Odds

It's been a busy week with not much opportunity for reading or writing about it. With my horse in the clinic (everything is okay), work, and dear hubby, the only time I had for reading was on the train and before going to sleep.


I did manage to finish "The Hungergames"-trilogy though. I'm not sure what to find about it. I did like the first book. It was new, foretold a gruesome kind of future and of course a kind of happy ending. It was clear however that the Capitol wouldn't appreciate Katniss's actions.

"Catching Fire" started out all right": the victory tour, the troublesome relation between Katniss, Gale and Peeta. It was all realistic until the Quarter Quell. Katniss, Peeta and a selection of previous victors are all enlisted to participate again in the Hunger Games. There is a side story about the rebellion which is getting more and more playground. In the end some victors are involved in the rebellion and save Katniss from the Games. Peeta is being left behind. This starts of a kind of irritating section of both books two and three where Katniss struggles with her sanity and prefers to hide in strange corners. Yes, of course it is very realistic to be shell shocked after all she has been through. And yes, both Snow and Coin take advantage of her. But just like the middle section of the last Harry Potter book, it gets annoying after a while. She has (verbal) fights with all most everybody: Gale, Finnick, to name a few; she ignores direct orders and does what she wants. There is no thinking about the consequences, even though people get hurt or die because of that. Yes, she does struggle with all the dead just by seeking a remote place and sit.



The strange thing is that all turns around once she is back in the Capitol for the final battle: rebels against Peacekeepers. Collins pictures it as being back in the arena during the Games. Katniss is able to shut down her emotions and do what she is best in: pissing off the enemy. But then her sister dies. You have to read that scene for yourself. A short conversation with Snow sets the whole scene in a different light: who is responsible for the death of her sister? Snow? Coin? Both? Would Snow use innocent children to finish off the war? We know that Snow used children in the Hunger Games to keep the population in check. So yes. Would Coin go that far too? Katniss outlived her usefulness for Coin: the Capitol was in rebel hands. And why was her sister there? Somebody high up in the rebel command must have cleared her participation. It could be that Coin used her sister to push her over the edge. In the end, Katniss believes Snow and kills Coin. Rightful? I'm not sure. Both sides were capable of atrocities during the war. Nobody could wash their hands clean.



In the course of the books characters die, it is a war after all. These include some characters you preferred having a happy ending. Like Finnick who was so happy being finally reunited with Annie. Like Cinna, like Prim, like Boggs. In a strange way it makes me happy that the cat of whom Prim was so fond – Buttercup – make it in the end. And that he and Katniss made peace. It is a kind of fitting end, that something from her past made it through alive.


All in all the three books make a good read. The story is convincing, realistic and writing in a good pace. If this by the way is anything like our future will be, I pass. It makes me wonder though, why so very often our future is depicted so grim and hopeless. Or is it because a bright, happy future doesn't sell any books or make good films?