Mockingjay
A few days ago, I finished the last book in The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, written by Suzanne Collins. I have read the book once before, in Swedish, but yet again realized that the Swedish books cannot compare in anyway, with the books written in their native language. Collins have such a wonderful flow when she writes, a flow that’s destroyed in the translations. So even though her books are great in Swedish, they’re even better in English, because that’s how everything where supposed to be. Even though I love the whole series, the third and last book has never been my favorite. I’ve always felt that the book is drawn way over its limits and therefore is a bit too much. I was both surprised and relived when I realized that the book was so much better in English. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that last time I read the trilogy, I read all three books over a short period of just two weeks. In retrospect, I probably read them all too fast and now, after about five months since I last read Mockingjay, it all makes so much more sense, it all comes together better.
As I’ve said before, this is the last book in the series about Katniss Everdeen and her country Panem. The story takes place in the future and Katniss, along with her fellow male district tribute Peeta, are sent off to The Capitol to compete in The Hunger Games, in the first book. The games are quite simple, one male and female tribute, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, from the countries twelve districts are randomly chosen from the annual reaping. The two children from every district are shipped off to The Capitol, to be apart in the Games, locked in an arena where the rules are simple. With twenty-four contestant and only one winner, twenty-three children must die so that the winner can be crowned and collect its price, which is survival. Katniss and Peeta are first with winning the Games together, thanks to their made-up love story that makes the entire Capitol cheer for the starcrossed lovers of district 12. But the minute before they’re announced winners, Katniss does something that sets the entire country in motion. Without knowing it, by just trying to save hers and Peetas life, she lits the match that will set fire to the whole rebellion. She is punished for that, when she in the second book, free from The Capitol and its horrendous president, gets the news that she has to go back into the arena for the third Quarter Quell, to celebrate the seventy-fifth game. The reaping takes place as always, but this time it’s not children that has to fight to the death in the Games, it’s people that has already won a game before. Yet again, Peeta and Katniss heads off to The Capitol, to fight in the Games with only one thought. To give up their own life to save one another. However, things doesn’t quite end up as either of them anticipated and the book ends in Katniss being rescued from the arena along with a few other tributes and shipped off to district 13, a district that people thought had been extinguished by The Capitol seventy-five years ago. Here Katniss realize that the rebellion has set the entire country in motion and for the first time, she finally sees her own size in the whole thing. Since her own district has been destroyed by The Capitol and Peeta has been kidnapped and probably tortured by the president, Katniss agrees to be the Mockingjay, the face of the rebellion. The one that guides the rebels to victory over The Capitol, but there are a lot of obstacles in the way, for both Katniss and the entire population.
Reading my short version of all three books above makes everything sound strange and quite hard to follow. It’s hard to really make the book justice when trying to tell someone about it without spilling too many details. However, this is a truly fantastic series of thought provoking books that really shakes the readers to realize that, if we keep going the way we are, we’re not far from an annual Hunger Games ourselves. I think this is what makes the books so good, they’re not just books that take place in the future and talks a little about politician, human rights and the environment, this is three books that woke up, at least me when I read them. I guess some can see them as a wonderful yet tragic love story, but I honestly don’t think that that was Collins idea with the books. I believe she wanted to write something about our world and put everything in a new light, show people how everything might end up. I find it scary to read about a game where children has to kill each other so that people in The Capitol can watch it live and enjoy what they see on their screens. I can’t even imagine how it would be to actually be in that kind of situation, and I truly hope that none, neither me, you nor the future generations, will have to face that.