And, another one bites the dust...

I want to figure out how Collins makes so compulsively readable a book that has so. many. problems. Seriously: the world-building makes no sense, it's depressingly gender-essentialist and heteronormative, and the logistics are right out of fairy tales.

And yet I can't stop reading them because she's got the thriller pacing down so well!

If I could just nibble off that part of Collins brain, she could keep the rest. Want.

First of all, I just got a library notice that Blameless is in for me to pick up. I didn't think it was even being released until Sept. 1. But I might drive up there and pick it up (I have the books sent to the library by my office, not home), since...

I stayed up until 3 a.m. finishing Mockingjay. I read it too fast, I know, but I wanted to know what happens. I'm a little okay with it, and a little angry. (Because, seriously? Prim?!? SERIOUSLY?!? God DAMN. That's Minear-esque. It just is.)

I'll say this: Suzanne Collins' method of telling rather than showing is at least more deft than Dan Brown's.

I want to figure out how Collins makes so compulsively readable a book that has so. many. problems. Seriously: the world-building makes no sense, it's depressingly gender-essentialist and heteronormative, and the logistics are right out of fairy tales.

I *so* agree. And she's heavy-handed with the message, too. (What? WAR IS BAD? REALLY?) But I had to finish it.

I am impressed that she pulled off a plot point that made me totally switch my opinion of whether Katniss should be with Gale or Peeta.

Also? I don't know that I'd let a kid under 12 read this one. I *totally* understand that's a generalization, and that it depends on the kid's maturity level, etc. I GET THAT. But I was really taken aback by how brutally violent it is. And dark. Daaaaaaaark. Darkity dark dark. I know that kids can handle dark stuff. I'm just saying that, in general, it's not a book I'd just toss to my kid.

...yeah. I think I'm going to go pick up Blameless, just to balance out Mockingjay, because my head hurts. I need something lighter.

First of all, I just got a library notice that Blameless is in for me to pick up.

YOU FIEND.

pokes at Amazon.com with a stick, whining for my order

I don't know how the Cincinnati library system trumps Amazon!

If it makes you feel any better, I'm not going to pick it up until tomorrow, and I (probably) won't start reading it until Sunday.

Finally! Mockingjay is "in processing" at the library, but only 15 copies so far.

Steph, I ... am really on the fence about Mockingjay. I agree that it's not really YA. I mean, there's dark and then there's Boggs' death, and Finnick's, after just getting married, and then PRIM right in front of Katniss.

As for the love triangle, I'm not sold on the resolution. I think it removed the choice from Katniss, so she never really had to make the decision, without actually casting tainting Gale entirely.

I also wasn't exactly thrilled about the assassination of Coin, because it wasn't really explained: either why she did it or what she thought about it later. She spent more time feeling bad about killing that unnamed woman in the apartment in the Capitol than she did about taking an action that might well have ended in another civil war.

I also think Peeta's recovery was too easy. I mean, she says it's not, but for all the vaunted Capitol technology, he comes around to loving her again pretty damned quickly and easily all things told. Sure, he killed Mitchell, but not really on purpose, and Mitchell was just one of many spear-carriers.

I have to say, it felt... sloppy. And the world-building, lordie, I could just spit. Where exactly were all the resources for District 13's fabulous underground lair? And uniforms, weapons, food? How and why would the Capitol leave boobytraps all over their city, full of living creatures ready to kill anyone nearby? How is that either possible or sane? None of it made any sense at all.

Katniss spent the novel claiming she was doing things and yet most of the time was just reacting to things, and in the end, didn't even accomplish the one thing she set out to do, kill Snow.

I ended up having no idea what the point of all that was. Pretty disappointing.

Oooh, got my shipping notification for Blameless!

I was up unti 3:30 AM finishing The Hunger Games, which I could not put down. I agree with Teppy about the flaws of the books, but the book's quick pace and the cliffhangers that seem to end every chapter keeps me reading. Now, on to the next two books.