I spent half long of my winter vacation writing the S&R review that I've been working on for over half a year now, which, I think, is finally slowly, painstakingly approaching 6000 words. I was aiming for 8000, just so you know. Now that I know this won't be a problem because there are just 2000 words ahead of me and I've still got plenty of bullocks to fill the thing in, I feel relieved to be focusing on getting the contents done and refining my structure.
Coincidentally, another work I finished reading, also a trilogy, is The Hunger Games series finale, aka., Mockingjay.
I think the ending was mildly dissapointing, although not to the point that I'd hate it. The trilogy as a whole was good, but it just seems that the writer got SO lazy with this last installment, that the entire thing comes across as rushed and barely satisfactory. It was almost frustrating imagining how it could have ended differently, better, ect. Tie up a few more loose ends and it would have done justice to an overall engaging story. Remind me again why we were addicted in the first place.
While I was pleased with the previous two books and desired to know what happened with the last, Suzanne Collins didn't nail it.
The first half of Mockingjay was somewhat tedious and had me yawn a lot (well, partly as a result of the tendency I have to read in bed, a few hours of pleasure before I go to sleep). That I can accept. What I CAN'T accept is how, when all a reader wants is for the story to pick up in the latter half, it comes to a halt before the said reader can actually comprehend what was going on.
Every fiction is bound by a perspective, a narrator, whether it makes you see the world through the eyes of a character or someone who knows it all is telling you things you ought to know. A good fiction, however, should always have its POV work for the audience. Cuz we are the boss, to be perfectly honest. And a capable writer would definitely strive to pull off his/her chosen perspective.
Sadly, in Mockingjay, we see the transformation of Katniss through...well, a series of mental chaos, alongside being constantly sedated, traumatized, unconscious, and semi-conscious. Oh there, Katniss passed out again. Oh wait she's awake. What day is it? What? Four days have passed? Things like that just keep happening in Mockingjay. We miss every exciting event that's going on out there. We as readers don't even get a front-row seat (saw someone using this expression and thought it was cool) when the Capitol fell. Okay, I get it, Katniss is just a 17-year-old girl who's happened to be the icon of a rebellion. It won't be realistic to have her know everything, participate in everything, or have a say in everything. And this is warrrr, destructive, traumatizing war. No one survives the war not even the winner.
I praise the writer for wanting to go deep, but that just seems too convenient to simply block us out doesn't it? And then the writer doesn't even spare us a decent explanation in the end. Finnick and Prim's deaths were ruthless, if not meaningless. I mean really, what's the point? Somehow I get Prim's. It's the irony of it all. Katniss sacrificed herself trying to save Prim's life, but at the end, Prim died trying to help others. But Finnick? Even Collins mentioned right after half of the crew was killed by the mutts, that "Katniss shouldn't let them die in vain" (maybe not in the exact words), but still, they did, dying for nothing and for no reason close to convincing at all.
