i will always love you

[swatkat]

I don't normally do this. That is to say, I don't watch things out of order, I don't get invested in shows I know little about. IT'S ALL HG WELLS' FAULT. ♥__♥ Pleasedon'tkillherpleasepleaseplease.

ZOMG.


+


I read Mockingjay today, finally, and all I have to say is: so rocks fall, everyone dies, Katniss ends up a broken shell of herself because that's what war does to people, even people as strong as her, and then... she marries Peeta and has babies and it's totally rad?

Okay.

I don't mind darkness or bleak, all-hurt-no-comfort endings. They can be done very well. But Mockingjay felt as though Collins decided, after taking Katniss to a very bleak place - I mean, she's more a pawn than ever in this book, and her greatest moment of snatching agency back is also one that condemns her forever - that her YA audience needed some kind of reassurance, so she pulled a hurried 'BUT OKAY SHE HAS PEETA WHO IS A BIT OF A STU BUT SO WHAT, HAPPY-ISH ENDING, LOOK, BABIES, ALL IS WELL!'

Am I being a bit uncharitable? Perhaps. But then, I also wanted both Gale and Peeta to die in a fire by the middle of the second book, what with their passive-aggressive 'oh, you do not love me' and 'oh, you are so speshulll, don't you seeeee' whining. And this is keeping in mind both their positive qualities. Prim's death came out of the left field, and even that I could have dealt with; the subsequent destruction of everything Katniss had fought to build - her relationship with her mother, with Gale, everything, that too I could have dealt with, because, as I said, I don't mind bleak endings. But this? This was clunky, and not the way I wanted to feel at the end of what was otherwise an excellent set of books. Not even the fact that Peeta is The Girl to Katniss' Hero changes that. Would it have been so hard to let her be single and watch other people's children grow up in a world where the Hunger Games don't exist? Or, heaven forbid, date Cinna Johanna SOMEONE WHO IS NOT GALE OR PEETA? Sigh. *waves Team Katniss flag*

Otherwise: a great read, if somewhat rushed and clunky in execution, especially the part where all the major action happens off-screen; I cannot believe she killed Prim; would have liked a more action-y Katniss who had more agency over her life; WHY IS FINNICK DEAD WHY; great meta as always although the last bit with the Capitol laid out like an arena was overkill. If I re-read, I'll stop before I reach the last four pages.