Mockingjay

I’m comfort reading at the moment so I indulged in some more YA this week and finished Mockingjay, the third installment of Suzanne Collins’ world famous Hunger Games trilogy.

Ok, although I said world famous, I’m well aware that lots of people (and I’m talking to my fellow Belgians here) have probably never heard of this wonderful trilogy aimed at teenagers, seeing as the market for Y(oung) A(dult) fiction is slim to non-existent here. In Anglo-Saxon countries however, it’s a bubbling and booming market with exciting authors, great characters and plots that can easily be read by fiction lovers of all ages.

When I was a kid, I remember that there weren’t that many novels that bridged the gap between 13 and 18 making me reads lots of stuff I wasn’t theoretically ready for but now, an entirely new genre has popped up. Although these books may be aimed at youngsters, about 50% of the readers are older than the target audience. One of the best examples of this trend will without a doubt be Harry Potter.

Anyway, I’m getting off track again. To prove to you what a big deal this trilogy is, I’ll just add that when Mockingjay was published in US in August, 450 000 copies were sold during the first week alone. Enough said.

Now I first discovered this trilogy last summer when blogs were raving about Catching Fire, part two of the trilogy. As you all know I’m a sucker for the latest fad in fiction and whenever a book is hailed as the next big thing, I just have to read it. I immediately bought part one and two and was pleasantly surprised. The story is original, you can’t help but root for the characters and it’s basically a roller coaster ride filled with adventure, love and tragedy aka the key ingredients for a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon.

Writing a review of part three is kinda stupid if you haven’t read the previous novels and seeing as most of my readers haven’t I’ll just conclude by saying it’s a very good book although the ending was a bit weak. As a whole, the Hunger Games trilogy is great but this has to be my least favorite book seeing as it lacks the action of the previous two and just isn’t that convincing. Still, I highly recommend these books, they’re so addictive.