Two names repeatedly rang through my head as I read Mockingjay: Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. Throughout this novel, Katniss Everdeen, who had previously been a woman of goals, aspirations, and independence, became a woman who personified the ideals professed by the two politicians. It was ridiculous. It was boring. It was very, very bad.
How bad was Mockingjay? Bad enough that from the moment I finished reading it on May 2, 2011, I did not pick up another book until September 24. Bad enough to earn a place on my personal Mt. Rushmore of bad books. What an awful book, and what an awful way to end the trilogy.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were great books (I gave Catching Fire 2 stars out of 5). But there was enough in those two novels to see Katniss’ potential. I really, really liked her. In Mockingjay, the protagonist is not true to character. What we learned throughout The Hunger Games and Catching Fire is that Katniss is not a fearless warrior, but she does not allow her fear to stop her. She is a good heroine. One of the things that sticks out to me from The Hunger Games and Catching Fire is that Katniss does what she wants to do in both a small picture and big picture sense. Throughout the series, her goal is to protect her mother and sister; during the first novel, she takes on Peeta’s cause as well. During the second book, she decides that she’s not going to let the Capitol win. Even though she’s neither the smartest nor strongest, Katniss is focused on her goals and does whatever it takes to achieve them.
In Mockingjay, Katniss became someone who doesn’t follow through on anything. She does not fulfill a single purpose she had declared for herself. She does not follow through on a single thing she planned to do. Instead, she spends much of the novel in various drug-induced stupors and hiding out in medical wards or closets. As a result, the narrative structure of the novel falls apart. Katniss is not present for the vast majority of the action and important events; therefore, we readers receive a great deal of necessary information via long expositions that begin with phrases such as “This is what happened:” It makes Mockingjay a very disjointed, unentertaining read.
Two things that don’t may any sense whatsoever are the roles played by Cinna and Gale. Cinna, apparently, had the greatest sense of anticipation of any human who ever lived. The bulletproof Mockingjay costume was too much for me. Gale, although still pretty much a kid, is given high status in the revolutionary army. Somehow, the inner circle became Hunger Games winners and Gale. Suzanne Collins gave us no reason for this. It’s too ridiculous to happen without explanation.
Still, the biggest problem is Katniss. In Mockingjay, she has no autonomy. Nothing she says, nothing she wants, matters. No thought that generates in Katniss’ mind is valued. One of the dominating themes of both Catching Fire and Mockingjay is Katniss’ declaration that she will kill President Snow. She goes to great lengths to make sure she is in a position to end the man’s life. When presented with the opportunity, however, she purposely kills someone else instead. This type of thing is constant throughout the book. She does not do a single thing that she has consciously decided that she wants to do. That is not Katniss, and it is very disappointing. So many of Katniss’ choices are made for her, and she just goes along with them. Sometimes she offers nominal protest, but she allows people (mostly men) to make these choices for her. The Katniss of the first two novels would never allow that. That Katniss decided everything for herself. That Katniss is gone. This new one just does whatever the menfolk tell her to do.
She used to be proactive. She did what needed to be done. She’d been an outlaw her entire adolescence. Fear did not stop her. Hesitation and uncertainty were never problems for her. Yet, hesitation and uncertainty are all we see out of her in Mockingjay. The most drastic example is when Gale is captured by Peacekeepers and she violates their prearranged agreement to shoot each other if ever in danger of being taken captive.
It all feeds into the three most senseless things that occur in the book. The first is the resolution of the pseudo-love triangle that persists throughout the series. Will Katniss end up with Peeta or Gale? Which one will she choose? Well, in the end, Katniss does not choose. This is yet another choice that is made for her. There’s a scene about 85% into Mockingjay when Katniss is hiding with a few of the others. When the others think she is sleeping, she here’s a conversation between her two would-be suitors. Here is Katniss’ narration:
It’s so strange to hear them talking like this. Almost like friends. Which they’re not. Never have been. Although they’re not exactly enemies.That was a perfect setup for an epic resolution. Instead, as I said earlier, Katniss didn’t make that choice either. How anticlimactic can you get?
“She loves you, you know,” says Peeta. “She as good as told me after they whipped you.”
“Don’t believe it,” Gale answers. “The way she kissed you in the Quarter Quell…well, she never kissed me like that.”
“It was just part of the show,” Peeta tells him, although there’s an edge of doubt in his voice.
“No, you won her over. Gave up everything for her. Maybe that’s the only way to convince her you love her.” There’s a long pause. “I should have volunteered to take your place in the first Games. Protected her then.”
“You couldn’t,” says Peeta. “She’d never have forgiven you. You had to take care of her family. They matter more to her than her life.”
“Well, it won’t be an issue much longer. I think it’s unlikely all three of us will be alive at the end of the war. And if we are, I guess it’s Katniss’s problem. Who to choose.” Gale yawns. “We should get some sleep.”
“Yeah.” I hear Peeta’s handcuffs slide down the support as he settles in. “I wonder how she’ll make up her mind.”
“Oh, that I do know.” I can just catch Gale’s last words through the layer of fur. “Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can’t survive without.”
Next, was a mini-conference during which the revolutionaries were trying to decide if there should be one more occurrence of the Hunger Games, this time featuring the children of the Capitol. Katniss’ vote was to do it, “For Prim.” What? We’d read over two and a half books about how evil the Games are, and now she wants to set them up again? Then she changed her mind a few paragraphs later, again without explanation. Senseless and unnecessary.
The epilogue took it to a new place of nonsense. Katniss spent three novels declaring that she will never have children. She does not want them. Never has. But in the end, she has them anyway. Yet another instance of Katniss openly declaring something only to have some man convince her otherwise. “It took five, ten, fifteen years for me to agree,” she says. How very Tea Party of her.
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