Okay, to be fair, most of the third (bad to awful) installments I was thinking about when I chose the title of this blog post were films. What films you ask? Well, Return of the Jedi is one. Lucas lost me with the Ewoks, and the horrible dialogue, and don't even get me started on the prequels. Then there are Superman III, Spider-man III, The Godfather III, and Shrek the Third (actually, I didn't like any of the Shrek films, except for maybe the fourth installment which redeemed itself a bit for me). I'm sure there are more that I'm missing.
When it comes to books, I've had better experiences with trilogies. The first trilogy I remember having read was John Christopher's dystopian sci-fi Tripod Trilogy. I loved that series, all the way through, and have been meaning to go back and re-read them. I also remember enjoying John Jakes' North and South trilogy, which was a grossly inappropriate read for me at the time. I was only about eleven or twelve, and really shouldn't have been exposed to such adult themes, but my Mom, who didn't speak English, didn't realize she had to censor my reading. I read the first two books in the Bourne Trilogy in high school and loved them, too. The third book was released shortly afterwards, and was just okay, and not nearly as good as the first two. Again, I'm sure there are several others, but now that I think of it, several of the series I've read consist of more than three books.
Like many people, granted, mostly teens, I had been eagerly anticipating the release of Suzanne Collins' third installment in the Hunger Games trilogy (Mockingjay). As can be inferred from what I have written, I greatly enjoyed the first two books in the trilogy. The second book received some negative press as to many, and to be frank, even to me, it seemed that the second book was nothing more than a rehashing of the first. Ultimately, this didn't matter to me, as I had enjoyed the first one so much. And I grew even more excited about the series when I heard that it was being adapted for the screen. I felt that it had everything necessary to translate well into a summer blockbuster--tons of action, an interesting story, a strong heroine, a love triangle, and a battle against good and evil. Well, that's what I used to think anyway.
I received a copy of the book later than I had anticipated, and then didn't find the time to read it until last weekend, and what can I say? I was sorely disappointed. The people you had grown to care about, were all out of character in this book. It felt to me that Collins sought to vilify one particular character for the sole purpose of having things tie up nicely at the end. The dialogue was stilted, and the heroine found herself unconscious a lot of the time. Huge developments in the story were told to you, rather than experienced in the narrative. Major characters' deaths were glossed over. The relationships between characters in this book weren't as developed as they were in the previous books, and at the end, characters were simply dismissed without fanfare.
All in all, it was a dreary read. Sure, the book deals with war, and it's a given that war is not a pleasant thing. But most of the pivotal action, i.e. the actual defeating of the enemy, happens behind-the-scenes. Shouldn't this be the most exciting bit? And to make matters worse, the over-all feeling left behind after reading it, is sheer and utter hopelessness.
I'm not one to demand happy endings. I don't expect there to always be a silver lining, but I do like when stories make sense. Some may think that the ending was realistic, but for pity's sake, the world depicted in the novels is one where unrealistic things are possible, as evidenced by the technology used by the opposing forces. Sigh. It just fell flat for me, and I can't for the life of me understand how it is receiving favorable reviews at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment