terça-feira, 14 de dezembro de 2010

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Hardcover, 398 pages
Published August 24th 2010 by Scholastic Press

Young Katniss Everdeen has survived the dreaded Hunger Games not once, but twice, but even now she can find no relief. In fact, the dangers seem to be escalating: President Snow has declared an all-out war on Katniss, her family, her friends, and all the oppressed people of District 12. The thrill-packed final installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy will keep young hearts pounding.

A review
It's been three months since Mockingjay ended the monumental The Hunger Games trilogy -- and I'm still digesting the ending, pondering all its layers and complexities. What an ending it was.

Speculation had run rampant for months after Catching Fire's cliffhanger ending, but few of us ever imagined this. War becomes a reality, but we aren't treated to action and games of survival until the last third of the book. Instead, we suffer alongside Katniss as she processes all that has happened to her and all that may still come to pass so long as the Capitol still remains a threat. Beyond the love triangle, beyond the upcoming twists and turns, beyond even the fate of Panem itself -- we wonder all throughout the book what has happened to Katniss Everdeen. Where has the fire gone?

The Hunger Games held its first blow, the Quarter Quell its second, and the war with the Capitol threatens to destroy Katniss beyond repair.

We learn, through Katniss, that there is no coming back from war. There is only moving forward and surviving through the flashbacks and nightmares.

Katniss is not the only one left affected: Peeta and Haymitch, the ones who have experienced much the same of what Katniss had in the last two books, also show the same effects of war and trauma. All three become the survivors, the ones forever tied to war and its aftermath.

The only thing I was right about with my predictions was Peeta's "brainwashing" -- and how sad I was to see the after-effects of such a twist. I could not have beared to put Peeta in such a circumstance had I known all the irreparable consequences, but Suzanne Collins did. Brava, Collins. Brava.

But Collins does not leave the series without its dash of hope: with time, there is healing. There is never forgetting, no, but there is healing through love and family, companionship and conversation. Not all hope is lost even after a world falls to its knees and its people are left to put the pieces back together.

The Hunger Games trilogy was always a series about war and humanity -- and may we readers never forget the lessons learned within, lest we repeat the same mistakes in our own futures.

About Suzanne Collins
     Since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been busy writing for children’s television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She also co-wrote the critically acclaimed Rankin/Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! Most recently she was the Head Writer for Scholastic Entertainment’s Clifford’s Puppy Days.

While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children’s author James Proimos, who talked her into giving children’s books a try.
Thinking one day about Alice in Wonderland, she was struck by how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who, like her own, lived in urban surroundings. In New York City, you’re much more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole and, if you do, you’re not going to find a tea party. What you might find...? Well, that’s the story of Gregor the Overlander, the first book in her five-part series, The Underland Chronicles.

Suzanne also has a rhyming picture book illustrated by Mike Lester entitled When Charlie McButton Lost Power.  She currently lives in Connecticut with her family and a pair of feral kittens they adopted from their backyard.

The books she is most successful for in teenage eyes are the Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. These books have won several awards, including the GA Peach Award.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7260188-mockingjay

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