Tag / Mockingjay

by admin

Book 8 (of 52) – The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes

Sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, the future President Snow is chosen as a mentor to a tribute for the 10th Hunger Games.  Looking to secure his place in the Capitol after the Snow family lost everything in the war, he skirts the rules, sneaking food to his tribute, helping her sneak in rat poison to enhance her chances in the arena, and helping her avoid the poisonous snakes sent in to kill the tributes.  After his tribute wins the Hunger Games, he is found out and forced to join the Peacemakers, sent to District 12 and hopeful of reuniting with his tribute.  He eventually finds his way back to the Capitol and finds himself on the fast track to power.

A full decade after the release of Mockingjay, the third and final entry in The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins is back with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel that takes place 64 years prior to the events of the main series.  It doesn’t appear as though Collins had much success with anything else in the intervening years, which I guess explains why she went back to the well after all this time.  The story, focusing on the 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow a mere ten years after the rebellion and the tribute he fell in love with, wasn’t necessarily.one anyone was looking for and one that moves very slowly.

What comes next, both for Collins and the franchise?  Nothing announced, and we are four years out from this book’s initial release.  I guess we’ll see if this is now the end of the story for Panem and its residents.

by jim

Book 7 (of 52) – Mockingjay

Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

The third and final installment of the Hunger Games trilogy moves the action out of the arena of the games and into the streets, as a revolution is in full swing and Katniss, the Mockingjay, is its face.  While recovering from her injuries sustained during the escape from the Quarter Quell, she must come to terms with the role she is expected to play and the fates of her friends and loved ones that were left behind, including Peeta, who is also being used as a propaganda tool.

In this final chapter, Suzanne Collins takes a risky departure by moving the action in to a more realistic setting, given the fact we have been fighting 2 wars for years.  Fortunately, the main characters are mostly kept off the front lines, as they are more useful as stars than as soldiers.  As the book goes on, Katniss starts to realize that she is still being used, even if it may be for the greater good.  That doesn’t make it any easier when Prim succombs to a supposed Capital attack, leaving Katniss physically and emotionally broken, until she decides to stop being used and take matters into her own hands.

Overall, I thouroughly enjoyed this trilogy, and, seeing how the first film has already made 70 gajillion dollars, am looking forward to the film adaptations of the remaining two.  I’m not sure what Collins has up her sleeve next, but chances are it will be engrossing and wildly successful.