For what did I know?

Mockingjay is the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. I think that it would be safe to say that this was my favourite of the three. While still maintaining consistency, it went in a completely different direction than the first two. The book picks up after the end of the Quarter Quell. Katniss has gone back to District 12, and the realization that she has been a pawn in a whole new game.

The Districts are now at war with the Capitol, and Katniss is the face of the revolution. She is being depended upon to rally the remaining Districts to side with the rebels and help demolish the Capitol. Being the girl we know she is, Katniss is clearly not too keen on this idea. She eventually agrees, but things need to happen on her own terms.

Despite this being a YA novel, Collins weaves in some very complex themes. She leaves you asking yourself numerous questions: where do you draw the line? Is it ok to kill innocent people for the greater good? Should you show mercy to those who showed mercy to you?

Mockingjay was an excellent end to an excellent trilogy. All the ends were tied by the end, but not in such a way as to make it feel manufactured and too clean. This book had me gasping in shock and happiness many times over.

The second installment in Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games trilogy follows Katniss’s life after her victory in the 74th Hunger Games. She is back in District 12, but this time living in the Victor’s Village along with Peeta and Haymitch. She has found that adjusting to life back in District 12 is not as easy as she had hoped. With Gale working in the mines, she is now hunting alone during the day to provide for Gale’s family, an arrangement that he is not exactly thrilled with.

Before the requisite Victor Tour, where the victors tour all the districts, Katniss receives a visit from the president. He demands that she steps up her act of being in love with Peeta or there will be severe consequences. Despite her best efforts, she fails to satisfy the president’s demands.

Due to this failure, Katniss is forced to face some extremely difficult situations. She has to face challenges of love, survival and morality. She must fight for those she loves, the people of her country.

Collins is an excellent writer who really knows how to keep a story going. Catching Fire has so many twists and turns that you are never left with a dull moment. Catching Fire is obviously quite similar to The Hunger Games, but it is just different enough to be enjoyed in its own right.

I first heard about this book on Tumblr. At first, I thought that it was some weird tv show that people were obsessed with. I only ever saw pictures of the people slated to be cast in the upcoming film. When I realized that it was in fact a trilogy, I became intrigued.

This novel is set in a future country called Panem located where North America once stood. The centre of this nation, is called the Capitol and it presides over the other twelve districts. Life in the capitol is grand, but life in the districts is meager. Each district is devoted to one industry from producing luxury goods for the people fortunate enough to be living in the capitol to mining coal. Transportation and communication between the districts is prohibited unless special favour has been granted.

Once every year, a reaping takes place in each district. During the reaping, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, called tributes, are chosen to take part in the mayhem that is the hunger games. The hunger games are filmed and broadcast on live TV. It is mandatory that the populations of each district watch the events unfold.

The book follows the story of Katniss, a girl from district 12, the least fortunate of all the districts. While Katniss’s name wasn’t drawn during the reaping in district 12, her younger sister’s was. Proving how devoted Katniss is to protecting her family, she volunteers to take her sister’s place, saving her from certain death.

After the reaping, Katniss is thrust into a world of excess. For the week or so leading up to the games, Katniss is waited on hand and foot. She has enough food to eat and warm water to bathe in for the first time in her life. She is provided with training in fighting and survival skills as well as in presentation.

While in the arena, Katniss must cope with the necessity of killing other humans, watching people die, surviving attacks from the other tributes and dealing with a budding love affair with her fellow district 12 tribute. Katniss makes decisions that will forever affect her and her loved one’s futures forever.