“Close the Book” is a series of short notes I want to start creating as I finish a read to remind me of how I felt or of important details. Of course, these posts will typically be a minefield of spoilers.
This morning I finished the third book of the series, Mockingjay. I can’t even remember the last time I read a series so quickly. This has to be the quickest read out there – I’m still surprised it’s YA reading, since it has such a grisly and dark story. I drank the first two books with my eyes in seconds, the third was a bit slower, but the ending was deserved for Katniss, I think, getting together with Peeta and living back in the Victor’s Village in District 12, having a family. It’s the same ending she was supposed to have before the revolution, only she isn’t with her mother or Prim. The fact that President Coin suggested having another Games with the Capitol children was just awful – how are things ever to get better if you just repeat what you just rose up against to put a stop to? She definitely deserved Katniss’ arrow to the knee.
I wish I knew how Gale was feeling in the end, if he felt Katniss was more important to him and regretted being a part of the bomb that killed Prim, or if he felt the end was more important than the means, as he typically feels about most situations throughout the story. The ending certainly had a lot of loose ends that left me a bit unsatisfied. Gale essentially just disappears. He got “some job” in District 2. Best friend and near-lover throughout the whole book, and he’s written off that lazily? Not to mention the entire point of the revolution – the new government isn’t discussed whatsoever after Coin and Snow’s death.
The part that probably clawed at me the most was actually from the first book, toward the end, when the wolf muttations chased Peeta, Katniss and Cato to the Cornucopia. The moment where Katniss looks into the eyes of the muttations and realizes they are the eyes of the dead tributes is such an intense scene. It’s revealed that they’re just genetically created creatures, but Katniss isn’t sure if they used the real eyes of the tributes or not. I think part of the draw to this whole story, in a sick way, is what kind of sick and twisted muttations and pods/dangers President Snow and the Gamemakers will come up with next.
Next up, I’m (finally) starting Water for Elephants! Now the movie’s long out, too, but I can easily erase Robert Pattinson’s image from the main character. That’s the beauty of books – you can make them look as appealing as you like. :)
