast. It's uncanny and unrealistic. She's been given knowledge only the author should have access to, so it felt like I was reading someone trying to tell a story, rather than just reading a story and becoming immersed in its world.
There wasn't much of a plot either. Nothing really happened until the last 50 pages or so. The only thing that surprised me was an event that took place around those 50 pages where (view spoiler)[ Ky got arrested and taken to fight in the Outer Provinces, and that took me by surprise because the rebellion/battle/whatever that was supposedly going on behind the scenes throughout the novel was never touched upon much (hide spoiler)]. Most of "Matched" was just a sort-of-not-really love triangle, and not a very good one at that. There was no doubt who Cassia was going after and how she felt about each respective guy. And I didn't find Ky and Cassia's love believable in the slightest. I would believe infatuation -- that doesn't require anything more than physical attraction and surface characteristics. But love? They didn't really go through anything together and their relationship wasn't explored very well. It felt like they fell for each other for no real reason -- just (view spoiler)[ a few words on napkins trying to sound poetic, a few hikes where they barely talked, some stolen glances on train rides? A shared poem? (hide spoiler)]
This gets three stars because well .. 3 is pretty average right? Average to represent an average novel? And I didn't hate it. I never got worked up enough to feel any emotion that strong. But I did enjoy reading about their world and how different it is from ours. I enjoyed how it made me think about how freedom and choice is so important, when faced with the conflicting ideals of controlled perfection vs autonomy. I mean, is a good life still a good life, is it still fulfilling, if you played no part in bringing it about? If you don't succeed or fail on your own terms? If you never really lived on your own terms? It's a subtle message, but it made me think, so that's something.
I know all this complaining makes me sound like I hate this novel but I really didn't. It's just that I was so ambivalent and I cared so little about everything that happened, and I think maybe that in itself is worse than hate. Indifference is the opposite of love, not hate, no?
Okay, actually, looking back at it more, some parts were entertaining. I liked reading about the pills, particularly the intriguing red ones, the scenes with Grandfather, I liked the sibling relationship between Cassia and Bram (possibly because I have a little brother I love dearly as well so I can relate) ...
Maybe my expectations were too high, because the premise sounded so promising. I hear Crossed is much better, so I think I'll give it a chance and see how things turn out in Cassia's world. I mean, there is so much hinted at but left unexplored in Matched. The border wars, the Aberrations and Anomalies, all the covered-up atrocities committed by the Society? All of it has so much potential, and I AM curious to see where the author is going with all of it....more
Not gonna lie, this book is a bit slow. Definitely not fast-paced and don't expect a page-turner you have to stay up all night to finish because it's Not gonna lie, this book is a bit slow. Definitely not fast-paced and don't expect a page-turner you have to stay up all night to finish because it's so suspenseful. It's more of a book you wouldn't be in a rush to finish, but it interests and draws you in enough along the way where you don't feel bored or burdened by reading it.
I enjoyed Lauren Oliver's writing style; she has a way with words and makes her ideas come across smoothly and rather poetically in certain parts without making it sound like she's trying too hard or like it's unnatural. The characters were developed well. Although the four main girls were vicious at times, selfish and unjust at times, I still grew to love them as a gang because their loyalty to each other and how real their interactions were as best friends was touching and fun to read about. Oliver seems to understand teenagers and young adults well and it comes across in how she portrays her characters. The whole novel is very realistic and not sugarcoated.
She wrote about life the way it is -- she portrayed drinking, drugs, sex, etc. without seeping in her own judgement or preaching or having any hidden propaganda. It was refreshing.
I'll admit, the ending took me by surprise. (view spoiler)[ I really expected her to learn from her 7th day and then be given a second chance to relive her life in a better way. After mulling it over a little, I've decided that as interesting and dramatic the ending was, it also didn't resolve much, as opposed to if she woke up the next day and had to deal with the consequences. Sure, Sam learned a lot each day, and I as a reader grew along with her and there were many valuable life lessons, but at the end of the book, there isn't much to show for it because no one else is aware of what happened. The only person who benefited from this experience is now dead. All her actions just thoroughly confused everyone and she left behind a huge mess for everyone still living to clean up. So in that sense, it does feel like there's many loose ends floating around. (hide spoiler)]
I give this 4.5 stars rounded up to a 5 because even though it was slow at times, I admired how Oliver was able to write about the same day 7 times without having it feel repetitively dull. More importantly, I enjoyed the story and I feel like it made me think a lot afterwards. It made me examine how time really isn't unlimited (even though it may seem so right now), life is short, things are unpredictable, my actions have a greater impact than I give them credit for, and a bunch of other semi-cliche things that basically add up to: live your life well and realize how fortunate you are every day, and just appreciate the little things. Not everyone is so lucky to see a tomorrow. All these things are obvious and I've been reading/hearing similar inspirational things all my life -- but I guess at this point in my life, I really needed to hear it again, in a way where it's shown so vividly it leaves a real impact.
I read this book a few weeks ago so my memory of it is already a bit hazy, hence a less-than-detailed review. But it's probably not something I would re-read again for fun, because the situations and the individual days themselves are not so interesting on their own that I'd want to read them again. It's just a book I'd read once, enjoy, and learn from....more
SPOILERS IN 4TH PARAGRAPH, I will have a warning preceding them :)
Before I address the positive points of this novel (which I did overall enjoy), let SPOILERS IN 4TH PARAGRAPH, I will have a warning preceding them :)
Before I address the positive points of this novel (which I did overall enjoy), let me complain a bit first. After a certain point, and I believe it was around the time of the “climax,� I felt frustrated and let down by a novel I had anticipated to be deep and life-changing.
First, although I try not to compare myself to the main character and judge her accordingly, and although I try to put myself into each character’s shoes, Hannah was written in a way where I found it hard to do so. I felt like there was a barrier where I couldn’t connect with her, couldn’t understand her, and perhaps I’m heartless, but I could not sympathize with her for many parts of the novel. I felt she was a weak character that wasn’t fully fleshed out. I found it hard to believe that someone would commit suicide over the reasons she listed, as it felt like she blew everything out of proportion and made everything a bigger deal than it was. In most of the events that occurred, she had more power to do something than she realized, and she just chose not to take action.
It was hard to sympathize with her because it seemed like she created these situations for herself. She willingly made stupid decisions concerning people who she knew she didn’t trust � but purposely did them anyway against her better judgement. And after she made these stupid decisions and acted upon them, she chose to blame others and dwell on them instead of learning from her mistakes and moving on. She handled everything quite poorly, and it felt like Jay Asher was just going down a list of as many horrible things as he could think of in order to justify her suicide. We are not given insight into WHY she is this way, WHY she does the things she does and WHY she feels so much more hopelessly depressed over normal teenage woes and cruelties than is rational or normal for the average teenager. It bothered me that we never truly got to understand Hannah’s decision and all the thoughts and feelings that accompanied what happened to her. It made it unbelievable.
(view spoiler)[ Many of the things that happened to her happen to almost everybody at some point throughout their lives � such as losing a friend (who I personally would have been glad to be rid of, because she wasn’t much of a friend if she was so ready to accuse and resent Hannah for someone else’s actions and for something she couldn’t have had control over), having false rumors spread, or gaining an undesirable reputation. Other things were laughable: there are worse things than being voted as “Best Ass� or having a random girl who isn’t relevant in your life use you for a car ride. Others, still, were incredibly serious and I understood her pain, but it still seemed unbelievable. (Btw, a note on her guilt over the rape scene -- she always acknowledges how SHE feels guilt over the situation and never addresses how much worse the ACTUAL VICTIM OF RAPE has it. It made her sound self-centered.) What WOULD have made it believable was if we were able to delve into Hannah’s brain more � if we really got to read about how each event affected her, how they all contributed to her depression and why they affected her the way they did. However, it felt like the voice on the audiotapes was more vindictive and revengeful than it was depressed and lonely, and it made Hannah somewhat of an unlikeable and petty character. She became quite melodramatic and at times it felt like her primary aim was merely to guilt-trip the 13 audiotape recipients. (hide spoiler)]
I feel there were some plot holes and parts that did not connect: the scenes with Skye were vague, and part with the girl in the coffee shop felt like it needed some more explanation instead of being tossed in the story and never being mentioned again. I was also bothered by how Clay Jensen was a complete Gary Stu and how he was the perfect nice guy with no faults. I prefer my main characters to be more realistic and three-dimensional.
I do think the format of the novel was creative, and that for the most part, it was suspenseful. I loved the puzzle/mystery feel of the story, and it kept me turning the pages. (The ending just did not satisfy me and I felt the story lacked a bit of depth.) I also appreciated that it gave me insight into my actions and how I treat others. It made me want to re-evaluate how I live my life and to be a better person, because little things do matter. Seemingly inconsequential things may have a greater impact on a person’s life than you can ever imagine, and you can never know what someone is going through just by looking at them on the surface. It’s a good lesson to take from this novel.
A major part of the story is how devastated she is by her false reputation. When I read this, it reminds me strongly of a line I read on a "Would You Rather?" board game box: "Would you rather have cheated on your spouse and have nobody know, or have not cheated but have everyone think you did?" In other words, would you rather have done something awful and gotten away with it, or been innocent but have everyone think otherwise? The answer I always choose is the latter, because it's more important what I think of myself than what others think. As long as I know the truth and know that I am a good person, the people who don't believe me don't matter in my life. I always wish Hannah could find this self-satisfaction in the fact that she isn't at all what the rumors make her to be, and that she is above all that. I also wish there had been true friends or family who could have believed her and helped her as well.
This novel also makes me thankful that I do not live my life the way Hannah does/did. Sometimes, when things go wrong, you can’t blame others for not helping you or not picking you off the ground; when everything goes to hell, oftentimes you have to learn to pick yourself up. You have to work past your problems, take responsibility for your actions and what you can control, and brush off the little things to look at the bigger picture. You have to think optimistically and focus on all the wonderful, positive things you have to live for and that you have to be thankful for, instead of sulking over all the things that go wrong. Sometimes, you can’t change the situation itself, but you can change the way you think about it and you can use it to grow as a person and become stronger. It reinforces my belief that suicide is not the answer.
Suicide is a tough issue to write about. I feel Asher was on the right track and he had a great plot in the works, and that he did a decent job illustrating the snowball effect of how little seemingly insignificant events can pile up. But I also feel the execution of this novel could have been better. ...more
What. the. f***. Words can't begin to express my disappointment. I bought Mockingjay the first day it came out and I was preparing mysSPOILERS AHEAD!!
What. the. f***. Words can't begin to express my disappointment. I bought Mockingjay the first day it came out and I was preparing myself for a truly epic novel, one worthy of its predecessors. I loved The Hunger Games; it was fast-paced, thrilling, suspenseful. Catching Fire wasn't as good but it was still enjoyable (I was majorly impressed by the game arena). I wasn't let down by Catching Fire though; I figured it was just a transition novel, build-up to what would undoubtedly be a mindblowing, epic conclusion in Mockingjay.
Maybe I set my expectations too high. I do think Collins is a good writer; she definitely knows how to write and tell a story. But I feel like she lost her way in this book. Or maybe the only thing that made this series so great was the Hunger Games, and now that it's absent, there's nothing to drive the story.
The love triangle wasn't well played out. First of all, I'm getting a bit tired of reading about love triangles -- especially in novels where there's a much greater plot present. But I'll admit, I was on Team Gale throughout the series, because he was strong and resilient and resourceful and caring. There was this attractive manly quality about him and he was so in sync with Katniss, and hot to boot. But towards the end of this novel, I didn't give a flying fart about Katniss's love life and who she ended up with, because everything seemed like such a hopeless, depressing mess that there was no point. I also hated how she kept flip-flopping and toying with both Gale and Peeta (I've been bothered by this since CF). She should make up her mind about who she wants instead of leading them both on! Her fickleness is pretty inconsiderate to these two guys whom she supposedly cares about. And if she can't decide (I can see why, they both have great qualities), then she should give herself some space/time to decide, and in the meantime, don't go kissing or showing romantic affection to either one!
She ended up with Peeta, which would have been fine if it had been executed properly. But even in this aspect of her life, she didn't get to CHOOSE, which is basically the story of her life. She just ended up with Peeta because he was the only one who stuck around. At the end, I found myself wanting her to end up alone, of her OWN choice. Heck, instead of spiraling into bleak depression and continuing life as a puppet, I would have rather seen her die for a noble cause and for doing the right thing. That would have been a more satisfactory ending, and that's saying something because I normally HATE when characters die.
I didn't like that we didn't get to experience the action close-up. As the war unraveled, I felt like Katniss was always on the sidelines, only called in when other people commanded her to. We didn't get to see Katniss kicking butt against her enemies, we got to hear from other characters about events that occurred, or watch them on the TV. It is so mindnumbingly dull to be watching a character watching something, instead of experiencing the action with the character. Everything she did was for show, for a propo or campaign or whatever. It was all so .. fake. Here they are in the middle of a war, people are dying left and right, and all they care about is filming and getting good shots and angles and putting on a pretty face! It felt so staged and it was boring and infuriating to read. The only real action is towards the end when she and her team are going on the assassin mission to kill Snow, and even THAT was originally only for a propo (that went astray).
The last third of the book (the assassin mission) was gorey and bloody, which I didn't mind. It's war after all. But many characters' deaths were so rushed and pointless. Prim's death didn't have the impact that I'm sure Collins was aiming for; I didn't feel sad when she died, as she's barely in the story as it is, so I didn't get to know her well enough and connect with her beforehand. She was absent for at least 100 pages before her death came out of nowhere, for God's sake, so her death felt like any stranger's death. (Although it seems her death kind of defeated the point of sparing her from the Hunger Games.) What DID kill me was Finnick's death. Finnick was one of the characters I loved most in this series, and call me petty, but I can't forgive Collins for killing him off after he'd been through so much and finally got to marry the love of his life. It wasn't even a death of purpose. He got eaten by mutts in a sewer, along with half their assassin team. It annoyed me so much because their deaths felt so UNNECESSARY, like they were just a way for Collins to emphasize that "this is a DEATHLY SERIOUS, VERY BLOODY BOOK!" It felt like she was just randomly and meaninglessly killing off supporting characters because she couldn't bear to part with her main ones. Deaths are fine when they're important to the plot, but this felt like death for the sake of death.
Okay, now on to the REAL disappointment of this book: Katniss herself. One of the reasons why I loved this series was because of Katniss. She was strong, resourceful, clever and cunning, she had an amazing survival instinct and she knew how to persevere. In Catching Fire, these qualities diminished; she was mainly a pawn, a puppet for others to use for their own objectives. But she still had some semblance of control and she was still Katniss. In Mockingjay, all these traits are scrapped and we get a Katniss-clone who is angsty and bitchy and whiny (wasn't Bella in Twilight bad enough?). Half the book, she's throwing herself pity parties in the closet (literally!). Sure, she definitely has reason to be sad and angry, and her life is full of hardships and tragedies. But I thought that the Katniss from the Hunger Games, the Katniss who had to keep her family alive since the age of 12, would be able to fight through and persevere. I guess I wanted a strong victor, a strong heroine, not a self-pitying victim who can't make her own decisions.
That's another thing that bothered me: throughout the whole book, she had no control over ANYTHING, not even her own life and actions. She was a empty, lifeless pawn, a zombie if you will, who didn't do anything that wasn't directed or commanded by other people. In this novel, I was expecting her to STEP UP, embrace her role as Mockingjay, use her power/influence to get involved in the rebellion, take control of her life, and make a difference in the outcome of her world. I was expecting to see her grow and change and I was excited for her metamorphosis. Instead, we get this weak girl who's shirking all responsibilities, addled on drugs half the time, and lashing out at people the other half. Not only did she not improve herself from the first book (she was kickass in the first book btw), she got WORSE, an empty shadow of her former self. At the beginning, I could understand her confusion, her pain, her reluctance to be the Mockingjay. It'd be weird if she DIDN'T feel this way, if she didn't have that time of indecision and unwillingness. But after, I expected her to be strong and work through it, to face her fears and obstacles and choose to do the right thing, to really fight for justice. The best things in life never come easy; anybody who's done anything has had to overcome obstacles to accomplish their goals. When she decided: "I must be the Mockingjay", my heart soared (cheesy but it did!) and I was rooting for her 100%. When I heard her inspirational words during the propos, the fire behind them, my heart soared because I thought Katniss was back. But as I kept reading, I realized .. even though she verbally accepted her role, her mind still wasn't in it and she wasn't in control of herself. She didn't grow and become stronger, that's what pisses me off.
The post-traumatic stress, the mental breakdowns, the self-pity, the self-loathing, the nearing of insanity .. all of these things are realistic, yes, but a bit tiresome and not very interesting to read when it's all the same and the narrator is drowning herself in it in the face of much greater things to the point where it detracts from the plot. These feelings shouldn't be the main focus throughout the ENTIRE novel. There has to be a turning point when she overcomes all of this and actively decides not to let these obstacles stand in her way. Now, many people will say her breakdown is more true to life, and it's what any normal 17-year-old girl would feel and go through. But, maybe I'm weird here, but for some stories, I don't WANT to read about the average, normal teenager. I want to read about someone who's a bit special, who's different, who displays traits (like courage, heart, perseverance) greater than the norm and accomplishes more than the "normal, average teen" even during the most difficult of times. Something that, when you close the book, makes you feel like "Wow, they're amazing. Inspirational. I want to be like that." & to be honest, I didn't sign up to read a war documentary or some nonfiction account of how war affects its victims. I came in expecting a break from reality, a fantasy sci-fi young adult novel about a girl who becomes a hero.
In trying to be as realistic as possible, I think Collins chose a pessimistic extreme of "realism" to portray. There are perfectly human people in real life in real circumstances who are able to fight through obstacles and hardships and come out on top without relying on drugs and hiding in closets. They can find more constructive and positive ways to deal with their problems. Sure, it obviously affects them (they're not invincible) but they don't lose themselves the way Katniss does. Those are the kinds of inspirational stories I wanna read when it comes to these kinds of novels, not this "Diary of an Emo Puppet."
This book was also REALLY anti-climactic. Whenever Collins finally gave us an exciting scene, as soon as it got intense, Katniss would get knocked out in the midst of things and we'd wake up to her in the hospital being treated. (MAJOR COP-OUT, in my opinion.) Then, of course, comes the inevitable centuries (that's what it felt like) of us hearing about her in pain and agony. Okay, we get it after reading about it the WHOLE novel! Now can she please pick herself up and make herself useful?
Katniss doesn't deserve the title "girl who was on fire" and to be the main character in such an epic setting and story. Sure, she can be on fire, but only when someone sets her on fire or directs her to be on fire, not of her own doing. She was soulless and indifferent and cared about herself and her own feelings more than anyone else's (seeing as how she spends most of the novel grieving for herself and almost never for anyone else) .. if the main character, the narrator, doesn't care about anything and has no passion, why should we? What's the point when the main character whose eyes we're seeing through has no heart and no passion? And what happened to the selfless girl who willingly sacrificed her life to save her sister?
The things I did like. I liked that Katniss had 2 seconds of mental clarity and shot Coin instead of Snow (the only time in the book when she was truly thinking clearly and acting of her own accord). I wonder if I'm giving her too much credit though; judging from her selfish one-track mind in this book, I fear that she did this only because Coin killed Prim, not because she saw the bigger picture. Worse yet, I fear this may just have been a result of Snow's manipulation, not her own decision. I also feel the significance and bravery of this smart moment was rendered meaningless by her immediate cowardly reaction: instead of having conviction in her action and facing the consequences, she scrambled frantically to find the most painless and quickest way to kill herself. She never once in the book acknowledges all she has to live for and all the positive things she still has in her life. When a character's will to survive is absent through a whole novel, I as a reader have no desire for them to live either; grant their wish already! But to continue on .. I liked learning about more of the characters in depth: Gale (who I grew to love even more in this book), Finnick, Annie, Boggs, Johanna, etc. I liked the ending passages (fitting and beautifully haunting) and I liked the songs (The Hanging Tree and the meadow one). There are probably some other things that I'll update this review with once disappointment and frustration are no longer clouding my brain.
I wouldn't have minded so much if it had been a page-turner that was exciting to read, but trying to finish this book felt like a chore. When reading for enjoyment starts feeling like a chore, that's the ultimate sign that I dislike the book. 90% of the book, Katniss was wandering aimlessly through hallways, drugged out on morphling, hiding in a closet, or lying in a hospital bed. I kept waiting, I was so sure it would happen any minute, for the story-changing moment when Katniss would pick herself up and say "Enough is enough." I kept waiting for the moment when the winds would change and she would decide with conviction to actively work through her problems -- but to my shock, that moment never came. This book seriously dragged and dragged and dragged, and just got slower and slower until everyone started dropping dead towards the last quarter of the book. The Hunger Games, I couldn't put it down; for this, I dreaded picking it up to finish it. I did tons of things in between reading this book (doing my nails, watching TV, taking a walk, etc) because I couldn't read it in one sitting without wanting to gouge my eyes out. It was the same reoccurring theme: Katniss was manipulated and controlled by everyone around her and she didn't think or do anything of her own will. It got old.
I read all this build-up and didn't get rewarded for it. And even though the rebels triumphed, I didn't feel anything for them, not relief, not happiness, just nothing. I was just detached. And none of it was thanks to Katniss: her only role in the Capitol's defeat was watching Prim die, getting burned, and waking up in a hospital, where we're TOLD instead of SHOWN how the Capitol fell (all while she was unconscious, an occurrence that's way too common in this book). Again, anti-climactic! During the scene when it really mattered!
I understand the message Collins is trying to convey and I agree with it: that war is awful and no one truly wins. And good and bad are not clearly defined black and white. (It got too preachy at certain points though, didn't it?) And I understand that not all books are unicorns-and-ponies happy endings, and that this series has always been intense and dark and a bit bleak. But that only works when there's an underlying message of hope and of optimism. I felt it in the 1st books, but this ending was devoid of all hope and happiness. Yes, humans are disgusting creatures who hurt and kill one another, who do horrible things because of greed and selfishness and just pure malice. But humans are also capable of love and compassion and kindness, and I wish she'd incorporated a bit of that into the story as well so there'd be a more hopeful ending. Even in real life, no matter how bad things may be, there is always hope. Isn't that the kind of message you really want young people to be left with? Instead of pessimistic doom and "give up on mankind"? I finished the book feeling hopeless and lost and depressed, and not in that deep, profound way where it motivates me to get up off my ass and do something to make a difference.
Gosh, at least Harry was his own person and got to face Voldemort in the end. What did Katniss get to do except be an empty canvas for them to paint and feed lines to?
Though I guess since I'm feeling so passionately about all of this, it wasn't a worthless read. It was just very, VERY disappointing.
Edit:
I just re-read this review a month or so after I wrote it and I sincerely apologize for my sloppy writing and overindulgence in run-on sentences! I was in a rush to unleash all my feelings after finishing the book so I wouldn't forget anything. I hope this review was understandable and enjoyable anyway :)
That's the end of the review and you can stop here but I wanted to add on .. and I'm thinking those who grew up with Harry Potter like I did can relate: So I decided to re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to prepare myself for the upcoming movie, and to get the bitter taste of Mockingjay out of my mouth, and here's a passage towards the end where Harry's character really touched me and left me in awe:
"Because," said Harry, "sometimes you've got to think about more than your own safety! Sometimes you've got to think about the greater good! This is war!" "You're seventeen, boy!" "I'm of age, and I'm going to keep fighting even if you've given up!" a few sentences later .. "I'm going to keep going until I succeed -- or I die. Don't think I don't know how this might end. I've known it for years."
Reading it again makes me all emotional and teary all over again, from Dobby's heartfelt burial to Harry's courageous walk to his death in the forest, knowing fully well what awaits him and yet willing to sacrifice himself for others and for a better world ...all the while, struggling with his fears and the temptation to run away .. and I swear, tears of pride and joy sprang from my eyes and exhilaration shot through my veins when Harry, the boy we grew up with, stepped up as a man and faced his enemy with confidence, strength, wisdom. Whatever faults the last HP book may have, I just have to say: Thank you, Harry, for giving me hope again and proving there are still admirable heroes in young literature....more
I really wanted to like this book. I was so excited to read it because the storyline sounded like it had so much potential. I was sorely disappointed,I really wanted to like this book. I was so excited to read it because the storyline sounded like it had so much potential. I was sorely disappointed, and so mad that I wasted a good few hours reading this. This is one of the worst books I have ever read. It may even be worse than Twilight, and that's saying something. Everything that happened in this book was made out to be a really big deal, like "end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it" big deal. But everytime a new "plot point" was revealed, or something "major" happened in the story, all I could think was, "So what?" None of it seemed important, and most of it seemed unrealistic. The whole book revolves around the one night of the car accident that Zoey can't remember, so you would think it would be an epic revelation, a mind-blowing revelation that would tie everything together (and salvage the story). But no, I won't spoil it for anyone here, but the revelation was just some trashy teenage drama that could have occurred in 5 minutes in any TV drama episode. Definitely not something worth centering a whole novel around. The way she "pieced together" the revelation was lame, and the revelation itself was lame. For 200+ pages, I expect something at least a LITTLE epic! Let's move on to characters. The only character that had any depth was Doug. I found him likeable and I liked that he was multi-dimensional and had a mysterious quality about him. But the rest of the characters ... their actions did not reflect their personalities. Echols would tell us one thing about a character, and the character would do something totally contradictory to what we were told about them. I was annoyed with Zoey for most of the novel. She was presented to us as a smart girl, but her actions showed she was anything but. For one, she had a one-night stand with playboy Brandon, whose reputation and character she was fully aware of (being his best friend and all), and then deludes herself the entire story with the notion that she is now his faithful girlfriend. Brandon was barely mentioned in the book at all. After they had sex, they barely interacted. Meanwhile, there's hot Doug who clearly likes her and understands her and is supportive of her, and it appears the feelings are mutual. So I can't fathom why she wanted to be Brandon's gf so badly; she had nothing to gain from it! Even she knew she didn't love him, and yet she'd repeat the same line over and over, "Sorry, Doug, I'm dating Brandon ..." Yeah, dating him after you slept with him once and never saw him again. And why was it such a big deal that she lost her memory of one night? It's not like she had serious amnesia and forgot her entire life. Furthermore, amnesia is not synonymous with insanity. Why was it so important that she keep it a secret? Would it have been so nonsensical to ask one of her friends what happened that night instead of lying and snooping around uselessly and fruitlessly? "Hey, guys, what happened the night of the wreck? I can't remember." It irked me how she had to make something simple so unnecessarily complicated, and for no valid reason at all. I was forcing myself to finish the novel because I hate to start a book and leave it unfinished. The whole time Echols was just trying to milk meaningless situations for all they were worth. She also seemed quite fond of leaving gaps in the plot and making huge leaps of logic, leaving the reader behind. However I do have to admit I like her writing style, and she has a way with words. If only she could use that talent to make the content believable. I'm pretty lenient when it comes to judging books. I like most YA novels that I read, or at least find them somewhat enjoyable. But this .. this was a mess. Made no sense, did not keep me interested, and made me wish I could take back the few hours I spent reading it....more
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