Book 3 Review

Reading the same cliché things gets annoying after a while, unless you know which ones to read. After being able to read the final book to the Hunger Games trilogy Mocking Jay, written by Suzanne Collins, you come across a well written dystopian book with a hint of science fiction. Mocking Jay is truly a spontaneous book that will literally keep you on your toes. This book is very similar, but yet very different to the final book in the Matched trilogy Reached, written by Ally Condle. Reached is more of a dystopian book with much more science fiction added.

Reading both of these books, you find yourself in a different time period where the government has way too much control. In Reached you find yourself in a world very similar to how it is today, but with more provinces that distinguish your label. Reading Mocking Jay you find yourself in the ruins of the world in 12, well 13 districts that really have a voice of their own. Mocking Jay has many strong characters that lead you throughout the entire book, but only one truly has the credit, the Mocking Jay. Katniss is a very strong character that you can always relate to, from being stuck between two guys and having one of them taken away from you. Katniss loves both of them like a child loves their teddy bear. You really can’t pull her apart from either of them but eventually you know you’re going to have to let go. With Peeta taken by the Capital, all Katniss can do is suffer while her “cousin” Gale, does his best to comfort her. Gale even risks himself to go get Peeta back for her. “You know who else, Katniss. You know who stepped up first. Of course I do. Gale” (165 Collins).

            Reached is not far off with the whole love triangle thing where Cassia falls in love with her best friend Xander and ends up having the hots for Ky. Although Xander does everything in his power to keep Cassia safe, like saving a pledge for her just in case she isn’t in the Rising, she really doesn’t need it. Ky has everything under control. Cassia even sends all the notes to Ky while leaving Xander in the shadow.

            Mocking Jay and Reached are both very similar in plot because they are both about a girl who falls in love with two guys and they all have to get through the uprisings together and safe. In both stories the characters up rise against a government that they no longer agree with. While in Mocking Jay the rising was slow and steady paced, Reached showed a much different approach that when they had the chance, they took it and got control of the government in as little as hours.

            Something that I think, really connects both of these books is that fact that the main character relates back to a poem or a song that keeps them calm when all is in chaos. In Reached there’s a line in the poem that stands out to me, “Wind over hill, and under tree. Past the border no one can see.” The reason for this is because it leaves you hanging trying to figure out the meaning.

            Both of these novels had many strengths and weaknesses but only a few really stood out. In Mocking Jay something that really stood out was the way Collins had written this book. She was so descriptive in many things, like when she was describing all of the injured in District 8 when Katniss had gone to visit them. Something else was that Collins was very careful about what she wrote, not only did she write the essentials but she wrote things that were beyond what you needed, like how messed up someone’s face was, or the gore on someone’s injury. On the other hand something that did not stand out much was how she described District 13. I couldn’t really get a sense of what everything looked like and it was an annoying thing to not be able to imagine the plot. Condle’s writing also stood out to me in some good and not so good ways. Condle was very descriptive in her writing to where I could imagine everything she wrote, like “I paused for a moment at the edge of the field. It was silver grass and gray and black rubble” (66). Sometimes she described thing far too into detail to where it was boring. She started off the book in a weird fashion and ended up on a good note. At first reading it you’re a turtle that’s waiting to get across the street but towards the end you turn into a cheetah that sprints across to the end.

            I would give the plots, characters and the story itself to both of these books an A. They were well written and you could really feel the mood the author wanted you to feel in all the right spots.