Mockingjay

I just finished rereading Mockingjay and I still really like it. I dont really have any complaints...but i know a lot of people werent happy with it.

I know we have mentioned all the deaths...what are some other reasons you didnt like it.

I actually though Mockingjay was really good, but it wasn't as good as the other two books. The only reason I didn't like it was that so many people died, but I think Suzanne Collins made it better with the epoligue. I don't know why so many people "hate" it. I think that maybe they were just disappointed that many main characters died.

1. Katniss kept having emotional breakdowns all the time. She didn't act like herself, and she was continually controlled by the Resistance. Katniss was even controlled by Snow when she killed the leader of the Resistance movement.

2. She took her platoon on a suicide mission to kill Snow, and pretty much all of them ended up dying, and she didn't even succeed in her mission!

3. When Prim died and Katniss had an emotional breakdown, it didn't mean anything to me, as Katniss had already had too many before.

4. The killing of people, as you mentioned. I don't disagree with the fact that Collins killed off characters - as an aspiring writer, I understand the necessity, but those deaths must have a purpose to advancing the story. Those deaths did not. I think the reason Suzanne Collins killed them off was only so that the reader would think "oh my God, this is war!" Nope. Not a good reason. Doesn't move me. Sorry.

There are other reasons, but those are just off the top of my head. Just to get this out there, I loved the first two books and I had high hopes for Mockingjay. Unfortunately, it did not fulfill my high expectations.

I have to agree with #1. She didn't seem like herself at all, and she was always crying!

I still give it a 8.5 on a 1-10 scale.

The action was good and the book moved along very quickly. I give kudos to Suzanne Collins for that, as I finished the book in a couple of days. But it didn't leave me with anything and something inside of me didn't connect with the book.

I also agree with reason number one.

In the last book katniss reminded me of Kristen stewart in twilight. Enough said

#1 But if you were katniss dont you think you would break down with all the stress and deaths and stuff. maybe it was a bit much.

#2 yea she didnt succeed in killing snow but not everything goes as planned in real life.

totally agree with you about #3 #4.

Maybe Collins was trying to make it as real as possible and the result just didnt turn out like some people thought it would.

i personally think it was just as good as the first two. and as i reread the first book i didnt think it was that amazing. i hate to say it! but it didnt blow me away.

I want to compare Katniss to Harry Potter. He suffered at the hands of his aunt and uncle, he was witness to an enormous amount of deaths, he was plagued by guilt that he had caused their deaths, and he broke down quite a few times. But after he broke down, he picked himself back up and went back to work, and he completed his goals - whether that was stopping Voldy from getting the Sorcerer's Stone, killing the basilisk, rescuing Sirius, killing Voldemort, hunting horcruxes, etc.

At the end of the series, you come away with the impression of Harry being a stronger person, despite everything he'd gone through. And there are millions of people like that in real life - they break down, sure, but they complete their mission, they get their job done. Katniss dissapointed me in that regard - she broke, rather than becoming stronger. She didn't pick herself up after breaking down - she didn't become stronger.

I wouldn't have had a problem with the mission to kill Snow failing, if only for the fact that her whole platoon died. If they were all going to die, could they have at least died for something? Katniss failed as a leader. #1 goal when you're in command of something - take care of your people. Keep them safe. Make sure they'll be able to see their family when they get home. That is why you're their leader. Katniss was a terrible one.

This would have been acceptable if Katniss had been a weak person in the first two books. She wasn't. That is why I was dissapointed. She was such a strong female character that I identified with. In the third book, she lost that strength and I stopped identifying with her.

P.S. I noticed you have Shiver in your books. How did you like it? I'm reading it right now. :)

yea if you compare katniss to harry................i guess i try to rate/review them by themselves. does that make any sense? haha

I really liked shiver the first go around but would have to reread it to really know(i tend to be 'starstruck' with a book without really thinking about the details..ya know what i mean?). i plan on reread shiver and Linger....i just got Forever but i have a huuuugee stack of books to be read. :)

what part are you at? how are you liking it so far?

I am actually enjoying it, because I love Maggie Stiefvater's elegant style of writing. Her descriptive words are magnificent and I like the wolves. :) I am halfway through the book and am on the part where Sam is taking Grace out on a genuine date.

Maggie Stiefvater is also a super awesome person in real life - she has a blog and a YouTube account and she posts the most hilarious of videos. She also creates her own book trailers and is an artist.

Ill have to look at her youtube account.
I love her writing style also. have you read any of her other books?

I have read Lament and The Scorpio Races, of which The Scorpio Races is my favorite - something about racing Irish water horses with human-eating tendencies gets me. :)

how come ive never heard about that! sounds awesome! :)

It is one of the coolest books I've read this year! Stiefvater based it off an Irish myth about capaill uisce, which were horses that come out of the sea to drown humans. Here's the trailer, which I, as an artist's daughter, think is beautiful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tojCn2Y41ig

Maggie Stiefvater did the music, in addition to the drawings for the stop motion animation - that is serious dedication, because it is bloody tedious to do stop motion animation!

Is the movie in animation??

Stop motion animation, yup. What Maggie did was she drew (as she's an artist) hundreds of frames on paper, and then she photographed them individually. After that, she made a movie out of them by playing the photos one after the other.

Wow that sounds like a lot of work.

You have no idea. I just made a short stop motion animation film - I took 50 pictures of two of my stuffed animals and spent 20 minutes taking photos. The end result: 10 seconds of film.

It was a cute movie, though, and I had fun, so I'm going to say that it's worth it!

Wow that is alot of work!!
What was your movie about??

Ummmmmm, it's actually pretty stupid, as it was my first try. It's just about one of my stuffed animals chasing after another stuffed animal, then he stops chasing her, and she comes back to him. Like I said, it's 10 seconds long! :P

What if you made a stop motion movie of mocking jay. How long would that take??

If it was a full length production, which is about two hours - it would probably take over a year. And that's just the photography, never mind the editing, photoshop, music etc.

Your so right!! Insanity.

Oh, yeah. At least in stop motion films, the tasks are divvied up among a huge production crew, so no one person is doing all the work themselves.

Is there audio in the stop motion movies??

Yes, there can be, but that get's added in at a separate time. Like in The Nightmare Before Christmas, there was audio (heck, there was singing!).

Here's one of my favorite stop motion animations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD7eagLl5c4

I just adore it on so many levels - animation is beautiful, editing was well done, the photoshop done to each of the frames is spotless, and the main character is only millimeters tall. Incredible.

And here's one more (just because I like talking about stop motion animation - shame on me!), only this one I watched during my childhood (it might explain some of my weirdness), and it is done with clay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIvQZm8K-yU

When I was a little girl, I would draw a circle out in the backyard and jump into it, trying to see if I could get to Hell. Fortunately, it didn't work.

Wow that is kind of twisted. ;)

back to mockingjay really quick- and gale went all insane and trigger happy by the end

I hated that. It was so unlike him.

Speaking of trigger happy, remember when Katniss killed that innocent woman in the Capitol, just because that woman was in her house and Katniss wanted to take it? *pukes*

yeah... i need to get my hands on a copy of mockingjay to reread it.. i have forgotten some of it...

Me too. I don't want to read it again, though, that's how much I didn't like it.

she killed her because she was going to yell for help. if katniss didnt kill her then they could have been found and then tortured to death. and its not like katniss didnt think about it afterward...it was hard on her.

Are you guys serious? Mockingjay was my favorite!

*giggles devilishly* PLOT TWIST!

>34 GinnyW: it might be my fav also. :)

*bangs head on computer* I give up. Agree to disagree. I've got to go kick Fob's butt at chess now, bye!

Bye!

good luck, eris!

I have never been any good at chess.

I didnt like the end. two broken people in a broken world. just sayin.
WOW, that first part was deep.

I always thought it would be cool for the Hunger Games movie to begin with the scene in Mockingjay where Katniss shoots President Coin. And then the Hunger Games movies would show the time leading up to that event.

No. Because newcomers do not know who the hell President Coin is, as she came in during the last book. And since the issue would be unresolved at the end of the first movie, there would be no point to it.

But yeah, Flan, I agree with you. The ending sucked. I don't care if it's realistic, because you know what - a dictatorship wouldn't hold gladiator-esque games with the kids of each district fighting each other. A totalitarian country would do something more along the lines of Auschwitz, not a reality show. So since the whole premise of the Hunger Games is unrealistic, then suddenly don't ask me to like a realistic ending.

my sentiments exactly

There is one thing I am absolutely adoring about the new Hunger Games movie - this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBJNSqA-A6U

Just... epic.

awsome!!! Gives me goosebumps

That's one awesome soundtrack!

OH MY GOSH

what if i can't wait until the 23rd...? :'(

i want my hunger games movieeeee

IIIII KKKNNNOOOWWWWW!!!!!! Im scared though, what if it SUCKS????

I hope not.
That would be awful for Suzanne Collins and all the fans

Yeah. We all know what happened to the Lightning Thief. :(

Are they even making a second lighting thief movie??

true, true...` But I kinda hope they do make a second movie.

Me too,
Everyone deserves a second chance to redeem themselves. Even in the case of the director of the lightning thief.
I have a question.
How old was the actress who played Annabeth??

They are planning a sequel and the actress who played Annabeth is presently 25 years of age.

wow she doesnt look that old.

The beauty of make-up, photoshop and acting does marvelous things.

But she does look alot older than I ever pictured Annabeth.
Anyone else agree??

I agree. I always imagined Annabeth like a young Hermione/Emma Watson.

I thought the director would at least make Annabeth blond with grayish eyes. In the movie she had the same eyes as Percy. In fact they looked like brother and sister...kinda creepy.

ya.. I wonder if the directer even READ the book!!! I wonder that a lot...

Haha
An interesting question.
Lets all hope the director of hunger games has read the books.

so are fob and i the only ones who loved mockingjay?

Oh, trust me, you're not. Mrmcfluff, Flan, and I are actually in the minority - just look at the ratings on LibraryThing. Most of them are extremely high.

well i meant on here. like this little group. :)

Yes indeed, we do outnumber you Mockingjay lovers here. It's our only solace. *weeps*

its not really that much of a deal to me, i have LOTS of controversial opinions...

I'm just waiting for Collins to write a book from Peeta's point of view so she can redeem herself. Then I will make my final decision on the series. :)

i would love that so much!!
but she doesnt need to redeem herself. hehe :)

There were good and bad parts of mockingjay.

Agreed. But I didn't find Mockingjay to be a bad book. Actually Catching Fire was my least favorite.

I found Mockingjay to be a fine book, but a bad finale

I agree with you sarah. The only reason I am so hard on Mockingjay was because of how good the first two were. So it wasn't necessarily a bad book, just a let down.

I agree with Sarah. My expectations were very high though.

Same here. It kinda reminded me of Inheritance. Although Inheritance was FAR better.

whats inheritance?

Have you ever heard of the Eragon books?

i've seen some of the movie... :)

Blah. The movie sucked. Completely different from the book.

I read the first one...it was o.k

The other 3 books were way better. You should read them. And yes the movie sucked. It was just like the lightning thief!

i haven't seen the movie... and now i may never :)

You shouldn't. Trust me.

Just... ignore its existence. My mom bought the DVD as soon as it came out, and I waited forever to watch it as I had to get all my homework done. I got my homework done, and Ares and I watched it. What. A. Letdown.

i really liked eragon but the other two were just way to long and had parts that were boring and didnt seem necessary. ive been meaning to read inheritance but kinda reluctant to. was it better then brisignr?

There was a little more action than Brisingr. But really, the whole Eragon series was a little bit more for people who enjoy long stories that involve a lot of thinking and talking. I almost didn't make it through Eldest myself. :)

same here! i got half way through and then couldnt finish it. i had to come back like months later.