Comments for Daring Young Mom

Comment on Mockingjay – A Review – SPOILER ALERT by The Daring One

The Daring One — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 06:04:31 +0000

Cody. I heart you.

Comment on Mockingjay – A Review – SPOILER ALERT by Cody

Cody — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 05:24:40 +0000

Suzanne Collins is an excellent writer and all three books are masterfully plotted and beautifully written. I enjoyed reading “Mockingjay” up to a point and then I kind of endured it so I could find out what would happen to all of the characters I had grown to love. And then I sort of winced for about 80 pages as one enjoyable/interesting person after another gets grim reaped, usually for reasons that were inconsequential to questions of plot or character except to illustrate that, as Sherman so succinctly put it, “War is (family blog).” (Although, hoo and rah for Gale, who gets a cool job in District 2 and is sometimes on TV! Also, whee.)

My biggest problem with the series is that “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire” promise the American Revolution. “Mockingjay” delivers a weird blend of the Civil War and Vietnam/Afghanistan in which the reader is never permitted to fully embrace the cause of the rebels, because war is inherently evil and the end never justifies the means. It was Black and White in the first two books. Capitol = Emperor Palpatine; Katniss, Peeta and Gale = Leia, Luke (without the sibling thing) and Han Solo. Then suddenly in Book Three everything is either BLACK or GRAY. If your is name is Gale, you are more or less GRACK. And if your name is Coin you are GRAY for a while before suddenly it’s revealed that you were really GLACK all along.

I know I’m in the minority, but … Peeta? No way. It should have been Gale. (Just one guy’s opinion.) And while it may have been “realistic” to have Haymitch end his days as a drunken wreck who only occasionally sobers up and turns to goose farming when the whisky train is late, was anyone *really* reading these books to revel in their cold, pitiless realism? Give the dude a break. Maybe give him Greasy Sae. Anything but a relapse into haunted drunken despair.

Comment on Mockingjay – A Review – SPOILER ALERT by Kathyrn in NZ

Kathyrn in NZ — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:04:15 +0000

It’s probably not the series you’re thinking of, but I read a scifan/magic realm first book of a series that had an ending (well, cliff hanger as it was the first one) that was “reality” – and I agree, a non-hopeful ending is very “not scifan”.

And I think that’s what is so disquieting about any fiction book that ends “not happily”. We want happy endings, especially as they don’t happen in real life, particularly if the real life has a war going on in it.
The Pandora’s Box story (myth/ legend) is absolutely the basis of human perseverance: humans need hope.

Just my two cents worth!

Comment on Mockingjay – A Review – SPOILER ALERT by Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:36:07 +0000

Am I the only one that wasn’t dissatisfied with the book?

War stinks. It was a book about war. It would have bothered me MORE if all the characters had survived, because that’s just not realistic.

Besides, she ended up with Peeta and that made me feel good.

Comment on How to know if things are going great by Awnya Boam

Awnya Boam — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:11:37 +0000

Life through the eyes of a child- so simple, so sweet. I can take a lesson from her and be thankful for the little things )

Comment on Mockingjay – A Review – SPOILER ALERT by Jess

Jess — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:22:40 +0000

The problem with writing a wildly successful series over a couple of years is that it’s practically impossible to end it well.

I agree with your review entirely. I was also bothered by the way she handled all of the symbolism. I feel like she overly explained what everything meant, like we were too stupid to figure out what it meant. I feel like she dumbed that down for us a bit in the 3rd book.

Comment on Yesterday by nosurfgirl

nosurfgirl — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:56:41 +0000

I had a week like this last week. But at least nothing expensive was lost… it was more like I Waaaaay overscheduled myself and had a mini-freak-out session at the beginning of the week. By the end of the week a few things had fallen off the table of their own accord… don’t you love that it always gets better. Always.

Comment on How to know if things are going great by grammyelin

grammyelin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:05:40 +0000

You go girl!!! I love it when everything important comes together at the same time. And good for her for recognizing it!

Comment on How to know if things are going great by Emily

Emily — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:12:21 +0000

I wish I could be so easily pleased! What a great girl.

Comment on Mockingjay – A Review – SPOILER ALERT by elliespen

elliespen — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:23:13 +0000

I’ve been avoiding this post for a day or two while I finished Mockingjay myself. It hasn’t been long enough since I finished for me to say too much about it (still processing), but I do want to say that I think I actually do love this third book, too.

The feeling I got about the end wasn’t that it was a laundry list (although I can see where that view is coming from). It reminded me, actually, more of the ending to The Lord of the Rings. I’m not sure there’s a line in literature that is more simultaneously heartbreaking and healing than Sam’s last line (which I won’t say here, in case there are people who haven’t read it). And I got the same feeling from Mockingjay.

I can’t describe it better than that right now, but once I’ve had a chance to fully process the book, I’ll try to give a better explanation. At any rate, thank you very much for posting your review. It’s making me think about it more.