My One-Word Spoiler-Free Review of Mockingjay

Real.

Slow Endings

Fans shouldn’t be so focused on endings. The Hunger Games series–like most quality books–has been about much more than simply uncovering some central secret. It’s been about characters, cliffhangers, and a cautionary message about entertainment and obedience. If all a work has is an M. Night Shyamalan “Sixth Sense”-like twist, then it doesn’t have much. That’s why people aren’t clamoring for “The Seventh Sense.”

It’s better to enjoy a book as you’re reading it, rather than to be focused on tearing through pages to see how it all winds up.

That’s from this WSJ columnist who is taking his time with Mockingjay.  I agree. Always a fast reader there are books I charge through and others are books that cause me to slow down, say series finales.  With Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Snicket’s The End, and Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the further along I got the slower I read.

Like many others I began Mockingjay yesterday morning expecting to be done the same day.  I stopped at points to do other things and returned to it in the evening, going slower and slower. And then I got to a point (page 298 to be exact) where something stopped me — I had a feeling if I finished it then that I’d not be able to sleep.  So I put it aside and did go to sleep, but woke up repeatedly all night with very strange nightmarish dreams.  I’m planning to go hear Suzanne Collins this afternoon so will finish the book before then, but I’m still in no rush.

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